Vegan BBQ Tempeh Salad with Avocado Lime Dressing

Hey loves, this year is halfway over. Does it seem like 2019 is flying by to you? It is for me. How was your weekend? I went plant shopping and picked up some vinyl records to add to my collection.

Today on the blog, I am sharing another salad that has been in rotation in my meal plan. I have been enjoying experimenting with salads.

Related post: Vegan Chickpea & Avocado Salad

At the beginning of my journey, I stayed away from salads because I wanted to expand my palate and experiment with different types of dishes. After almost 2 yrs, I am ready to add salads back to the mix.

Let’s get to this salad. Shall we? This beauty is topped with BBQ tempeh. I wasn’t a fan the first time I tried tempeh. It was not good, to say the least. Since it is a good protein and minimally processed, I went on the hunt to see how I could get it to taste to my liking. I must say that I enjoy tempeh now.

I wanted an oil-free salad dressing. So I made some homemade avocado lime dressing. My daughters love it. That is always a plus in my book.

Let’s get to the recipe

Salad ingredients

5 strips of tempeh
3 tablespoons of hemp seeds (I usually use 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons of coconut aminos
smoked paprika to taste
black peppercorn grinder to taste
3 big bunches of spring mix
sprinkles of carrots
6 grape tomatoes cut in half
sugar free BBQ sauce
always optional: quinoa

Salad dressing ingredients

1 avocado
1 half of lime squeezed
garlic clove to taste
black peppercorn grinder to taste

First, I boiled the tempeh for about 25 minutes in vegetable broth. Next, I drained the vegetable broth from the boil and seasoned the tempeh with smoked paprika, coconut aminos & black peppercorn. I use liquid smoke sometimes. I added the barbecue sauce. I found some sugar free that taste good. I let it broil for about 5 minutes.

While the tempeh was boiling, I used the rest of the ingredients and prepared the rest of the salad and salad dressing. I put them in the refrigerator until the tempeh was ready.

For the salad dressing, I combined a mashed avocado, squeezed lime, chopped garlic clove, and sprinkled black peppercorn together. I added a little water also to help with consistency.

Lastly, after the tempeh finished broiling, I took the rest of the salad out of the refrigerator. I topped it with the BBQ tempeh and hemp seeds (more protein & healthy fats) & the avocado lime dressing.

Viola! Another yummy salad is born.

I used about 3 tablespoons of the salad dressing in the salad. My kids used the rest to dress some veggie burgers. Note, I usually use 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds but I used 3 tablespoons today. I just felt like I needed more.

Do you any salad ideas you are loving at the moment?

I hope everyone has an AMAZING week!

Until next time