Tempeh Scallopini

Growing up, my diet wasn't very varied. I my meals were usually things that came out of bags, boxes and cans. Dinners were usually tacos, hamburgers and fries, chicken cutlets with Rice-A-Roni, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese or pizza. The only fresh vegetables I remember eating was iceberg lettuce, which was always smothered in French dressing. I was still living at home when I went vegetarian, and I pretty much had to teach myself how to cook so I wouldn't starve. So when I was younger I never had any kind of adventurous or "exotic" food and when I was older, I never cooked any kind of meat. I certainly never ate or cooked anything scallopini. I didn't even know what kind of food is usually made scallopini, so I had to look it up. (It's usually chicken.) But none the less, tempeh scallopini looked really appealing to me. 

This recipe is from the Candle Cafe cookbook. It was given to me for my birthday in June and I haven't made anything out of it yet, so it was time to try something. The recipe calls for two blocks of tempeh, which was too much for just Dennis and I, so I only used one block but I cut the pieces smaller than the recipe said. I still made the amount of mushrooms and shallots, because I wanted dinner to be veggie heavy. The tempeh was cut up and then baked in a marinade for half an hour. The shallots and mushrooms were sautéed together and then set aside. After the temepeh was baked, it was dredged in flour (I used brown rice flour) and then fried in the leftover marinade. Then the mushrooms are cooked again in a red wine and lemon juice and served over the temeph. I served the dish with a side of sautéed kale. This dinner was really, really good and I know I'll make it again. It's quite a huge change from the food I grew up on, and now I know that I like scallopini!

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