Quick and Easy Chinese Green Beans with Tempeh (Vegan)
A healthy vegan Chinese green bean and tempeh recipe with a glossy tamari and sesame sauce that cooks in under half an hour for an easy and quick family meal.
First deal with the tempeh: drain and rinse the tempeh, then either chop it into very small cubes or chop into chunks and then briefly whizz in the food processor for a couple of seconds so that it is chopped really small. Then steam the chopped tempeh for 15 minutes over boiling water (if you’re making rice as well, you could steam the tempeh over the rice). After this time, drain the tempeh and rinse under fresh water.
Meanwhile, make the sauce: Mix the cornflour with the tamari until smooth, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix together until well combined.
Stir fry the onion, garlic and chilli for 2 minutes over a medium high heat until browned.
Add the drained tempeh and fry for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, to get a little browning on the tempeh, but being careful not to burn the onion, garlic and chilli.
Add the frozen green beans and the sauce (give the sauce a little stir before pouring into the pan so that the cornflour is well mixed in still). The sauce will bubble up and you need to stir constantly for a few minutes while the beans defrost and cook and the cornflour cooks through and thickens the sauce. This happens very quickly - be careful not to overcook or the beans will lose their vibrant green colour and go soggy!
Serve with rice or noodles and garnish with a dash of tamari and a sprinkling of sesame seeds and/or fried shallots
Notes
The tempeh can either be chopped really small or whizzed briefly in the food processor (For thermomix users, I did 3 secs / sp. 4). The steaming helps to remove the bitter flavour from the tempeh before frying it.
You could, of course, use fresh green beans instead of frozen. Just increase the cooking time by a couple of minutes once the beans go in the pan and add a little more water if it starts to look dry.
This needs to be made quickly so get everything ready before you start stir-frying.