Scott VanDenPlas

Ok, last food posting, like I said, it was a busy weekend. I have recently become a huge fan of tempeh. I was never anti-tempeh, I was just unsure what to do with it… not to mention it is simultaneously amazing and disgusting (there is fungus actively growing on it, and looks a lot like it shouldn’t be there). Here’s what you need:

Tempeh (we used a wild rice tempeh for this)
Can of black-eyed peas
2 onions
5 cloves garlic
Dinosaur kale
1 tomato
3 ears grilled corn
olive oil
salt
pepper

Dice one onion, brown it in olive oil in a large stock pot. Dice the garlic, throw it in when the onion is starting to brown. Cut the dinosaur kale into thin strips, toss it on top of the onions/garlic. Pour the entire can of black-eyed peas, water and all, into the pot. Dice the tomato, throw it in too. Stir, Cover, Simmer until the kale is soft.

We had grilled corn in the refrigerator from the day before, I cut it from the cob and set it to the side. I then cubed the tempeh, and diced the other onion. In a sautee pan, I browned the onion and tempeh cubes. Add the corn to the stock pot and allow it to come to temperature (it is already grilled, it just needs to warm). Give the corn about 5 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, then lay the tempeh/onions on the top of the mixture.

I wish I had a better picture, this one really doesn’t do it justice. Perhaps I will try to replace it tomorrow, and also post about the Cauliflower/Seitan dish to the right.

I do not title this blog post lightly. I am not kidding, I have not experienced flavor like this, and will most likely be making my sauces like this from now on. I bucked the sauce making trend on this, leaving both the seeds and skins on our tomatoes. It turns out, this was a good idea. What you will need, with almost zero measurements… not because I am a dick about it, but because everything is to taste:

8-10 ripe tomatoes
Olive oil
salt
pepper
An entire head of garlic
1 onion
Fresh basil/oregano

First, cut the tomatoes in half and toss them in a bowl with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then, light up a charcoal grill, get that sucker SCREAMING hot. Roast the holy hell out of those tomatoes. You want them to get charred. Don’t worry, they are full of moisture, the skin will mostly char leaving the flesh soft and juicy. This is why it is important to leave the skin on, it holds a solid metric ton of flavor. It will look something like this:

I cooked them cut side down first so they didn’t just melt into the grill, then flipped them and roasted the skins on them. Scrapped them off, threw them into a big bowl. Simultaneously to this, Beth was slicing large slivers of garlic, dousing them in olive oil, and cooking them in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. She then sauteed up a diced onion, to which we added the roasted tomatoes, the garlic/oil mixture, and the aromatics. We simmered this down, creating this:

When in doubt, use simple ingredients, grill it on charcoal.