Corned Crisis

So I had a startling revelation the other day when I looked at the calendar. St. Patty's day falls on the monday before Easter this year. No, I'm not worried about the Catholic Church trying to reschedule all the Saint Patty's Day Parades - bishop what's-his-name can still eat his corned beef on the 17th of March if he wants to. My concern arose with regard to my lenten based decision to go vegetarian for a bit. I've developed a personal tradition over the years of cooking up some corned beef and making ruebens for St. Patty's day. Maybe it's my bohunk upbringing, but I can't think of a better meal for the holiday. Being faced with a dilemma I thought of a potential solution - tempeh ruebens.

I'd heard of vegetarian restaurants serving ruebens using tempeh as a substitute for corned beef, but had never tried one as I liked the original recipe so much. Well the other day I decided to try it as sort of a test run. After checking a few recipes online I got started. Tempeh comes in blocks, so I sliced it into strips with the same thickness I do for corned beef. Next I brushed it with some soy sauce to give it a brinyish flavor that would compliment the soybeans. After baking for 20min at 350F it was ready to go. I slapped it on some rye bread, added some kraut, swiss cheese, and 1000 island dressing and I was ready to eat. It was great! The tempeh goes great with the other ingredients. The added salty flavor offsets and the sweet of the dressing in much the same way as the corned beef, but in a way that the flavor of the kraut, cheese and rye bread really shine through. The tempeh also gave the sandwich the same hearty feel as corned beef, making for a satisfying meal.

So I've found my savior this year - tempeh. I'm sure I'll have the original recipe again some time, probably for St. Patty's day next year. Otherwise, given how good the tempeh version is and how easy it is to prepare, I can definitely see it becoming a staple in my diet. Good food, good for the environment - why not?