Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Balsamic Roasted Veggies with Tempeh

As I have said before, I really enjoy autumn cooking.  Soups and roasted vegetables are two of my favorite dishes.  I expect that Vegan MoFo will bring many of those types of dishes to my posts.  Since I have already dropped some soups on the reading masses, I figured it was time to get into the oven, so to speak.

I enjoy shopping.  It is so much fun, I will shop for a variety of things and find it relaxing and amusing.  The only part of shopping that I am disgusted by is the register.  My solution?  I avoid it.  I simply do not buy anything.  It is something that has gotten me the label of frugal but it has also helped me buy a home and take as many vacations as I can find the time for.  Last night, I was on the phone with Jamie while doing some shopping and she accused me of being quick to spend money on food!

Bah!

For her information, today I was wondering the aisles of the grocery store looking for ideas for today's MoFo post and it took me almost 40 minutes to buy three items.  Several hours later, I was eating an early dinner.


Balsamic Roasted Vegetables and Tempeh

2/3 of an eggplant (peeled and sliced)
3 portobello caps (cubed)
5 cloves of garlic (chopped)

15 oz of tempeh (cubed)
1/2 cup of oil
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of onion (chopped)
1 tablespoon of fresh basil (chopped)
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of jalapeno pepper (chopped)
1 teaspoon of oregano
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper


Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a glass oven pan, add 1/4 cup of oil, garlic, jalapeno pepper, and onion.  Roast in the oven for 3-5 minutes.  This will release some of the flavor of the garlic and onions.

In a bowl add the remaining oil, balsamic vinegar, oregeno, salt, pepper, eggplant, mushrooms, tempeh and toss until covered.  Add the mixture to the already roasting garlic and onion mixture.  Roast for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven, add the paprika and stir well.  Return to the oven and roast for an additional 15 minutes.


Sadly, the picture does not to the flavor justice.  Mushrooms, tempeh, and eggplant all have a similar color after they have roasted, something I did not think about.  I added some chopped scallions and additional smoked paprika to the top to make the picture pop a little more.  The paprika was great but do not bother with the scallions.  This dish was a last minute thought, I actually did not decided what I was going to do until I was half way done.  It surprised me, it is extremely good, especially for this nice wet autumn day in Atlanta.

Make this.

9 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

OH WOW! That looks amazing.I don't do much cooking in the summer so by the time Autumn's here I'm raring to go.

Jenn and Jac @ sketch-free eating said...

this looks genuinely delicious :) eggplant is one of my favourite veggies! i always rule out balsamic vinegar I should really stop doing that lol

Kip said...

Roasted tempeh is blissfully good! Looks delish.

Shaheen said...

Looks real good and very autumnal. I have a jar of tempeh to use up. Quite clever addition the balsamic.

MeloMeals said...

Looks and sounds delicious! This time of year is great and roasted veggies are the best.

Jes said...

What absolutely delicious looking roasted veggies!

chow vegan said...

Looks delicious! I love roasted veggies! Never thought to roast tempeh before, I'll have to give that a try. Thanks! :-)

dreaminitvegan said...

This reminded me that I forgot eggplant at Farmers Market today. You did great with this dish, I'm going to make this for sure.

I'm like a kid when shoppping for food especially Farmers Market where everything is so bright and colorful.

Spending money on food that is going to make us healthy and give us energy is a good thing. Have you seen Food Matters? Must see.

Bonnie said...

Oh this dish looks amazing! I wish I had some tempeh around.