Ginger Tempeh with Dandelion Greens and Yogurt
Crumbled tempeh browned with cumin seed, ginger, and green chile, folded through wilted dandelion greens and finished with cold yogurt, mint, and lemon.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Bitter greens cooked down hard with ginger and cumin are a northern Indian habit that I borrowed years ago and never gave back. Dandelion greens are the ones I use most, partly because they turn up cheaply all spring and partly because their bitterness is exactly the kind that heat and fat mellow rather than sharpen. Ten minutes in the pan takes them from aggressive to deep and slightly sweet, with just enough of an edge left to remind you what they are. If you have only ever eaten them cold in a salad, this changes them completely. I buy them in the biggest bunches I can find, since twelve ounces of leaves collapses to almost nothing in the pan.
Crumbling the tempeh rather than cubing it is deliberate. Torn by hand it comes apart in uneven craggy pieces, and all those broken faces brown into something nutty and almost meaty in the oil. It also means the tempeh and the greens end up thoroughly mixed rather than sitting side by side, so no forkful is only one thing. The whole spices go in first and stay whole, so you get pops of cumin and coriander all the way through rather than a uniform dusting of flavor. Two full tablespoons of grated ginger sounds like a lot until you taste it against greens this assertive, and then it sounds about right.
The yogurt at the end is the part people remember. It goes on cold, off the heat, in streaks rather than stirred in, so it stays thick and tangy against everything hot underneath. It also does something useful to the bitterness of the greens, rounding it out the way cream does with coffee. Mint and lemon land on top of that, and by then the bowl has gone from a plain pan of greens to something that tastes layered and considered without any extra work. I usually put the pan straight on the table with the yogurt already spooned across it and let everybody take it from there.
Ingredients
- 1 lb tempeh (two 8 oz blocks), crumbled into rough pieces with your hands
- 12 oz dandelion greens, thick stems trimmed and leaves cut into 2-inch lengths
- 3/4 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt, whisked smooth
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
- 1 green chile, such as serrano or jalapeno, minced
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds, coarsely crushed
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, from 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
- 1/4 cup mint leaves, torn
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Prepare the greens and the tempeh: Wash the dandelion greens well and shake them mostly dry, leaving a little water clinging to the leaves. Trim off any stems thicker than a pencil and cut the leaves into rough two-inch lengths. Crumble the tempeh into uneven pieces roughly the size of a thumbnail, using your hands rather than a knife so the faces stay ragged.
- Toast the whole spices: Heat the olive oil in a twelve-inch skillet over medium-high until it shimmers, then add the cumin seeds and the crushed coriander. They will crackle and go fragrant within twenty to thirty seconds and the cumin will darken a shade. Keep them moving so nothing catches, and pull the heat back if the pan is running hot.
- Brown the tempeh: Add the crumbled tempeh and the salt, spread it into an even layer, and leave it undisturbed for three minutes so the underside browns. Stir and cook three minutes more, until much of it is deep golden and the pan smells nutty. The ragged edges crisp first, which is what you are after.
- Add the aromatics: Push the tempeh to one side, add the onion, garlic, ginger, and green chile to the clear space with a little more room around them, and cook for two minutes until the onion is soft and translucent. Stir in the turmeric and black pepper and cook fifteen seconds more, until the pan turns gold, then toss everything together.
- Wilt the greens: Add the dandelion greens in three handfuls, letting each batch collapse before the next goes in, and toss for four to five minutes over medium heat. The water clinging to the leaves is all the moisture the pan needs. They are done when they are dark, glossy, and thoroughly mixed through the tempeh, with no bright green left.
- Finish cold over hot: Take the pan off the burner and add the lemon juice, tossing once. Spoon the yogurt over the top in thick streaks and do not stir it in. Scatter the mint and cilantro across the whole pan and bring it to the table so people can pull the yogurt through their own portion.
Variations
- Mustard seed and curry leaf: Add a teaspoon of black mustard seeds to the oil before the cumin and wait for them to pop, then throw in a small handful of fresh curry leaves. The pan smells completely different within seconds.
- Tofu in place of tempeh: Crumble a pound and a quarter of firm tofu into the pan and brown it the same way. It comes out softer and milder, so push the ginger and the chile a little further to compensate.
- Lentils alongside: Stir a cup of cooked brown lentils in with the greens for a heavier bowl with a softer texture running underneath the browned tempeh.
