Menu Mondays: Smashed Peppers

We here at Married with Veggies are launching our first weekly feature: Menu Mondays.

What's Menu Mondays, you say?

It's a menu idea. On a Monday. Try to keep up!

We're starting with (drum roll, please!) SMASHED PEPPERS!

Yeah, well, insert hilarious quip about yo mama's face here.

For all of you who took one look at the food photo at the left and made that I-just-pictured-Cathy-and-Mike-eating-cat-puke face of yours (you didn't know we could see you, did you?), I have three  things to say: 

First, screw you!

Second, dammit reader, I'm a writer, not a food photographer!

Third, we're not cooks, but we promise to make things at least twice before sharing them with you, but then again, Mike thinks the smoothies I wake up craving taste like tree bark, and I think the fresh green beans he's started eating like potato chips taste like dirt. In other words, we make no promises that your tongue will think these here smashed peppers are good news should you whip them up. But we like them enough to give them the green (ha!) light. And with all that out of the way, let's go smash some peppers!

SMASHED PEPPERS--Think of this recipe like a deconstructed stuffed pepper without the beef or the rice or the, oh screw it. The cumin and the peppers make this mess in a bowl taste like a deconstructed stuffed pepper to me, but the writer in me wants something a little sexier than deconstructed anything in a title, so sue me. Or don't. This is the part where I tell our readership of three that this recipe started its life as on the pages of the March, 2012 Clean Eating magazine. But that recipe had meat and dairy and salt in it. My version has none of those things, and a f'awesome name.

Team Smashed Peppers reporting for duty!

I'm no cook, so this is what dicing looks like to me. Make it so.

Shut up. It will look less nauseatingly bland in a moment.

THE TEAM: 

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 8-oz package organic tempeh, cubed
• 3 diced tomatoes 
• 1 diced green bell pepper
• 1.5 cups frozen corn
• 1.5 tbsp VEGAN worchestshire sauce*
• .25 cup water
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar

 GAME PLAN:**

STEP 1. In a sauce pot, heat olive oil on, well, hmm. The recipe always says medium or medium-high, but who has that kind of time? Turn your stove to high and let that oil get hot and drop that tempeh right in there and, shit--OK, maybe medium. Because when you drop that tempeh right into hot oil, funny thing about that (heh, heh) is that it splatters. So medium and bombs away or high and gently lower your tempeh onto the cooking surface. 

Crumble = nom!

STEP 2.Cook for four minutes, using a wooden spoon to break up about six cubes worth of the tempeh into crumbles. Is crumbles the technical term for it? Money's on no, but the point is you want some crumbly goodness is the end so you have to start the process now. You'll thank me later.

These colors put the pretty in pretty easy!

STEP 3. Add bell peppers, tomatoes, corn, water, and Worcestshire sauce, and stir to combine. Take a moment to admire the colors in your pot. Drooling is optional, though I suggest not drooling directly into the pot because we want to keep this Vegan and I'm pretty sure your spit counts as an animal product--just saying. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.

STEP 4. Remove from heat and stir in cumin and vinegar. Will the cumin look alarmingly like you've sprinkled your dinner with dirt? At first, a little, yeah. Mix well.

STEP 5. Split into four servings.Cute owl bowl is totally optional, but choosing to add whimsy where you can is a no-brainer because, like, it just is. Serve with a side salad (this is how we roll) or scoop it up with corn chips. I imagine it would be a killer vegan taco filler with the cumin and all, but I haven't tried that. OK. I'm drooling and it's kind of making a mess of my keyboard, so I'm signing off.

230 calories, 8.8 grams fat, 23.6 mg sodium, 3.9 grams fiber, 14.5 grams protein (per calculator on sparkpeople.com)

Happy Menu Monday from Married With Veggies! 



LEFTOVER UPDATE: Dump a leftover portion onto a salad for a scrumptious taco-salad-esque bowl of delicious.

 

*Guess who learned that "normal" Worchestshire sauce has anchovies in it this week? 

** I have no idea why I've adopted a running sports theme.