This is my new favorite salad. Or rice-and-vegetable-medley or side-salad-that’s-really-a-main-dish or whatever it should be called, I’m loving it.
If this doesn’t get you excited about eating your vegetables and brown rice and tempeh, nothing will.
It’s so good that you may choose tempeh over homemade Twinkies.
Well, you may. I may still have the Twinkies for dessert.
I used a pre-chopped vegetable mix, which saved time, but it would be the perfect recipe to clean out the odds and ends that are lingering in your vegetable drawer.
Or if you over-buy fresh produce or have a garden that’s exploding all of a sudden with fresh vegetables (zucchini comes to mind), toss any of it in here. There is not one vegetable that I can’t see working in here. Okay, maybe not habenero chiles but aside from those, I’d toss it in.
The oranges gave this dish some pop without dominating the flavor.
I used an ample amount of cumin, which is one dominant flavor in taco seasoning mix. If you like the way taco seasoning mix and tacos taste, this recipe is for you.
The recipe turned out to be a Trader Joe’s special. I didn’t set out for it to be that way, but I picked up the veggie mix and then realized that all the other items I chose to incorporate in the recipe were from TJ’s.
Gotta love a bargain vegan meal.
Let’s get cooking:
Sautee cubed tempeh in olive oil for a minute and toss into a bowl.
Warm the rice with a drizzle of olive oil and toss that into the bowl.
Sautee and season the veggies and toss them into the bowl.
Slice the oranges and toss them into the bowl.
Lots of bowl tossing and not much time passing.
About 10 minutes from start to finish.
Whisk up the marinade with orange juice, balsamic, and seasonings.
Pour it over everything that’s in the bowl and toss.
I first made this salad first using half packages of everything shown; half the package of rice, tempeh, and the veggie mix, thinking there’s no way we’d want more than 4 cups of this salad at once. But it was so good that a day later, I made it again.
Skylar kept saying, “Mommy I want more of that rice stuff.” And I said, you know what honey, so do I.
So I made the other half of everything in the packages and stunk up my house a couple days in a row with the smell of sauteeing cabbage and broccoli. Delicious.
This is great served warm from the pan, but don’t fear that leftovers will be soggy or somehow not as good.
Ironically, I preferred the leftovers a day later, un-warmed and eaten from the little plastic food storage container I had stored it in in the refrigerator. Cool salads are great for summer and the marinade fully absorbed into the rice and the flavors married.
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Orange Ginger Tempeh and Brown Rice Salad with Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Orange Ginger Tempeh and Brown Rice Salad
- ¼ cup olive oil, divided into multiple uses
- ¾ cup tempeh, diced in small cubes
- 1 ½ cups pre-cooked brown rice
- 3 ½ to 4 cups diced vegetable medley, red cabbage, green cabbage, broccoli, carrots, radishes, jicama, green bell peppers, celery
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- generous sprinkling of salt and pepper, to taste
- optional spices and seasonings, curry, garlic, onion powder, 21 Salute, Mrs. Dash, etc.
- 1 orange, halved
Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette
- juice from half of 1 orange, about 3 tablespoons
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon cumin, or to taste
- pinch salt and pepper, to taste
- pinch sugar, optional and to taste
Instructions
- Orange Ginger Tempeh and Brown Rice Salad – To a large non-stick skillet, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, add the tempeh and sear it over medium-high heat, flipping as needed. Searing will take about 2 minutes. Add tempeh to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
- To the skillet (you don’t have to wash it), add 1 tablespoon olive oil and over medium-high heat warm the rice, stirring as needed. Warming will take about 2 minutes.
- Add the rice to the mixing bowl with the tempeh and set aside.
- To the skillet (you don’t have to wash it), add 2 tablespoons olive oil, add the vegetables, and sprinkle with ginger, cumin, salt and pepper, optional seasonings. Stir to evenly coat the vegetables. Cook over medium to medium high, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until softened but not mushy.
- Add the cooked vegetables to the mixing bowl with the rice and tempeh.
- Slice half the orange into bite-sized pieces and add to the mixing bowl.
- Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette – Over a small bowl, squeeze the juice from the orange halve. Add the remaining dressing ingredients and whisk to combine. ( I prefer more robustly seasoned food and if you don’t, scale back to 1/2 teaspoon each ginger and cumin. Alternately, add other or additional seasonings, to taste.)
- Pour dressing over the contents in the mixing bowl, tossing gently to combine. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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What are your favorite warm or cool salads, “side salads”, stir frys, or one-skillet meals?
I use the word salad loosely. Many people think of a salad as cold iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing, but I think anything that’s tossed with an ample amount of vegetables, eight to be exact in this recipe, constitutes a salad.
