Tempeh Salad with SunButter Ginger & Cilantro Dressing

By Teri Gentes

Most of us have mastered multi-tasking, and my intention is to have this skill set work for us in the kitchen. Food is such a joy to celebrate, ‘good’ food that is, and today many people are returning to the kitchen to make their own meals. For the past 30 years, I have focused my energies on inspiring and enabling people to prepare great tasting, health infused foods at home. My “More Meals from One Making” is the theme with this main course: Tempeh Salad topped with my Sunbutter Ginger n’ Cilantro Dressing. You can use this dressing with meat (seafood, fish, veggie cubes, tofu, tempeh) as a sauce, marinade or dip, pour over your noodles, or even stir into soup or broth! This all said, you may want to double the recipe depending on how many ways you would like to use your first batch. Enjoy!

Tempeh Salad with SunButter Ginger n’ Cilantro Dressing
(serves 4-6)

⋅  Vegan/Gluten, Nut, Grain free with Soy free option
⋅  Main Course Salad, with multi-purposes
⋅  Prep time, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

8-10 cups mixed leafy greens, of your choice (choose organic when possible)
2 garden fresh tomatoes or 1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 large or 2 small avocado(s), cubed
4-6 sliced pan grilled or baked tempeh, cubed or crumbled (sub with fish, seafood, mushrooms, chicken etc.) 
1/2 cup Sunflower seeds, raw or lightly toasted and seasoned (as desired)
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
Fresh Cilantro to garnish (if desired)
1 cup SunButter Ginger n’ Cilantro Dressing (thin to desired consistency with water, veggie broth, coconut water or lime juice)

Directions:
1. Prepare dressing (recipe below) if not already made and set aside.
2. Assemble salad by dividing greens between 4-6 plates or bowls.
3. Arrange tomatoes, avocados and tempeh cubes over each salad.
4. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds, sea salt, cilantro, and drizzle with dressing as desired.

SunButter Ginger n’ Cilantro Dressing
(makes approximately 1 and 1/4 cups; double recipe if using as dressing for a main course)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. fresh ginger root, grated
1 heaping tsp. garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup Organic SunButter
2 tsp. raw honey or organic coconut sugar (to taste)
2 tbsp. organic gluten free tamari or coconut aminos
2 tbsp. freshly squeezed organic lime juice and zest
1/2-1 tsp. chili pepper, minced or dried chili flakes (to taste)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2-3/4 cup water or vegetable broth (as desired)
Sea Salt and pepper (to taste)
2 heaping tbsp. fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Directions:
1. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a food processor until emulsified. Adjust seasonings and thickness. (A glass jar with a tight fitting lid will work as well, as long as you are ready to work to emulsify the sauce).
2. Serve drizzled over Tempeh Salad (save excess dressing for your next meal).
3. Store dressing for 7 days or more in the refrigerator in a covered glass container.

Teri Gentes is a whole-self-wellness educator and whole-foods chef, instructor, and recipe author.  Teri in-stills awareness, inspires desire and enables action, making the transition to “healthier habits” easy, realistic, enjoyable, affordable, sustainable and delicious.  To find more recipes by Teri, visit: http://www.terigentes.com/index.php/recipes.