Skip to main content

Tasty Tuesday - Grilled Pineapple Tempeh Quinoa Salad

I don't know about you, but when it's hot out, I tend to crave more watery fruit like pineapple. We've also been grilling most days, especially while we were painting the kitchen cabinets. Since I just happened to have a pineapple on hand, I decided to come up with a way to grill it.

At first I had thought about sandwiches, but I ended up going with a quinoa salad instead using tempeh and veggies. I wanted to try to infuse more of the pineapple flavor in the tempeh while it poached, so I also made a puree of the pineapple.

Grilled Pineapple Tempeh Quinoa Salad
Ingredients:
1 pineapple
1 package tempeh - cut in half then lengthwise for 4 pieces
1 not-beef bouillon cube
2 cups water (or broth and minus the bouillon)
2 tbsp minced garlic
1-2 jalapenos, seeded if you prefer less heat
Small nub of fresh ginger
2 bell peppers (I used green and yellow)
1 large zucchini, cut into thick strips
1/2 cup quinoa (I used red)
2 cups water

Directions:
Turn on your grill or heat grill pan.

Rinse quinoa and add to a medium saucepan with water. Cover and simmer until liquid is cooked out - approximately 14-20 minutes.

Cut pineapple in half and remove the core. Take about 2/3 of one half and cut into cubes. Place in a blender with the jalapeno and ginger and puree. With the remaining pineapple, cut into thick slices for the grill.

In a non-stick skillet, combine water, bouillon cube, pineapple puree, garlic and bring to a boil. Lower to simmer, add in the tempeh and cover. Allow to simmer approximately 15 minutes then flip. Cover and cook another 10 minutes before removing lid and allowing the sauce to thicken.

Remove tempeh from pan and reserve the remaining thickened sauce. Add tempeh, bell peppers, zucchini, and pineapple to the grill. Rotate the bell pepper until charred. Remove and place in a sealed container to cool.

Once peppers are cooled, remove the skin and dice. Remove tempeh, pineapple, and zucchini from grill once done and dice.

Combine the leftover sauce with quinoa, veggies and tempeh in a large bowl.


I loved the additional flavor that the grilling process added to the pineapple. My only complaints here are that the jalapeno wasn't a very hot one, so I should have used two. I didn't necessarily want it hot, but I did want just a hint of heat to go with the sweetness of the pineapple.

The other issue (for Jason more so than myself) was texture. He mentioned that he would have like a little more bite to the dish. So perhaps served over rice or barley instead or maybe adding in cashews.

Do you find yourself wanting more fruit during the summer, especially water fruit?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Hump Day and More Pineapples

Full-Body Workout  I'll readily admit that getting up this morning was quite painful and almost didn't happen. I forced myself out of bed though not exactly excited about tackling a full-body Pyramid workout. Sort of daunting at 5 am really. I did the warm up from Shock Cardio Cardio Core Circuit (cardio only premix) then hit the weights. It was a pyramid up only so I increased my starting weight. I topped it all off with the first 2 1/2 drills from the cardio workout. I ran short on time and was basically spent. Squats into Plie Squats Step Ups (seriously hate these especially at 5:30 am) Incline Chest Flyes into Chest Press Pullovers into DB Underhand Rows Step Ups (freaking again) Static Lunges Overhead DB Press into Lateral Raises Deadlifts Kickbacks into Overhead Extensions Hammer Curls into Alternating Curls Calf Raises I am so excited to report that my new cross-trainers and running shoes arrived today. Can't wait to test both of them out. I waited way way way too

Hitting the Gym and Lazy Means Creative Tex-Mex Creation

Sunday, Gym Day Why do vacations and min-vacations go by so quickly? Just doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, we left Branson around 9:30 am to head back home. It was a pretty uneventful drive back, which is usually a good thing. We got home and unpacked, then I headed up to the gym. I started with a 10-minute treadmill run to warm up before hitting the weights for back and light legs then abs. I went with a giant set for back then supersets for legs. GS - 4x8 Underhand barbell rows Pullovers Double-arm rows SS#1 Rear-leg elevated lunges (Bulgarian Split Squats) - 3x8 Calf raises - 3x20 SS#2 - 2x8 Walking lunges Plie squats with low-end pulse Single-leg deadlifts - 2x8 I did some ab exercises, stretched, and called it quits. Lazy = Crazy Dinner I may have made it to the gym and washed a few loads of laundry, but I never made it to the grocery store - lounging in the pool trumped grocery shopping. This meant getting creative with dinner. We had another package