Grillin' Meaty Non-Meats

My mother recently purchased me a grill pan/griddle that you can put your stove top. It. Is. Awesome! I've been grillin' all sorts of things! I'm a Grillin' Machine! Which is funny since I've never had any interest in using an actual grill.

Now that I have had my fill of grilled veggies and fish, I wanted to come up with some other creative things to put on my grill pan. Watch out Jackson! Because they don't just give out the title "Grillin' Machine" to everyone, you know!

I had some tempeh in the fridge and had been craving barbecue sauce! I figured why not put the two together! Tempeh is fermented soybeans that are formed into a cake/block, which I know sounds really unappetizing. And on my initial tryings of tempeh, I wasn't a fan. However, once I played around with how I prepared it, I have started to crave it occasionally.

In reality, I think, at times, that it has almost a chicken-y taste to it. Either way, I think it's a nice meat alternative that, prepared this way, really doesn't make you miss meat at all.

BBQ Tempeh Sandwiches

Ingredients
1/2 block of tempeh, slice in 1/4' pieces
2 - 3 tbsp barbecue (see below for recipe)
1/4 cup shredded mozzeralla
1/4 cup arugula
2 slice of bread (preferred: 1 Trader Joe's whole wheat english muffin)
smoked salt and pepper

Method
1. Heat up your grill pan!
2. Spray grill pan and place sliced tempeh on grill.
3. Grill until browned then flip and brown on the other side. Meanwhile, toast bread.
4. Toss tempeh with barbecue sauce.
5. Layer mozzarella, tempeh, and arugula on bread.

If you're feeling frisky, you may want to consider making your own barbecue sauce!

Soooooo....you may think this barbecue sauce looks remarkably like ketchup. That's because all barbecue sauce really is is glorified ketchup! It starts with tomato paste the same way ketchup does! We're just not use to seeing barbecue sauce this red.

You know what's in your store-bought barbecue sauce that makes it that dark brown color...crap! Yes, crap. And possibly some molasses. But if you check the labels of most commercial BBQ sauces, you're going to find a lot of extraneous ingredients that probably don't need to be there.


Homemade Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 onion, chopped (1 large onion)
2 garlic cloves, chopped (3 cloves)
 1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 6 oz can tomato paste (10 ounces)

1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup sweetner of your choice (I used brown rice syrup)
2 - 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 - 2 tbsp chili-garlic sauce
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tsp smoked hot paprika
smoked salt and pepper

Method

1. In a large saucepan on low heat, saute the onions and garlic with the vegetable oil for 10 to 15 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned. 

2. Add the rest of the ingredients. 

3. Simmer uncovered on low heat for 30 minutes. Use immediately or store in the fridge. You can also put this in the freezer.