This is a vegan spin on “Lu Rou Fan”, one of the most iconic Taiwanese dishes. For many families, this is comfort food at its finest, as traditionally, pork belly is being braised in an incredibly rich, savoury and sweet broth before serving it in a bowl of rice.
The toughest part was replacing the pork belly, as it provides an incredible amount of umami and has a chewy texture, but luckily, I took inspiration from this recipe, which uses a combination of tempeh and shiitake. The combination adds a rich flavour and a similar texture, but the only thing missing is the fattiness, for which I don’t have a solution yet.
Ingredients & Method
Prepare the “meat”
Just as mentioned above, we are going to use a combination of tempeh and mushrooms:
- Soak the shiitake in hot water
- Cut and crumble both, the shiitake and tempeh, into small pieces
- Fry them in some cooking oil until crispy
Create the broth
This part is crucial, as the main flavours from the dish will come from the sauce, so every single ingredient is important.
- Aromatics: Shallots, ginger, garlic
- Whole spices: Bay leaf, star anise in a tea bag
- Ground spices: Chinese five spice, white pepper, rock sugar & MSG
- Mushroom broth (reserved from soaking)
- Sauces: Light & dark soy sauce, shaoxing wine
First sauté the shallots, before adding all other ingredients to the pan, bringing the mixture to a boil and keeping it on a simmer for at least 20 minutes. Occasionally, stir and break up any bigger tempeh pieces. Finally, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce and intensify the flavours.
Remove the tea bag and whole aromatics before serving it on a bowl of rice.
Cooking Tips & Substitutes
You can also include blanched green vegetables when serving: Bok choi, choi sum or Chinese broccoli work well. Many recipes also fry shallot slices beforehand and add them as a topping later.
I recommend keeping it traditional and use all the ingredients mentioned, but if there is no way around it:
- If you don’t like tempeh or can’t find it, use crumbled firm tofu.
- Please use dried mushrooms, they provide more flavour and you can reuse the soaked water.
- Substitute the rock sugar for brown sugar.
- If you don’t have dark soy sauce, use more of the light one.
- Use mirin instead of shaoxin wine
- The spices in the tea bag often vary, some recipes include cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and cloves
The Recipe
Taiwanese Braised Tempeh
Zutaten
Method
- Soak the mushrooms in hot water for 10 minutes. Remove them and cut them finely, but reserve the mushroom water. Crumble the tempeh into small pieces
- In a wok or pan, add cooking oil and fry both, the mushrooms and tempeh, on medium-high heat until the tempeh is slightly golden (7-10 minutes)
- Turn the heat to medium, add the sauces, the reserved mushroom water, dry spices, aromatics and the spice-bag. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer with a lid on (20 minutes).
- Turn the heat up, and reduce the broth.
- Remove the tea bag, ginger and garlic and give it a final taste to adjust the seasoning. Serve on cooked white rice
