Tahini Tempeh with Broccoli

Where creamy sesame noodles find a higher-protein format

In my continued effort to eat more tempeh (and hopefully compel you to eat more tempeh, if you don’t already), I’ve been thinking about it as a vessel for flavors and textures that I already know I love. This is what I always recommend to people who are trying to change up their diet, to approach the change first from a place of familiarity and branch out from there.

What I had in mind here was creamy sesame noodles and in particular the rich, savory dressing that coats them, which ideally has a little sweetness and a touch of tang. (It makes me hungry typing that… Is it any surprise that this is one of my favorite tempeh recipes yet?)

I really wanted to offer you a just-put-everything-in-a-pan situation, but despite my attempts it always compromised the sear on the tempeh, complicated the cooking of the broccoli, and screwed with the texture of the tahini component here.

So while I can call this a “one-pan” recipe, you’ll cook the components in stages before gently folding everything back together. Not such a big deal, and it’s still a 20 minute recipe.

I’ve included a few notes below as to how you may want to customize this recipe with different vegetables, alternatives to tempeh, or even to just file away the sauce and use it to, say, dress up some noodles. I hope you’ll give it a try and let me know what you think.

One last note — for those who collect the printable PDFs at the bottom of each recipe, I heard from a few of you that this feature in last week’s Bean and Celery Soup didn’t work. It’s been fixed now.