Grilled Tempeh Recipe – Maple BBQ Flavor!
Today we are making a delicious Grilled Tempeh Recipe! Today’s recipe is one of the first BBQ recipes I’m sharing on this blog. A big feat, considering I bought liquid smoke over a year ago and never really did much with it … until now. I also haven’t used tempeh in a past recipe, but there’s a first for everything!
Tempeh is a traditional Indonesian using a fermentation process with soybeans. The soybeans are soaked and cooked, then mixed with a fungus that starts the fermentation process. The mixture is wrapped tightly and fermented for 1-2 days, which presses it into blocks. Aside from soybeans, other types of beans may also be used.
Why You’ll Love This Grilled Tempeh Recipe
High Protein Meal Prep: Tempeh is a great source of protein and dietary fiber on a plant-based diet. This recipe is also one of my personal favorites for prepping high protein plant-based meals! It has a somewhat chewy but firm texture and can be used as different types of meat, such as making this recipe as a mock grilled “meat,” making tempeh bacon, using tempeh bits broken apart to mimic minced meat and more!
BBQ Smoky Flavor: The delicious flavor of this recipe comes from the BBQ tempeh marinade. It’s a sweet and smoky BBQ sauce made using tomato sauce, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, molasses, liquid smoke, sweet smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder and pink salt.
Then we pour marinade over the long strips of tempeh (my go-to method for using tempeh is a glaze) and taking only 20 minutes to cook. You can grill tempeh pieces on a grill during the summer, or cook it over medium-high heat on a nonstick skillet indoors.
Substitutions
Tempeh: If you don’t have tempeh, you can make a Maple BBQ tofu instead! Try it with extra-firm tofu, with the water pressed out.
To find tempeh, it is usually in the vegan or natural section of most major grocery stores, or at a health food store. I cut this into strips rather than tempeh cubes, so there’s more surface area for the marinade to cover (it absorbs more flavor).
Maple Syrup: Use 100% pure maple syrup, not Aunt Jemima pancake type of syrup. There are different types of maple syrup. The darker the syrup, the more intense the molasses and maple flavor is. Check the ingredient label to make sure the only ingredient is maple syrup on there!
Molasses: You’ll know this as the flavour you find in gingerbread cookies. It’s strong, but works amazing in barbecue sauce. There are different types of molasses, but I used blackstrap molasses for this recipe. You can use light or dark molasses, which have less of a strong molasses taste as compared to blackstrap.
Liquid Smoke: To make liquid smoke, particles of smoke created from burning chips or sawdust are collected. It really smells like smoke in a bottle, and gives BBQ sauce that “smoky” flavour. Some brands of liquid smoke contain gluten. Buy a gluten-free version to make this recipe fully gluten-free.
Sweet Smoked Paprika: You can also used smoked paprika.
Apple Cider Vinegar: I haven’t tried it with any other vinegar, but you could try using white vinegar, rice vinegar, lime juice or lemon juice for that acidic taste.
Tomato Sauce: This is the canned tomato sauce. The difference between tomato sauce and tomato paste is that canned tomato sauce is a cooked purée of tomatoes, but tomato paste is a step further and reduces the sauce until it’s thickened. If you don’t have tomato sauce, you can try using tomato paste but whisk in a spoon of water to make it a little thinner.
Grilled Tempeh Recipe Notes
- Coat leftover marinade on tofu slices, or use as a sandwich or dipping sauce!
- Serve with sliced red onions, pickled ginger, cabbage slaw, vegan mayo or other toppings and use in a burger, sandwich or with grains such as brown rice. Alternatively, make stir fry, tempeh skewers to grill, a Buddha Bowl or add them to corn tortillas with some guacamole and vegan yogurt to make tempeh tacos!
- Feel free to add a bit of coconut aminos, minced cloves of garlic, soy sauce or sesame oil into the glaze for added flavor!
More Healthy Recipes You’ll Love
Garlic Butter Vegan Noodles Recipe
If you make this Grilled Tempeh Recipe, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Maple BBQ Grilled Tempeh Recipe
Equipment
- Nonstick skillet or Grill
Ingredients
- 2 blocks tempeh 227 grams per block
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 cup tomato sauce, minus 1 tbsp 15 tbsp total
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 4⅔ tbsp maple syrup 100% pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp molasses
- 1 tsp liquid smoke some brands of liquid smoke has gluten – just make sure to get a gluten-free version if you want to avoid it
- ½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp black pepper powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp pink salt
Instructions
- Take the blocks of tempeh and slice them into ½ inch thick strips.
- Mix together the sauce ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Heat up a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat and add the sauce. Allow it to cook for a few minutes, stirring until thickened.
- Remove the sauce completely from the pan, then add the oil and place it back on the heat. Once it has heated, add the tempeh sticks.
- Pan fry them over the heat, turning them over once until browned on both sides. This will take 3-4 minutes. Alternatively, do this over the grill.
- Once browned, pour the BBQ sauce on top and cook for a minute, tossing the tempeh to get the sauce all over. Serve it warm, topped with your favorite toppings or with whole grains!
Notes
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Storage
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