- Skip the dairy: Leave the yogurt off and double the lemon. The dish is sharper and more direct that way, and the greens come forward.
Storage & Leftovers
Store the skillet and the yogurt separately and this holds four days in the refrigerator. Kept apart, the tempeh stays firm and the greens stay dark and defined, and you get the cold-against-hot contrast again at every meal rather than only the first one. Mixed together and stored, everything goes uniformly pale and soft within a day.
Reheat the tempeh and greens in a dry skillet over medium-high for three or four minutes, stirring only once or twice so some of the tempeh can crisp again where it touches the metal. Add the yogurt, the herbs, and a fresh squeeze of lemon after it comes off the heat. A microwave works but leaves everything soft.
The tempeh and greens freeze for up to three months in flat sealed portions. The greens are already cooked down, so freezing costs them very little, and the tempeh comes back well from a hot pan. Do not freeze the yogurt, which separates and turns grainy. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and add fresh yogurt and herbs when you serve it.
Notes & Tips
- Crumble by hand: Torn pieces have ragged faces that brown and crisp, while knife-cut cubes have smooth ones that mostly just heat through. It takes a minute and it changes the texture of the finished pan.
- Leave water on the leaves: The greens go into the pan damp from washing, and that water is what steams them down. A completely dry pan of dandelion greens scorches before it wilts.
- Add the greens in batches: Twelve ounces will not fit at once. Three handfuls, each going in as the last collapses, keeps the pan hot enough to cook rather than stew.
- Yogurt goes on last and cold: Off the heat, in streaks, unstirred. That contrast against the hot greens is most of what makes this dish memorable, and stirring it through evens everything out to one temperature and one flavor.
- Keep the cumin seeds whole: They pop against your teeth all the way through the bowl. Ground cumin gives you the same aroma spread flat, and the surprise is gone.
- Trim the thick stems: Anything wider than a pencil stays tough no matter how long it cooks. Strip those out and keep the tender upper stems, which soften nicely.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Tempeh, dandelion greens, and yogurt come at this bowl from three directions and meet in the middle. The tempeh brings the protein and the iron, the greens bring fiber and a great deal of calcium, and the yogurt adds more protein and calcium while cooling the whole thing down.
- Tempeh is whole soybeans held together by fermentation, which is why it browns like something solid and carries fiber that most protein foods simply do not have. That fermentation also makes the iron and calcium in the beans a little more available to the body.
- Dandelion greens are one of the more mineral-dense leaves in the produce aisle, carrying calcium, iron, and a striking amount of vitamin A, and their bitterness is the taste of those compounds rather than a flaw to cook out. Wilting them in fat mellows the edge and keeps the substance.
- Greek yogurt spooned over the hot pan brings its own protein and calcium along with the live cultures that made it, and the tang does something the lemon cannot, coating the greens and rounding their bitterness the way nothing else in the kitchen quite manages.
- Whole cumin and coriander seeds toasted in oil are the first thing you taste and the last thing you notice, popping against your teeth throughout. Turmeric bloomed alongside them carries curcumin, which needs fat to travel, and the black pepper in the pan is not only there for heat.
- As you eat, pull the cold yogurt through the hot greens a little at a time and notice how the bitterness shifts with each spoonful, and let a dish with this much going on hold your attention long enough to feel when you are satisfied.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find dandelion greens?
Look for long jagged bunches in the greens section, often near the chard and the escarole, and choose ones with firm stems and no yellowing. Farmers markets carry them heavily in spring, when they are at their most tender. If yours look tough and mature, trim the stems more aggressively and give the leaves an extra two minutes in the pan.
They are still too bitter for me.
Two things fix it. Cook them longer, since bitterness fades steadily with time in fat and heat, and be generous with the yogurt and the lemon, which both round it off. You can also blanch the leaves for a minute in boiling water and drain them well before they go in the pan, which takes the edge off before you start.
Can I use a different green?
Yes. Escarole is the closest match and behaves almost identically. Mustard greens bring a sharper, more peppery bitterness, kale is milder and needs another minute, and collard ribbons are the mildest of the four. Any of them works with the same spices and the same yogurt finish.
Will the yogurt split in the hot pan?
Not if it goes on off the heat and stays in streaks. Stirred into a pan still on the burner it will curdle and go grainy, especially a nonfat yogurt with little fat to protect it. Spooning it over at the last second and letting people fold it in themselves solves the problem entirely.