Tempeh Cakes

Hello, friends.  I hope you all had excellent Saturdays.  I know Joey and I did.  Mostly because I managed to avoid doing any of the homeworked I needed to do and went on a run then accompanied Joey to his cousin’s wedding instead.  My life only feels complete when I’ve done the Cupid Shuffle at least once during the day.

I’m about to hit the hay.  I have a busy Easter planned, complete with not one, not two, but three big meals.  Buuuut, before I dance off into dreamland I wanted to share a fun recipe with you all.  Take it as an Easter present from me to you.  Just pretend it’s in a basket.

Did you know good crab cakes are hard to come by?  It’s true.  And it’s especially true in Colorado.  I mean, we’re not exactly a fresh seafood hub, are we know?  So when I came across a recipe for crab cakes that weren’t made of crab at all, but tempeh, I was intrigued, inspired and ixcited.  Okay, excited doesn’t start with an i, but that alliteration would have been cooler if it did.  Without further adieu…

Tempeh Cakes & Remoulade

Modified from Post Punk Kitchen

Tempeh Cakes

• 8 ounces tempeh
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 T soy sauce
• 1/2 T worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 T tahini
• 1 T dijon mustard
• 1 T hot sauce
• 1 T red cooking wine
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3/4 t ground ginger
• 1/2 t dried oregano
• 1/2 t salt
• black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

Remoulade

• 2 T tahini
• 1 T dijon mustard
• 1 T hot sauce
• 2-3 T water
• 2 pickles, chopped (or 1 T capers)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Crumble tempeh into a small pan.  Add water, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil, then let boil for 10 minutes or until liquid is cooked out.
3. Remove bay leaf and pour tempeh into a bowl to cool.
4. Once tempeh is fully cooled (I put mine in the fridge), dump it into a food processor with the remaining ingredients except the panko, and pulse ingredients together.
5. Mix panko in and form into 10 patties, then place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.
6. While tempeh cakes are baking, make the remoulade by mixing all the ingredients together.
7. Serve over tempeh cakes.

We served our tempeh cakes with a kale salad, a la Mama Pea.  Topped with carrots and mushrooms.

Oddly enough, these kiiiind of tasted like crab cakes.  Flavor-wise at least.  I was a big fan.

Although now I’m just sliiightly excited to have real crab cakes in New Orleans in about two weeks.

And then I forced Joey to eat the leftovers for lunch so I could photograph the meal in the daylight.  He’s so lucky to have me boss him around.

Although I’m pretty sure he wasn’t going to argue anyways.  He loved them too.

And now, my food loving friends, I’m off to bed.

Have a good Easter!