Simple & Delicious Maple Glazed Tempeh Salad

1 mins to read

This fuss-free salad is simple, delicious and a great source of vitamins, minerals, protein & fibre.

Fuss-free salad recipes are the ones that become mainstays on household menus. We know salads are incredibly good for us, but when they have minimal preparation requirements and still boast maximum flavour, it makes them an easy win as a nutritious meal option for any type of home cook.

This chopping board salad required one large chopping board and no fine knife skills. You just chop everything up roughly in one go, dress it on the board and you’re ready to go. It is not only simple yet delicious, it makes the perfect base for your ultimate salad toppers which in this chopping board salad’s case, is crave-worthy maple glazed tempeh.

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Tempeh is a fermented soybean product which uses the whole soybean to create a cake of bound soybeans through a controlled culturing process.

It is a popular vegetarian or vegan protein replacement as it is a great source of protein as well as other vitamins and minerals not often found in plant-based protein sources.

Tempeh contains high amounts of calcium, iron and magnesium as well as vitamin B12 - nutrients often low in a vegan or vegetarian diet.

As well as being a great source of nutrients, it is a gut-friendly food thanks to the fermentation process it goes through during creation. Through fermentation, beneficial bacteria grow and cause the soybeans to bind. It is this beneficial bacteria, also known as probiotics, which also nourishes your digestive system when you eat tempeh.

I suggest starting this salad the night before by preparing the tempeh and its marinade so you can leave the tempeh to soak for 24 hours. This will give it maximum flavour and make your salad topping even more crave-worthy. Otherwise, all you will need is an hour and a large chopping board to have this salad up and then devoured in moments.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Maple glazed tempeh

800g plain tempeh (2 packages)
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
3 tbsp tamari
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil

Salad

2 carrots, peeled and trimmed
½ cucumber
6 radishes
½ cup pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted
½ cup sunflower seeds, lightly toasted
4 spring onions, white part only
12 multi-coloured cherry tomatoes
2 baby gem lettuces or 1 large cos lettuce
4 sprigs of fresh mint, leaves picked
4 sprigs of fresh basil, leaves picked
Optional extras: feta, avocado, pomegranate arils

Dressing

½ tsp mustard
½ tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp splash extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper

How to make

Start by chopping your tempeh into triangles. You should be able to cut each block into 16 triangles to create 32 triangles in total. Place the triangles into a shallow dish in one even layer. You will pour your marinade over the tempeh in this dish so it needs to be the snug to hold the tempeh and the marinade
Combine the maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, two teaspoons of olive oil, tamari and crushed garlic in a small bowl. Pour this marinade over the tempeh and allow the tempeh to soak for at least one hour (up to overnight) in the fridge, flipping the tempeh half way through
While the tempeh is marinating, you can prepare your chopped salad. On a large chopping board, place the carrots, cucumber and radishes and start to roughly chop them up until they are in rough bite-size pieces then sprinkle over the seeds. Next, add the spring onion, cherry tomatoes, lettuces, mint and basil leaves to the board and gently chop with your knife using a rocking motion. Once everything is chopped and combined, make the dressing by adding all the ingredients to a jar and shaking it up. Pour over the salad, mix the salad together one last time and then transfer it to a serving bowl (or four bowls if serving up single serves)
To cook the tempeh, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frypan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the tempeh (reserving the marinade) and cook until golden brown on each side, around 4 minutes on each side. Then, add the reserved marinade to the frypan with the tempeh and allow to simmer for another 5-7 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced to a glaze, tossing the tempeh a couple of times in the process
To serve, top the chopped salad with the maple balsamic tempeh pieces, season to taste and enjoy

Roberta's tips

If you plan on storing the salad, leave the dressing off until you are about to eat it
The tempeh can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days

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