Soft leeks and crisped tempeh drizzled in a sticky, spicy sweet soy sauce and liberally sprinkled with salted peanuts
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empeh is a gift to all home cooks from Indonesia. Made from fermented compressed soy beans, it’s an intelligent ingredient equivalent to meat in terms of protein, subtle and nutty in flavour and chewy in texture. Happily, it is also now widely available in most large UK supermarkets. Here, the tempeh is cooked in a typical Indonesian way – that is, fried until crisp, then coated in a sticky, spicy sweet soy sauce and liberally sprinkled with salted peanuts. In fact, the only anomaly is the leeks, making this dish mostly Indonesian but via a field in Lincolnshire.
You’ll probably need a trip to an online or local Asian supermarket to pick up the kecap manis, a sweet soy sauce; and sambal oelek, a zingy and magical Indonesian chilli sauce. While you’re there, you could also buy the makrut lime leaves, palm sugar and tempeh, but those are also available in most big supermarkets these days.
Prep 10 min
