Tempeh?

miss serena

Supposidly tempeh is this super food with loads of great nutrients for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. But I have never seen it for sale. Does anyone know where to get it and how its cooked?

Also don't know where to get tofu, but that's probably just laziness on my behalf!

Peanut

miss serena wrote:

Supposidly tempeh is this super food with loads of great nutrients for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. But I have never seen it for sale. Does anyone know where to get it and how its cooked?

Also don't know where to get tofu, but that's probably just laziness on my behalf!

Health food shops or Asian stores are the most likely places..
Tofu is v.easy to get, some of the bigger supermarkets also have it, usually Cauldron brand. The stuff in the asian shops is a lot cheaper, but bear in mind that there are many different styles of tofu so don't be put off if you find one and don't really like it immediately.

I've seen tempeh around but haven't tried it (yet), I think you would use it in a fairly similar way to tofu though.

vibrant

I had tempeh in Canada, it's quite lovely. Where did you see it, Peanut? I'd love to buy some.

Peanut

vibrant wrote:

I had tempeh in Canada, it's quite lovely. Where did you see it, Peanut? I'd love to buy some.

You can get it in most of the health stores I think. In Dublin, I saw it yesterday in Nourish on Liffey St. (in a plastic vaccuum pack in the fridge). You might also be able to get it in the Asian food places on Abbey st. or Drury st. I've also seen it packaged in a jar with briny-type stuff, but it didn't look so appealing..

Also Juice restaurant on George's St. serve some dishes that come with the option of tofu or tempeh.

vibrant

Thanks Peanut! Surprised I never noticed it in Nourish, I must not have been looking so hard. I will have to pick some up this week.

miss serena

Ah! Thanks Peanut! I've got a veggie cookbook with some lovely looking recipes that I can now try out!

mateo

I've been meaning to try tempeh too but haven't seen it anywhere. I'll look for it in Nourish.

As for tofu, I can only ever get that in the Asian stores. I've never seen it in supermarkets, except for the silken one. Would Tesco have it? It's just a nightmare having to go into the city to get it all the time.

vibrant

I bought a block of Blue Dragon tofu in Tesco last week, god was it vile! There is also Cauldron brand, I've seen that in Superquinn, it's much better. Dunnes sometimes sell tofu in with all of the pre-packaged salads, I have seen it but not tried that brand yet.

As for the tempeh, picked up a block yesterday. And, as luck would have it, I found a recipe for tempeh ratatuille... I'll make it this week and share it with you if it's tasty.

Finally, they also sell seiten (possibly spelled wrong, but unfortunately pronounced "satan") in Nourish - has anyone tried it?

FakePlasticMan

I've bought the Tofu in Dunnes...is a big block and seemed to taste as good as any I've had in restaurants..but I wouldn't be an expert on it... the Blue dragon pack seemed very expensive in comparison. Have just tried freezing it for the first time..It did improve the taste imo but i didn't think the texture was really any firmer than usual. So far I've only used it in fairly spicey dishes like balti curry and have to say I like it. Guess is just a matter of taste :-)

mateo

The Blue Dragon tofu is the silken type, which should only really be used for desserts.

mateo

I tried tempeh a few weeks ago. There's a market in Howth and a girl was selling it. I didn't like it that much to be honest

vibrant

I made that tempeh ratatuille I mentioned - it was awful! Kinda nutty, but no real taste to it, other than vaguely rice flavoured?

After I cooked it, I remembered how I used to cook it before... and I'd douse it in soy sauce, which probably isn't too good for you (sodium, blood pressure etc.)

Peanut

The whole "spores growing in it" part is a bit off-putting tbh!!
Think I'll stick to mostly non-fungal innoculated soya bean foodstuffs :rolleyes:

direbadger

vibrant wrote:

I had tempeh in Canada, it's quite lovely. Where did you see it, Peanut? I'd love to buy some.

They have it in the Health Food shop I work in. It looks foul. I'm afraid of it! Of course, I used to be afraid of tofu too but now I love it.

Kix

Seitan is great; it's wheat gluten. It's got an excellent firm texture. You cook it in stock (some form of dashi usually) to flavour it.

You can make it yourself, and I have, but it's agony - you make a massive ball of flour dough and you have to wash all the starch out, leaving only the protein. The amount of energy expended is far more than I believe you could recoup by eating it

In other countries you can buy "vital wheat gluten" in shops and you just mix this with water and flavour it to get seitan. It's piss easy. I've tried in healthfood shops here in Galway but they're obsessed with "gluten free". You might as well ask for then to start stocking bags of poison.

K