Tempeh Beefless Crumbles
Use this tempeh recipe in place of ground beef or meatless crumbles in all of your favorite recipes!
Tempeh Beefless Crumbles
Delicious whole foods, plant-based meat replacement
Makes: 4 Servings
Prep time:
Cook time:
- 8 oz Tempeh, cut into slabs
- 1 cup low sodium vegetable broth
- 1 Tbsp vegan worcestershire
- 2 Tbsp Braggs Amino Acids (or reduced sodium soy sauce)
- 2 Tbsp 100% pure maple syrup
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp black pepper
- Steam the tempeh slabs for 20 mins.
- While the tempeh steams, prepare the marinade: in a medium sized tupperware, combine the vegetable broth, vegan worcestershire, amino acids, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, and seasonings. Stir.
- Allow the tempeh to cool. Once cool enough to handle, use your hands to break into crumbles.
- Add the tempeh crumbles to the marinade. Place in the fridge for at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Use a fine wire-mesh strainer to separate the marinade from the tempeh. Discard the marinade and use the tempeh as you would ground beef or meatless crumbles.
*All of these photos feature this recipe for tempeh crumbles in a basic tomato sauce over pasta. Just so we’re clear.
Tempeh used to frustrate the hell out of me. The tempeh I found in restaurants was flavorful, toothsome, and slightly nutty. The tempeh I’d attempted to make at home was chewy and bitter, even after steaming. In the last week, I’ve devoted my time, energy, and finances to solving this riddle. So far, I’ve made some AMAZING tempeh ‘ribs’ and a tempeh ‘ground beef’ substitute, which I will share with you today.
Here’s what I’ve learned about tempeh this week:
It seems that tempeh available for purchase in the US has a reputation for tasting bitter, forcing the user to find a way to eliminate the bitterness before eating it. In Indonesia, where tempeh originates, tempeh lovers don’t notice a bitter flavor at all. This leads me to believe that fresh tempeh is superior in taste to that which has been mass produced and packaged for a long shelf life. So I’ll be adding ‘make tempeh from scratch’ to my list of things to do.
When Lifelight tempeh is all you can get your hands on, there are ways to eliminate the bitterness. You can steam the tempeh, boil it in broth, or braise it. Boiling and braising allow you to inject the tempeh with flavor early in the cooking process. If you choose to steam it, I’ve found that cutting the tempeh into slabs and steaming it for 20 minutes is effective.
Once your tempeh has been steamed, boiled, or braised, you can then treat it like tofu. You can marinate it and then cook it, or you can cook it straight away.
Store bought tempeh can taste amazing when prepared with care, and it can taste disgusting and put you off tempeh forever. Take your time with it.
Okay! Let’s move on.
If you know a vegan or are a vegan, you’ve probably already had ‘meatless crumbles.’ It’s a great product and works well in any dish in which you want to replace ground meat. You can season it to mimic whatever kind of meat you want, making it a great meat replacement for new vegans. HOWEVER, it is definitely a food ‘product’ and isn’t suitable for a whole foods, plant-based diet. So my goal is to use tempeh in recipes where I would have turned to meatless crumbles. That leads us to this recipe: ‘beefy’ tempeh, perfect for using in Italian dishes. I used it in spaghetti last night and it worked great. You could also use it in chili, jalapeno poppers, stuffed bell peppers, or combine it with bread crumbs to make meatless meatballs. You can bet your bottom dollar many of my future recipes will reference this recipe for beefy tempeh.
To make it, we start by steaming the tempeh. I cut mine up into slabs to try to get as much steam into the tempeh as possible, then steamed it in my instant pot for 20 mins. If you don’t have an IP, just steam it in a steamer basket over some boiling water on the stove (with the lid on).
Next, allow the tempeh to cool. Once cool enough to handle, use your hands to break the tempeh into crumbles. We’re looking for the size to be similar to that of cooked ground meat.
Then, we marinate it to infuse some ‘beefy’ flavor. If you have access to ‘beefless beef broth’, you could use that. I don’t, so I just used regular veggie broth with added seasonings. I left mine to marinate for 3 hours, but overnight would be even better.
Once marinated, use a fine wire-mesh strainer to separate the marinated tempeh from the broth mixture. Discard the liquid and cook the tempeh any way you’d like. I sauteed mine with onion, garlic, and mushrooms for my spaghetti sauce.
If you were super frustrated by tempeh too, I hope this helps you out! I can now say that I’m confident cooking with tempeh and am excited to use it more in the future.
Happy cooking!
-Courtney