Hi to Brunei Darussalam, Finland, Portugal, Zimbabwe and any other new viewers! It’s pretty cool to see all the countries that people come from who view your blog. This week I was especially excited to see that someone in Portugal had viewed theLAB as we might be living there next year!

Sorry for the near complete absence of posts this week – I promise I have still been eating. Exams will be over in 32 hours (aaarghh, scary!) and I’ll get back to making lots of delicious food and posting my favourite inventions.

You will start to notice more meat based dishes (still probably not any/much fish – I’m not sure I’m ready for that) as my doctor has told me I’m not good at absorbing B12 and iron so I need to increase my intake. Week one of eating more meat made me feel sick as I jumped in the deep end with too much chicken and steak and my body couldn’t cope. Given this fortnight is stressful enough I’ve let my mood dictate my food which has meant mainly yoghurt, fruit and beans. This has made me feel soooooo much better; I even ran my fastest 10kms ever last night (sub 53 – woohoo!)

So here is tempeh two ways: over a delicious quinoa salad or in a wrap. Both were really yummy. I’ve started getting into spice rubs, firstly as a way to make a steak taste better, but then I tried it on tempeh and it was awesome (better than steak – see the problem with converting to meat?). There are lots of ingredients on this list, but it’s really pretty straight forward so don’t be put off, you could always use your favourite spice mix on the tempeh instead of making your own spice rub.


Spiced Tempeh with Quinoa Salad
Serves 2 with leftover salad, 20 minutes preparation/cooking

1 cup quinoa (uncooked, about 2 cups cooked)
300g (about 10oz) tempeh – this is a block of fermented soybeans, it looks pretty gross

Spice Rub
1tsp each: cumin (ground), coriander seed (ground), pepper (ground)
½tsp of chilli powder
3tsp of paprika (smoky or sweet)
1-2tsp of salt

Salad (suggested ingredients)
Capsicum (bell peppers)
Cherry tomatoes
Baby spinach leaves
Coriander leaves (cilantro)
Jalapenos (I used home pickled ones)
Fresh red chilli
Red onion or shallots
Corn

Quinoa Dressing
Juice of one lemon
½tsp salt
1tbs olive oil

Cook your quinoa first as this needs to be cooked and then cooled a bit so you don’t wilt the salad greens. Put 2 cups of water and 1 cup on quinoa in either a saucepan or microwave-safe bowl depending on whether you want to cook on the stove top or in the microwave. I microwaved it on high for 5 minutes and then on medium for another 5 minutes by which time all the water was absorbed and the quinoa was soft.

Put the quinoa into the freezer uncovered until everything else is ready to help it cool a bit. It doesn’t have to be cold, but just not so hot it will cook the salad.

While the quinoa is cooking, mix the spice rub ingredients together and then sprinkle them liberally over slices of tempeh. This much spice rub is enough for two lots of tempeh, so store the rest in an air-tight container for later.


Then cook the tempeh. You can either toast it under the griller or fry it in a pan. Either way, turn it part way through.

Prepare your salad. I layered spinach leaves, tomatoes, capsicum, jalapenos, red chilli and coriander. Make the salad dressing by mixing the lemon juice, salt and olive oil. Pour the salad dressing over the quinoa and mix it well. This gets lots of flavour into your quinoa and each one is a little burst of lemon flavour in your mouth!

Finally mix the quinoa into the salad.

Serve the salad on a plate topped with the spiced tempeh, mmmm… delicious and crazy healthy!

The second way I had spiced tempeh was in a rye wrap with cream cheese (but this would be amazing with hummus – and vegan then) plus tomato, spinach and fresh coriander (cilantro).

I can’t even tell you how good this was. The tempeh was so yummy that I ate the second serving that was leftover straight away out of the pan; I just couldn’t stop putting another piece in my mouth!