This week's Plant based cooking challenge #7offers choices which include what I have chosen. Corn and asparagus. I have also added cabbage as a garnish and lots of lime juice. All of these items up for grabs.
When I think of corn and asparagus I think of summer and grilling. We seem to be stuck in early cool spring but that doesn't stop me from pretending that we are having a backyard barbecue. I don't have a back yard or even a balcony. What I do have is a Forman grill recently given to me. My manager said they bought it by mistake for the restaurant and the owner said he could keep it. He gave it to me saying he didn't want it and he was going to toss it in the bin. I don't know if he was for real but naturally I took it. It was still in the box.
I have asparagus around twice a year. I like it grilled rather than steamed. I wanted to do something I've never done with it and that was to put it in a sandwich. Since I was grilling I added some tempeh to the sandwich.
Before grilling I cut a good chunk of the ends off. They are not fun to eat being on the woody side.
When the grill was hot, I put the lightly coated in oil asparagus in it and closed the lid.
After around four minutes they were nicely done and not over cooked.
The corn was to be added to the sandwich but I first made it into a salsa. This is very simple and light with lots of taste.
Corn salsa
2 cups corn(fresh is ideal but I used frozen)
1/2 cup onion (I prefer red but didn't have any left)
1 chopped tomato
1 chopped jalapeno pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
Juice of 2 limes or more if they are not juicy enough
Salt to taste.
Mix the ingredients and refrigerate.
I decided to make my own whole wheat flatbread or tortilla. I haven't used whole wheat flour much but it's actually much easier to work with in my opinion.
Flatbread
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Mix everything together and knead a little then set aside covered.
Meanwhile cook the tempeh in liquid. I chose veggie broth which I made previously, and three tablespoons vegan hoisin sauce. I added a little lemon juice as well.
Simmer the tempeh until the moisture has absorbed. Set aside.
To make the flatbread I divided the dough into four parts rolling into a ball. I wanted it to be as thin as possible. To make it thinner and wider I pick it up and do the pizza dough stretching method by putting it over a fist and gently pulling the sides while rotating.
I didn't oil the pan because it's a really good non stick one. It was on medium high heat when I placed it in the pan.
When it started to puff up and get brown spots I flipped it. I am not an expert but I was pretty pleased with it.
Before I put the tempeh on the grill I painted it with a barbecue sauce that I whipped up quickly. There are so many variations of barbecue sauce, it's not funny. I did it with what I had and what I felt like adding. I never make it the same each time and I don't measure the ingredients so this is approximate.
Barbecue sauce
3/4 cups tomato paste
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon garlic
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons cane sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1 tangerine
3 or 4 drops liquid smoke
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons braggs liquid amino (soy sauce)
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil to saute the garlic
Saute the garlic and spices in oil then add other ingredients. Simmer for ten fifteen minutes and it's ready.
I slathered the tempeh with the sauce and grilled it until the grill marks were dark.
Assembling the wrap
For the dressing I took a bit of the barbecue sauce and mixed it with vegan mayo to spread on the flatbread. This was not absolutely necessary as the corn salsa was the sauce for flavor. It was an extra something.
I cut each piece of tempeh in two so it would fill the wrap.
Then the asparagus, cabbage and the corn salsa.
After wrapping I put it back in the Forman grill for an extra toast.
I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to finish a whole wrap but at the end it was a pretty light feeling sandwich.
