This is one of my favourite vegetarian dishes, the smell of fresh lemongrass and galangal together with the sticky sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis) puts this Indonesian dish in my top 10.
Unlike the more common Tofu, Tempeh is packed full of flavour, and the texture will certainly add depth to your dishes. It’s a great source of protein and probiotic, if you’re into fermented foods you’ll love this. 
Tempeh is now stocked in most natural health food supermarkets.
Prep time: 15 mins Cooking time: 20-30 mins
Ingredients
- 300 gram tempeh will serve around 3-4 people, (you can cut this in either 1 cm cubes or slim and long diagonal sticks)
- 1 lemongrass
- 2 fresh kaffir lime limes (do not use dried leaves)
- 2 red chilies (thinly sliced diagonally)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- 3 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
- oil, for deep frying and for sautéing
Grind the following into a paste (approx amounts below)
- 3 medium size onions or 6 shallots
- 1 whole garlic
- 4cm cube Ginger
- 4cm cube Galangal
Instructions
- Once you have made the paste and prepared the spices, heat oil in a frying pan for deep fry Tempeh until golden brown (10-15mins), toss and turn the cubes all sides cooked and crisp. Once done, remove tempeh and drain access oil on paper towel
- Shallow fry the spice paste in pan (in 2 tbsp oil) for 2-3 mins, add the salt and stir well.
- Add crushed lemongrass and lime limes to the mix and stir for a couple of mins
- Now add the Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce) and palm sugar and stir well (add 1-2tsp of water if needed)
- Now return the fried tempeh to the pan ensuring fully absorbs the mixture (5mins) toss and turn
- Finally add the red chillies (you can add sprinkle a little coriander on top too)
This dish needs to be served hot ideally with Nasi Lamak (coconut rice) or ordinary rice will do…now get eating.
Halal Foodie Travel 