All the salads, stir frys, and sides shown above are some of mine, but I’d love to hear yours. Link it up.
Hi Averie. I love this savory recipe from you. I have never used tempeh, what is the difference between that and tofu? I love that you picked up everything from Trader Joes. Do they know how much free advertising you do for them? I mean, seriously. You should let them know and get some sort of commission from them.
I know that when I advertise a favorite product for a recipe that the product is off the local grocery store shelves for a couple of weeks. When I advertised those refried beans for the Paul McCartney tacos last week, the beans I recommended were out of stock and they still are. I have noticed that with other items I have recommended. I’m sure that most Trader Joes will sell out of the above ingredients for your salad. I know I am going to pick them up for an easy lunch, maybe even today as the kids and I are hitting the pool at lunch time.
Can’t wait to see more savory recipes!
Tempeh & tofu…tempeh is much firmer, has some grains “woven into” the soy, you don’t have to press it and it’s pre-cooked so you can technically eat it raw (I guess you could do the same with tofu and many do in raw desserts, blended up and tempeh is fermented. Try it!
Funny you mention that about products selling out; after I recommended a few things from TJs this past winter, they were gone from my TJ’s for weeks. And also with a certain kind of coffee from the grocery store, it went missing. Now it could have just been coincidence, too…not trying to think that my little blog has that much influence or anything :)
Wow, Averie. These photos are amazing – the colors just POP.
The recipe is right up my alley too (minus the rice). I love anything with balsamic flavor and I haven’t tried it with orange yet. I’ve been loving on these kinds of dishes for dinner though – the last few nights I’ve been eating an asian style veggie bowl type thing. Grilled veggies on top of cauliflower rice with lots of cilantro.
Cumin is my first love, as far as spices go though.
I didnt know cumin was your first love! I love it, too! So good you should try something along these lines…just squirt this, sprinkle that, drizzle, and you’re done :)
Oh my gosh IN LOVE.
I live for bright veggie pop salads like this!
Not this is my kind of meal! Not that I don’t appreciate all the sweets that you bake but this I will make : )
Keep me posted if you try it!
I am in the middle of a juice fast and this savory salad looks so good right now! :-) I love balsamic vinegar and use it on my salads regularly. The combo of flavors here looks absolutely delicious! Cabbage (both colors) is one of my favorite foods. I could eat it every day! Gorgeous photography (as always), Averie!
Thanks, Michele! And I hope you try it and keep me posted. Good luck with the juice fast…I mean juice feast as many call them :)
This is the perfect salad for this summer, it has a nice balance of protein carbs and all the good stuff, I love those fruits!
I haven’t tried tempeh. Is that something you would get from Trader Joe’s?
Yes in the picture in the post, I posted a picture of the packaging. I find theirs is the cheapest but WFs has it too but I don’t shop there much, if ever.
I made this recipe yesterday. I really liked the combination of the rice, tempeh and vegetable mix. Now that I tried tempeh and really liked it I am going to try all your other recipes with tempeh in it. You have so many to pick from.
Glad you tried it and tempeh is so versatile…and since it’s already firm, it’s faster than tofu (I have to press my tofu to get it firm or I just don’t enjoy it). LMK what else you try!
This salad is so full of goodness – I love it! Can’t wait to get my tempeh on!
Keep me posted if you try it. Glad you like tempeh, too!
I absolutely adore cold grain salads, like the leftovers of this one. So easy and they somehow always feel special to me.
I LOVED the leftovers. I swear they got better the next day!
Oh wow Averie – that is simply beautiful and absolutely something I’d make. Fantastic flavor combinations!
This is so you. Balsamic, vegan, tempeh, salad, easy…I hope you try it!
That looks so good and not too complicated, will definitely try it! Love the orange in it, I love to put fruit in a veggie salad!
Not complicated at all!
Beautiful pictures! That looks so delicious. I am going to be making this soon. :)
LMK how it turns out!
The colors in this are gorgeous! Hope you have a wonderful birthday hun!
Awww, thanks sweetie :)
xo
Wow Averie, that looks AMAZING! I’m definitely going to stick that on my menu for next week. Quick, healthy and delicious- what more can you ask for?!
And I agree- a salad isn’t just iceburg and dressing. I generally like to chuck my salads full of veggies and pulses and grains. For a side salad, I like the combination of something sweet, something creamy and something crunchy (e.g. dried cranberries, blue cheese and walnuts). It’s pretty foolproof and offers a million combos!
Glad to hear it’s making the menu plan! Keep me posted!
This sounds like a really great flavourful summer salad and it’s so pretty with all those veggies!