Bengali Five Spice Peanut Tempeh Sandwich
Peanut butter … tempeh … Bengali five spice … a classic combo.
Ok, maybe this isn’t a classic combo yet, but it sure should be!
Bengali five spice, or panch phoron, is a blend of whole cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds.
Basically, it’s made up of seeds, seeds, and more seeds.
The flavor of this spice mix is difficult to describe. It’s aromatic, earthy, and slightly bitter, but super tasty. When mixed into a creamy sauce like this peanut sauce, its delightful.
I use these spices for a lot of different recipes, so I buy the spices individually, but you can buy the spices premixed at a South Asian grocery store.
This is a great one-pot meal. You dump the aromatics, veggies, peanut sauce, and tempeh all in one pot. Then you can smear it right onto your sammie. That’s it! So simple and so delicious!
Plus, while I am recommending certain veggies here, this is really customizable. I make this dish all the time, and I use whatever I have in my fridge. Sometimes I swab the sweet potatoes for butternut squash or pumpkin, sometimes I add collard greens, and I think that there are countless other swaps that could be made.
While this was made with sandwiches in mind, you can eat this sans bread or with rice. With that being said, if you want to eat this with homemade bread (as I usually do), here is a recipe for homemade sourdough. This would pair well with spelt flatbread.
Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients, it’s really simple, and if you don’t have some of the ingredients, you can omit or replace with something similar.
Bengali Five Spice Peanut Tempeh
Ingredients
- 300 grams onions
- 300 grams peppers
- 150 grams carrots
- 300 grams sweet potatoes
- 15 grams of ginger
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
- 2 teaspoons nigella seeds
- 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
- 90 grams peanut butter
- 3-4 cups water
- 2 packets of tempeh (450 grams)
- 2 tablespoons kashmiri chili powder
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Sprinkle of coconut sugar
- salt to taste
- To assemble: crusty sourdough bread and arugula or preferred greens
Instructions
- Preheat a pan on medium-high heat. I use a well-seasoned cast iron pan, so I don't need to add any oil.
- I like to chop my veggies as I go, but if you prefer, you can have everything prechopped. While the pan is preheating, chop up the onions and peppers into matchsticks. These will go in the pan first.
- Once the pan is HOT, start putting in the onions and peppers. Add a pinch of salt to help them soften. Cook these down for 5-10 minutes or until the onions are browned and soft. While the onions and peppers are cooking, you can peel and chop the carrots, also into matchsticks.
- Add the carrots into the pan and continue to cook with the other veggies. At this point, chop up the sweet potatoes into matchsticks and add the sweet potatoes into the pan.
- Add all the Bengali five spice components to the pan and mix well.
- At this point, add the peanut butter and water (Add two cups of water to start. You can add more later if the mix is too thick) and grate the ginger right into the pan. Add the two tablespoons of kashmiri chili powder and more salt and mix together.
- Allow this mixture to simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the veggies are soft to your liking.
- Slice the tempeh and add to the pan and mix thoroughly. Allow to simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
- Taste and make adjustments. I usually add the juice of one lemon and a sprinkle of brown or coconut sugar to calm down the heat.
- To make a sandwich, I simply take two pieces of toasted bread and place a layer of arugula on both of them. Then, I add a big plop of this as filling.
Notes
- You can replace all the seeds with 3 tablespoons of panch phoron or bengali five spice.
- Be creative with this recipe. You can replace the veggies listed in the recipe with an equivalent amount of other veggies. Just make sure that you add them in order from slowest cooking to quickest cooking.
