This Nepalese Tempeh Choila, a vegan take on a popular Nepalese dish that usually contains meat, is spicy and fresh and plays well both as an appetizer, or a stuffing for tacos and rotis. Recipe takes under 20 minutes and is gluten-free and nut-free.
Nepalese cuisine has echoes of the cuisine of its mammoth neighbor, India, which is why you'll often find it served alongside Indian cuisine at restaurants. But for the adventurous and the enthusiastic, there are plenty of recipes that stand apart on their own, like Choila, a salad of vegetables mixed with broiled or boiled meat and tempered with simple spices.
What I love most about the Choila is its stark freshness. It's like biting into summer, with the sparkling flavors of lemon, onions, scallions and tomatoes dancing on your tastebuds. The tempeh, which I marinate in lemon and pepper and broil, adds more delicious flavor and texture.
But the best part of the Choila has got to be the tempering: fenugreek and turmeric. These two rather bitter spices, when fried in a little oil and then mixed with the other ingredients, add a sharp burst of flavor. I use fenugreek seeds often in my kitchen, but I was surprised by the technique used here: the fenugreek seeds are blackened before being added to the veggies. While you'd think this would make them even more bitter, the blackening actually appears to mellow down the bitterness and the seeds add a welcome and surprising crunch that's quite wonderful.
My Nepalese Tempeh Choila is not by any means claiming to be a traditional recipe, and I believe there are a million ways to make this dish, but I can promise you this: it's delicious, appetizing, and it is a recipe I'll be making again and again in my kitchen.
More yummy vegan appetizers
Nepalese Tempeh Choila
Ingredients
- 8 oz tempeh (cut into ½ inch cubes)
- 1 medium red onion (or 2 shallots, minced)
- 2 medium tomatoes (finely diced)
- 4 scallions (spring onions, trimmed, green and white parts finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½-inch knob ginger julienned
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed and chopped)
- 2 tablespoon cilantro (finely chopped)
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (mustard oil is traditional, but use any other oil of your chocie if you don't have this)
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
For tempeh marinade:
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Ground black pepper and salt to taste
Instructions
- Mix the tempeh with the marinade ingredients-- lemon, pepper and salt -- place in a baking dish, and broil at the high setting for 5-10 minutes or until the tempeh browns slightly at the top. Remove.
- Mix the chopped onions, tomatoes, scallions, ginger, garlic, black pepper, paprika, coriander leaves, and broiled tempeh cubes in a bowl.
- In a small saucepan, heat the oil. Add the fenugreek seeds and, as they start to blacken, add the turmeric. Remove from heat after a few seconds and pour over the veggies and tempeh.
- Mix well and squeeze more lemon juice if you wish. Add salt to taste. Serve at room temperature.
Mira
As a Nepali, you’re missing one of the most important flavours that Choila should have. The mustard oil.
Vaishali
Thanks for that tip. Mustard oil is not an easily available ingredient here, but I would love to try it with mustard oil the next time I make it.
Donna
Oops…forgot the rating!
Donna
This is really good! I’d been wanting new recipes with tempeh! We made your soft roti recipe also and used it to wrap some Choila along with salad ingredients and a bit of dressing. The salad ingredients were grated beets, romaine, sliced carrots, pumpkin seeds, couple kalamata olives, thin sliced sweet peppers. Thanks, great flavor!
Vaishali
So excited you made this--and the roti recipe! That sounds like an awesome wrap with the colorful salad. Thanks for the feedback--and the rating. Much appreciated. 🙂
Susan
So glad I found this tempeh recipe! It has great fresh flavor!! I just sampled it (several times;-)We are going to have it with whole wheat tortillas and some avocado and other fixings!! Just in time for warm weather!
Vaishali
So happy you enjoyed it, Susan!
Mita
I made this for an easy dinner yesterday and everyone enjoyed it, even the kids. We scooped it up into whole wheat tacos. So much flavor and so little work. Thanks for the recipe.
Vaishali
So happy you liked it, Mita! 🙂