Open-Faced BBQ Tempeh Sandwich with Carrot-Cayenne Coleslaw

Last night’s dinner was another one from Vegan Soul Kitchen. Bryant Terry had this recipe listed as one of his 6 favorites in the beginning of the book, so I was eager to try it. I’ve never eaten tempeh before, let alone cooked with it, so it was another interesting experiment. I had high expectations for this meal because I personally love BBQ, crave it even.

So let’s see how it all came together, shall we? First off, Terry’s recipe simply calls for store-bought focaccia, but given my preoccupation with bread and the name of the blog, I went ahead and made some bread, using a whole wheat version of the Artisan Bread method and shaping it into a wider, flatter type loaf, perfect for sandwiches.

The focus of this post is the sandwich recipe, not the bread, but the bread came out phenomenal. Crispy crust and great texture. Truly amazing. Moving on to the sandwich filling. The recipe wasn’t difficult, but it took quite a bit of time for a sandwich, which I would normally put into the “quick food” category. After whipping up the BBQ sauce and dunking the tempeh into it, I baked it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. While that was baking, I prepped the coleslaw and put it in the fridge. An hour later, I had this:

Looks tasty, no? The verdict… was mixed. Basically we both thought it was very strong in the vinegar flavor department. However, I liked the sandwich and Brent did not. Some notes from our dinner conversation:

• Next time, I would rather just marinate and bake the tempeh in my favorite BBQ sauce rather than make his. Although his is easy enough to prepare, I prefer a bit of a sweeter, smokier flavor and it would help tone down the vinegar flavor a bit.
• Given the vinegary flavor of the tempeh, Brent would have preferred a creamy type of coleslaw with mayo, or Nayonnaise if we wanted to keep it vegan. He just thought the coleslaw and tempeh were too much together, although the separate components were fine.
• I didn’t have purple cabbage, so I just used a bit more of the green, and I added a bit of thinly sliced red bell pepper for visual appeal.
• Not a complaint, just a note — I didn’t think the recipe was all that spicy, which surprised me given that cayenne is in the name.
• I like regular sandwiches and bread, so I cheated and added the top of the bread and ate it like a regular sandwich. Messy but tasty.
• I think we’ll make something similar to this recipe again because I like the idea, but we’ll do a few modifications mentioned above.

So far, Terry’s about 1.5/2 for us, so I’m looking forward to trying more of the recipes in the book. I’m definitely impressed with how much flavor his dishes pack. Anyone else cook anything from the book?

I had another dentist appt. today and I’m still in pain, so I’m curled up with some magazines from the library and tuned into the Biggest Loser finale. I owe Brent a big thanks for doing the dishes and picking up the kitchen tonight while I laid in bed. Hopefully I’ll be more productive tomorrow. I’d like to try a new bread recipe soon, so we’ll see how that goes. A final piece of exciting news —  my final grades were finally posted and my back to school 4.0 has been maintained! 🙂 Now I’m just waiting on my official acceptance into the nursing program.