Ingredients
Serves 8Melted butter, to grease
1.5kg large brushed potatoes, peeled
300ml carton thickened cream
Salt and pepper
Yumi’s Tempeh Salad
Spinach
Rocket
Tasty tempeh (there are 3 types, normal, spicy and tasty)
Canola oil for deep frying
For peanut sauce:
½ cup coconut cream
½ cup peanut butter from health food store (with no additives)
2 tbsp Japanese Soy Sauce
Pinch of salt
2 x chillies (not too hot variety)
Tamarind seeds or lime if you can't get tamarind. (This is for the "sour" normally in a sauce given by vinegar)
2 tbsp palm sugar
1-2 cloves garlic (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Brush a round 20cm (base measurement) cake pan with butter and line the base with non-stick baking paper.
Use a potato peeler to shave the potato into thin slices. Transfer to a bowl. Pour over the cream and season with salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. Transfer to
the prepared pan.
Bake for 1¼ hours or until the potato is tender and the top is golden. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly before turning onto a chopping board. Cut into wedges.
Tip: If you’re in a hurry, you can coarsely grate the potatoes rather than shave them.
Per serve 5g protein • 14g fat
(9.5g saturated fat) • 24g carb
3g dietary fibre • 1040kJ (250 Cals)
Yumi’s Tempeh Salad
This is a recipe I cook for my vegan friends sometimes but we do a lot of vegetarian food in our house and the kids don't really think of it as "food without meat" - it's just food that they like - so we often eat it even without vego friends about.
One of the key things with vegetarianism (let alone veganism) is to not feel deprived! And I think deep-frying the tempeh is a little naughty and extra yummy so the vegan can feel the love of delicious, nourishing food.
1. Heat the oil.
Sometimes it's tempting to re-use old oil but if you're cooking for a full-blown veggo, make sure the oil hasn't been used to cook fish/meat etc! And similarly, make sure all knives and chopping boards are well-scrubbed if they're also used to cook meat. You might not care but your vegetarian friend does, and cooking is a lot about trust.
2. Slice the tempeh into small, even pieces.
3. Wash and shake out the rocket leaves and spinach leaves.
4. When the oil is hot enough, add the tempeh. It should bubble like crazy.
5. Combine half a cup of additive-free peanut butter with half a cup of coconut cream, good pinch of salt, and palm sugar which has been dissolved in boiling water. Mix the whole lot then top with seeded, chopped ripe red chill, tamarind seeds (or lime if you can't get tamarind) and Japanese Soy Sauce. Then you blend the whole lot.
Chilli is like any other fruit or vegetable - tastes better when it's ripe. You'll get maximum flavour (and minimum hotness, if you take out the seeds) from a nice, ripe chilli.
5. Check the tempeh. It takes a surprisingly long time. You can get them out when they're hot and golden but I like to wait until they're as crunchy as a chip - sometimes around ten minutes of steady frying.
6. Combine all ingredients then serve with a small bowl of peanut sauce on the side.
A couple of different ingredient options:
Instead of peanut butter, use real peanuts with skin on, fried, then remove skins and blend with all ingredients.
My Indonesian friend adds two cloves of garlic. Me? Not so keen on garlic.
Notes:
When not serving with potato pie, I often embellish this salad with halved, roasted baby potatoes baked in olive oil and sea salt.
Also, the sauce will not give the same rush a shop-bought one will. This is because bought ones usually have fish sauce in them, and subsequently, a lot of MSG.