A quick, tasty and healthy vegan brunch or lunch idea. It’s also colourful and nutritious. Avocado spread on wholemeal or sourdough toast, topped with chilli sauce, thin slices of fried tempeh and a few toasted seeds or dukkah.
My first Veganuary recipe this year is one suitable for lunch or brunch. When I first started going completely plant based for the month of January, I struggled with lunch ideas the most. The main meal has never been a problem as I often cook vegan dinners anyway.
But for lunch, I usually have egg, cheese or creamy mushrooms. So what could I make instead that was quick, delicious and nutritious? Well it turns out there’s actually lots of delicious lunch time foods that fit the bill. This tempeh on toast is one of them.
Dive Right In
- Why Make Tempeh On Toast?
- Tempeh On Toast
- Ingredients
- How To Make Tempeh On Toast
- Other Toast Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- The Recipe
Why Make Tempeh On Toast?
Tempeh on toast is a well-rounded and flavoursome combination of nutritious ingredients. This makes it an enticing option for anyone looking for a tasty, plant-based meal or quick lunch idea.
Here are a few more reasons why you might like to make it.
- Balanced Meal – With a combination of carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats, tempeh on toast offers a well-balanced meal that can keep you feeling full, satisfied and energised.
- Flavour Kick – The combination of buttery avocado and salty chilli sauce provides a flavoursome and spicy kick to the toast. Tempeh is almost reminiscent of bacon and dukkah adds an aromatic depth and richness which makes the whole thing particularly appealing. If you like, add a few sweet onions for even more flavour.
- Nutrient-Rich Ingredients – Wholemeal or sourdough toast provides a good source of complex carbohydrates and fibre. Avocado is rich in healthy fats and vitamins, while tempeh is a great plant-based protein source. The chilli sauce and dukkah add a whole host of micronutrients.
- Plant-Based Protein – Tempeh is a fantastic source of plant-based protein, making it an excellent option for vegetarians and vegans alike. It’s also useful for those looking to incorporate more plant-based proteins into their diet.
- Quick and Easy – Tempeh toast is relatively quick and easy to prepare which makes it a convenient option for a delicious and satisfying meal. Whether you make it for breakfast, brunch, lunch or a light supper, it will be on the table in no time.
- Texture Contrast – The thin slices of fried tempeh add a satisfying crispness to the meal. This creates a delightful textural contrast to the creamy avocado, crunchy dukkah and hearty toast.
Tempeh On Toast
Tempeh on toast is an easy meal. There’s no need to marinade the tempeh, this is very much a quick and simple affair. But it’s so so good.
Avocado provides the rich and buttery bottom layer. Chilli gives heat, flavour and saltiness. Tempeh is the main event and gives substance, flavour and something to chew on. Dukkah or toasted seeds are the final flourish. The toast is crunchy, creamy, chewy but above all, delicious.
I often fry a few spring onions along with the tempeh for sweetness, which creates an even more enhance flavour profile.
Good wholesome bread is the foundation and provides fibre and carbohydrates as well as other much needed nutrients. Once toasted the bread provides a pleasing crunchy contrast to the toppings.
The tempeh fries whilst the bread is toasting which gives you time to prepare the avocado. You can smash the avocado with a little lime juice or lemon juice if you like. I just cut it into slices and spread it directly onto the toast.
Chilli sauce gives heat, flavour and saltiness. Use a mild, medium or hot variety according to taste. My recipe for homemade chilli sauce is amazing, if ever you should want to try it.
Add a few salad leaves or some chopped fresh herbs for an even healthier lunch.
With all the fibre in the wholemeal bread and avocado combined with the fermented tempeh, this recipe is great for gut health.
Ingredients
You only need five ingredients to make tempeh on toast. And one of those is the bread to make the toast. They’re all easy to get hold of and some of them you can make yourself.
Avocado
Avocado is a vegan’s best friend. It gives a rich, seductive mouthfeel and a mild, but unique and delicious flavour. Who needs butter when you can indulge in nutritious green avocado? It’s full of healthy fats and fibre as well as vitamins B, C, E and K. What’s more, it helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer. But beware, it’s quite calorific. (Ref: Healthline).
Long before avocado toast became a thing here in the UK, I was enjoying smashed avocado on bread, toast and pretty much everything else. I first came across the idea of using it instead of butter when wwoofing in New Zealand.
We worked on an avocado farm for a while and avocados were our staple diet. It was wonderful. What a revelation.
However, avocado isn’t for everyone and it’s not always easy to have a ripe one just when you need it. They are often quite expensive too. So there is a backup for this tempeh on toast recipe and that’s my easy peasy homemade vegan mayonnaise.
Bread
Wholemeal bread is way healthier than white bread. Although it’s high in carbohydrates, the body digests them slowly because of the fibrous bran and wheatgerm. These are removed from white bread. Wholemeal also contains many more vitamins and minerals.
Wholemeal sourdough is even better. The fermentation process makes it much easier to digest. Just ensure you’re buying true sourdough bread as there are many on the market that aren’t kosher. Always check the ingredients list. If it contains yeast, it’s not a true sourdough bread.
If you fancy having a go at making your own, I have an easy recipe for sourdough bread on Tin and Thyme. the starter is a rye one, as that’s the easiest to keep going, but you can add whatever type of flour to it that you like to make the dough. Or if sourdough really isn’t your thing try this malted wholemeal and rye loaf made with yeast.
