baja-style tempeh tacos

This recipe includes several components -- baja-style tempeh (vegan version of Baja-style fried fish), taco fixings, special taco sauce, and roasted fresh pineapple and red pepper-chipotle. This review is for the tempeh only. (I put together the rest of the meal with ingredients I had on hand but not following the recipe specifically)

I was really impressed by how well the technique for the tempeh worked. First, the tempeh pieces are marinated in a mixture of soy milk, lime juice, cilantro, and hot sauce. The lime juice causes the soy milk to curdle and become thick like butter milk. Next, you drain off the leftover marinade and mix in some flour with the marinade to make a batter to coat the tempeh slices. Then, you coat the tempeh slices in batter, dredge them in panko, and broil them at 500 degrees. The batter was easy to work with and the panko adhered well to the tempeh.

I loved how crunchy and delicious these turned out without frying. I served these with plenty of guacamole and almond yogurt (variation of the cashew sour cream recipe in this book), so this was not a "low fat" dish, but it was nice to save the fat for the "good stuff."