Roasted Broccoli Bowl with Rosemary-Glazed Tempeh and Spicy Garlic Tahini Sauce

A bowl of green superfood goodness.

Mmm, roasted broccoli and pan-seared tempeh with greens, quinoa, tahini sauce, seeds, and avocado. I finally put together the perfect tempeh-roasted vegetable-grain bowl, and here it is. (I'm just really into tempeh at the moment, a move I never saw coming in my life, since the first time I tasted it I thought it was gross.)

I'm also deeply into warm vegan grain bowls lately. I realize this has been a thing for quite some time now, but oh well, I'm late to the party and I don't care. :)

This bowl is "perfect" because it's protein-rich, delicious, filling, super nutritious, and completely free of sugars, which I'm still avoiding as best I can. If it's not cane sugar or corn syrup, you still get agave, dates, and/or maple syrup in the marinades, sauces, dressings, and sweets in pretty much every restaurant, vegan or otherwise, I know of at the moment. I'm eager for vegan restaurants to jump on the plant-based zero-glycemic sweeteners bandwagon soon, but in the meantime, I've got to make my own grain bowls at home if I want to avoid sugar in all its forms.

This recipe requires the making of a few separate "parts," but once you make those parts, you've bulk-cooked for another two or three bowls, so I figure the time investment is well worth it.

First, Start Roasting the Broccoli

(ACTUALLY first, start a pot of quinoa...)

Ingredients for the broccoli:
6-8 cups broccoli florets (enough to cover your sheet pan)
2-3 T olive oil
1/2 to 1 t sea salt, or to taste
1-2 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder

Heat oven to 425F. Toss the broccoli florets in all the other ingredients, then spread in an even layer on a sheet pan. Bake 20-27 minutes. Let the broccoli get really dark brown and crispy. Trust me on this. Almost-burnt is the way to go with roasted broccoli. :)

Roasted broccoli is soooooo good.

Make the Rosemary-Glazed Tempeh

Ingredients for the tempeh:

One 8 oz block of tempeh, sliced into about 18 1/4 inch slices

1/2 cup veggie broth (plus extra if needed as it cooks)

1 T olive oil

1 t chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 t dried

Sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Fresh squeezed lemon juice, about a teaspoon or two

While the broccoli roasts, pour the broth and oil into a nonstick skillet, then add the rosemary and start it heating over medium heat. Lay the tempeh slices in the skillet in a single layer, then turn them over to coat both sides. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic over the slices and squeeze a couple of lemon wedges over them. Let them cook on the first side 5-7 minutes, checking to make sure your broth isn't drying out too much. If it does, you can add a bit more broth as it cooks, but you want the tempeh to soak it up as it slowly crisps up a bit around the edges.

Flip the tempeh when the broth starts drying up a bit and brown it on the other side. Flip it back to the first side if desired once it's brown, to get more browning/crisping on that side too. Eventually all the broth mixture will absorb or cook off, and you'll be left with a fairly dry skillet as well as browned tempeh.

Rosemary + lemon and olive oil make a delicious tempeh glaze.

Make the Spicy Garlic Tahini Sauce

Ingredients for the tahini sauce:

1/4 cup tahini

1 T liquid aminos or tamari, or to taste

2 T lemon juice

1/8 t chipotle powder, or use smoked paprika if you don't like hot spices

1 clove garlic
1-3 T water to thin

While the tempeh browns in the skillet, put all the ingredients for the tahini sauce in a mini food processor and blend. Add water as need to thin the sauce, usually about 1-3 tablespoons.

Assemble the Bowl

Ingredients for the bowl:

2 cups leafy greens + a couple tablespoons of any other raw veggies you like (red cabbage, shredded carrot, radish, green onion are all good options, but if you don't have time for all that, just greens are fine)

1 cup cooked quinoa

2 cups of the roasted broccoli

6 slices of the glazed tempeh

1/2 small sliced avocado

2 T Spicy Garlic Tahini Sauce

1 T raw or toasted pumpkin seeds

1/2 T hemp seeds

Layer the greens, quinoa, broccoli, tempeh, and avocado in a large salad bowl, then drizzle the sauce over it and sprinkle on the seeds. If you want a delicious probiotic boost, add a tablespoon or two of refrigerated or homemade sauerkraut (check the label for sugar! - my fave non-sugared sauerkraut right now is Farmhouse Culture Smoked Jalapeño.)

Delicious with a combo green-mint tea.