Whether you choose wheat, rye or bread with added whole grains and/or seeds, go for wholemeal if you can.
Chilli Sauce
Even if you don’t like a lot of heat, chilli sauce adds so much flavour. You don’t have to use a hot sauce and you don’t need to use much of it, but it really makes a difference to this tempeh on toast.
We make our own chilli sauce from the chillies that we grow, but there are absolutely heaps of different ones out there. Some are healthier than others, though. Try to go for those that don’t have added sugar.
With this year’s crop of chillies, CT made a batch of fermented chilli. I love it. It tastes really fresh, has a a bright red colour, lovely flavour and isn’t as hot as the chilli sauce I make. Maybe the fermenting process breaks down some of that heat.
It’s also slightly sour from the fermentation and salty, so there’s no need to add any other salt element to the toast.
Dukkah
Dukkah adds the finishing touch to my tempeh on toast. It’s both aromatic, flavoursome and crunchy. You can buy it, but it’s ever so easy to make your own. Here’s my dukkah recipe if you want to have a go.
If you don’t have any dukkah to hand and don’t fancy making some, go with a few toasted seeds instead. Sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds are all good.
Tempeh
Fry thin slices of tempeh until crisp and it tastes almost like bacon. Packed with protein and gut healthy enzymes, tempeh is highly nutritious. It’s one of my go-to vegan proteins.
It’s now easy to buy here in the UK, though this is quite a recent phenomenon. You’ll find it in most supermarkets next to the tofu.
For more information on tempeh head to my post for marinated tempeh with roasted grapes and fennel.
How To Make Tempeh On Toast
This recipe makes two substantial slices of tempeh on toast. If you’re less greedy than me, you can halve the recipe, share the toast slices with someone else or pile everything on to one piece of toast.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions and quantities of ingredients used.
Step 1. Toast Bread
Pop the bread slices into the toaster or under the grill and toast to your liking. The difficulty is getting the toast ready just in time to top it with the cooked tempeh. You really want warm toast, not cold.
I tend to start toasting it just after I’ve added the tempeh to the pan.
Step 2. Fry Tempeh
Heat a frying pan up over a high heat. Add the oil and turn it down to a moderate heat.
Fry the tempeh slices until crisp and brown, then flip them over and fry the other side. It will take two to three minutes on each side.
Top Tip
If you like the idea of a bit of onion, you can fry a sliced spring onion (scallion) along with the tempeh, once you’ve turned it over. As the pan is hot, you don’t need to fry it for more than two minutes.
Step 3. Construct Toast
Whilst the tempeh is frying, peel the avocado and slice it. Lay the slices on top of the warm toast and spread to cover the toast or leave as they are.
If you like smashed avocado, by all means roughly mash it first with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice and a pinch of salt. However, that adds an extra step and additional washing up, so I prefer to spread it directly.
Spread the chilli sauce over the avocado, then lay the tempeh slices on top.
Finally, sprinkle with the dukkah or toasted seeds and spring onion slices, if using.
Eat your tempeh on toast whilst it’s crisp and warm.
Other Vegan Recipes For Things On Toast You Might Like
- Homemade beans on toast – quick and easy
- Minted broad bean spread – fresh and green
- Mushroom pâté – healthy and protein rich
- Roasted tomato and white bean spread – perfect for summer
- Tofu scramble – a great vegan substitute for scrambled eggs
And if you’re looking for more vegan lunch ideas, I have this 31 healthy vegan lunch recipes post to help you.
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you try tempeh on toast for brunch or lunch, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for vegan toast ideas?
Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.
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If you’d like more tempeh recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Tempeh On Toast. PIN IT.
Tempeh On Toast: Quick And Easy
Ingredients
- 2 slices bread wholemeal or sourdough
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 50 g tempeh thinly sliced
- ½ avocado medium size
- ½-1 tsp chilli sauce mild, moderate or hot, as you prefer
- 1 tsp dukkah or toasted seeds
- 1 spring onion (scallion) (optional) – finely sliced
Instructions
- Pop the bread into the toaster or under the grill and toast to your liking.2 slices bread
- Heat a frying pan up over a high heat. Add the oil and turn it down to a moderate heat. Fry the tempeh slices until crisp and brown, then flip over and fry the other side. It will take 2-3 minutes on each side. If you go with the spring onion, add the slices to the pan once you've turned the tempeh over, they only need a couple of minutes.1 tsp olive oil, 50 g tempeh, 1 spring onion (scallion)
- Whilst the tempeh is frying, peel the avocado and slice it. Lay the slices on top of the warm toast and spread to cover the toast or leave as they are.½ avocado
- Spread the chilli sauce over the avocado, then lay the tempeh slices on top.½-1 tsp chilli sauce
- Finally, sprinkle with the dukkah or toasted seeds and spring onion, if using.1 tsp dukkah
- Eat whilst crisp and warm.
Cindy says
Such a satisfying lunch! I can’t wait to make your Dukkah recipe so I can top it with it!
Choclette says
Oh yes, do make the dukkah Cindy. It keeps for ages in the fridge and is so useful for pepping up all sorts of things. Glad you enjoyed the tempeh on toast – even without the dukkah.
sherry says
crumbs. I haven’t had tempeh in 40 years! could be interesting to try again.
Choclette says
Wow, 40 years! That is a long time. I first tried tempeh about thirty years ago, but I have been eating it ever since.