Vegan Bento

Saturday lunch after errands. Last night I was poking around in the fridge and knew I needed to use up lettuce and tomato (salad with ginger dressing, duh) and then these mini pitas that were hiding in the door. But I didn’t want to make any hummus type stuff to go on the pitas so I settled on trying to make mock tuna salad from tempeh I had that I forgot why I bought.

 (It wasn’t until the tuna salad was made that I remembered I’d bought tempeh to try this new collard and tempeh recipe but ah, well. Will just have to get more tempeh later or do the collards a different way.)

 After errands this morning I ate my lunch. Not pictured is the 6 oz OJ I drank with it, but I include it in the nutrition.

NUTRITION FOR ENTIRE BOWL PLUS OJ

(48% carb | 16 % protein | 30% fat) 

Calories: 392
Fat: 13 g
Saturated Fat: 2 g
Carbohydrate: 56 g
Fiber: 9 g
Protein: 16 g

This is based on the recipe for "Tempeh Tuna Salad" from Vegan Deli by Joanne Stepaniak. I made it as suggested only I skipped the dill because I hate dill.

It wasn’t my idea of a mock tuna salad though… so I kept on going by adding sweet relish (which I always put in tuna salad when I was nonvegetarian). I also added 1 nori sheet for a briny "ocean" flavor. I’d blendered into smithereens before adding it. That I decided it needed a wee bit of lemon juice to make it a wee bit tart and the end result I was quite pleased with.

It makes four 1/2 cup servings for a total of 2 cups. I just don’t know if I like it better warm or cold.

•  8 oz package of tempeh
•  1 nori sheet, crumbled (blender it dry or crumble by hand)
• 1/3 cup vegan mayo (ex: Nasoya Nayonaise)
• 2 tbs minced red onion
• 2 tbs minced celery
• 2 tbs minced parsley
• 2 tbs sweet pickle relish
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 2 tsp spicy brown mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt 
•  pepper to taste
• 1-2 tbs water 

 1) Steam the tempeh for 20 min.

2) While that is happening, crumble up the nori sheet by hand or in a dry blender 

3) Mix the nori with all the rest of the ingredients except water in a bowl. Add tempeh when done and mash it with a fork to break it up into chunks. Add water a little at a time if mixture looks too dry.  Chill and serve.

 NUTRITION PER 1/2 CUP SERVING

Calories: 177
Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Carbohydrate: 14 g
Fiber: 7 g
Protein: 10 g