Tarragon Tempeh

If my life was a sit-com, there would have been a moral to the story at the end of today's episode. That moral is: Buy the cool veggies the day you see them at the market and don't wait for silly things like time to cook them. I was so bummed when I went to the market today. I saw both English Peas and Fava Beans all cute and fresh in their perky little pods last week. Today I go all excited to buy a bunch of both of these, but alas, no English Peas or Fava Beans to be had. :( I was really looking forward to those. I'm going to start stalking the market for the next couple of weeks in case they get more. If so, there's a yummy awesome salad in the future starring Fava Beans. And really, that is exciting because if you know me, you know how I feel about salad... (quite frequently being the only thing to eat at restaurants when going out with a big group, I don't tend to make salads at home very often)

If you can find English Peas, I'm jealous of you. Also, you can and should use those instead of the regular peas in this recipe because it will be more awesome. And who doesn't like it when things are more awesome? Well, I'm sure someone doesn't, but that person would be an idiot and not to be listened to. Ahem... the recipe:

Tarragon Tempeh with Red Chard on a Bed of Peas

1 bag frozen peas
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 package tempeh, cut into small cubes
1 large Portabella mushroom, chopped
1 bunch red chard
1 Tablespoon dried tarragon or 3 Tablespoons fresh

Cook the peas until their cold little hearts are thawed out and warm. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. After the oil is hot, add the shallots and saute for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another 3 minutes or so. You'll know you're done when the shallots are translucent and starting to caramelize a little bit.

Add the tempeh cubes and stir everything around to make sure that the tempeh gets to be friends with all of the shallots and garlic. Add the chopped up portabella mushroom and stir again. Add the tarragon and saute for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Tear the red chard into pieces and add them to your pan. Just let it sit on top of everything else and put a lid on that sucker so you get a nice sauna going for the chard. Once it starts to look like it's wilting, stir again, but be careful that you don't accidentally stir the greens out of the pan like I have a tendency to do. Escapee alert! Keep cooking until the greens are done.

Put some peas on a plate like you're making a little bed for the tempeh stuff. Spoon the tempeh stuff on top of the peas and marvel at how cute your food looks. Don't stand there gawking for too long, though. Make sure to dig in and eat! I added some fresh ground pepper to mine, but some of you peeps will likely want to add some salt also.

This will make enough for 2-3 servings depending on how hungry you are. I ended up with 2. One for tonight and one for work lunch tomorrow. I love when I get leftovers for lunch like this!

To console myself at the market because of the lack of Fava Beans and English Peas, I bought some Coconut Water.

I read something about this the other day. Apparently it's all the rage with some of those vapid celebrity types right now. Not that I want to be anything like those crack whores, but I did get interested to try the Coconut Water. It's the water from the inside of the coconut with a little bit of sugar added. But don't be fooled - even though there's some sugar in it, it's not very sweet at all, which I love. I might even buy some of this again. It comes in these cute little boxes that look like juice boxes. I'm totally bringing one to work tomorrow to eat with my tempeh. :D