Curried Cauliflower and Tempeh Bowl
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Published Apr 19, 2023, Updated Sep 05, 2023
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This vegan curried cauliflower and tempeh bowl cooks up on one pan and is packed with flavor! It’s easy to whip up, making it the perfect meal for busy weeknights.
I first posted this curried cauliflower and tempeh bowl back in 2011, which is crazy to think about!
I updated the recipe a bit and I have to say this new version is sooo much better! It combines maple balsamic tempeh with curried cauliflower all roasted on one pan, which makes this dish a breeze to whip up!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Comes together in one pan. Yay for less dishes!
- Once the tempeh is marinated this dish cooks up in about 30 minutes!
- Vegan, dairy-free + gluten-free.
- Packed with tons of flavor!
Ingredients Needed
- tempeh – the plant-based protein source of this recipe! I love Lightlife tempeh. It’s organic, GMO-free and easy to find at mainstream stores. I gravitate towards the Three Grain variety because it is the mildest in terms of taste, but I like the Original, Garden Veggie, Wild Rice and Flax too!
- maple balsamic marinade – a delicious savory, slightly sweet marinade for the tempeh that combines maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, avocado oil (or olive oil), tamari (or soy sauce or coconut aminos), garlic and a pinch of salt.
- cauliflower – roasted to create a tender, slightly caramelized texture that complements the tempeh.
- red onion & garlic – adds a delicious savory flavor to the bowl.
- spices – ground cumin, curry powder, ground coriander, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper.
- raisins & fresh basil – used as a garnish to top off this bowl.
How to Make
Cut tempeh: Remove tempeh from package and chop into small triangles by cutting the tempeh in half widthwise. Cut each half in a star pattern to get 16 mini triangles per package of tempeh, 32 triangles total.
Marinate tempeh: In a small bowl combine maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, tamari, oil and minced garlic. Add tempeh triangles into a shallow dish with a large surface area, pour maple balsamic marinade over the tempeh, toss to coat and let tempeh marinate in the fridge for 1 – 24 hours. Stir the mixture a couple times while marinating, if possible.
Prepare cauliflower: While tempeh is marinating, combine cauliflower florets, red onion, garlic, olive oil and spices in large bowl and mix to combine.
Roast: Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking pan with parchment paper. Add cauliflower to one half of prepared baking sheet and marinated tempeh to the other half. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until cauliflower is tender and cooked to your liking. If you want your tempeh and cauliflower to be a little crispy broil for 3-4 minutes, but watch closely so they don’t burn!
Serve: Remove from heat. Garnish with fresh basil and raisins and serve with a whole grain like brown rice, quinoa or cauliflower rice.
How to Serve
This dish is great on its own! If you want to add more substance, I recommend serving it over brown rice, quinoa, cauliflower rice or greens. As a volume eater, I typically serve this with the extra base just so I leave the meal feeling really satisfied!
How to Store Leftovers
This recipe stores really well. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. To reheat, I like to pop it back in the oven for a few minutes, but the microwave will work if you’re in a rush as well.
More Tempeh Recipes
- Slow Cooker Vegan Sweet and Sour Tempeh
- Maple Mustard Tempeh Bowls
- One Pan Tempeh Butternut Squash Bake
- Tempeh Veggie Burger
- Tempeh Tikka Masala
- Breakfast Sandwich with Tempeh Bacon
- Grilled BBQ Tempeh Skewers
- Tempeh Bacon
- Blackened Tempeh Salad
- Maple Balsamic Tempeh Bowls
Be sure to check out all of the tempeh recipes as well as the full collection of vegan recipes on EBF.
Curried Cauliflower and Tempeh Bowl
Ingredients
Tempeh
- 2 8 oz packages tempeh
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons avocado or olive oil
- 3 Tablespoons low sodium tamari, soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Salt, to taste
Cauliflower
- 1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets
- ½ medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
- Remove tempeh from package and chop into small triangles by cutting the tempeh in half widthwise. Cut each half in a star pattern to get 16 mini triangles per package of tempeh, 32 triangles total.
- In a small bowl combine maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, tamari, oil and minced garlic.
- Add tempeh triangles into a shallow dish with a large surface area, pour maple balsamic marinade over the tempeh, toss to coat and let tempeh marinate in the fridge for 1 – 24 hours. Stir the mixture a couple times while marinating, if possible.
- When tempeh is done marinating, reheat oven to 400°F and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Combine cauliflower, red onion, garlic, olive oil and spices in large bowl and mix to combine.
- Add cauliflower to one half of prepared baking sheet and marinated tempeh to the other half. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until cauliflower is tender and cooked to your liking. If you want your tempeh and cauliflower to be a little crispy broil for 3-4 minutes, but watch closely so they don’t burn!
- Remove from heat. Garnish with fresh basil and raisins. Serve with a whole grain like brown rice, quinoa or cauliflower rice if desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I haven’t had any really great experiences with thai food, but I think I might love japanese food!
and I’m with ya girl — I just had some greek yogurt w/ chia seeds. It’s nearly 11:30 at night, and I think I was just pacing around bored and my mouth hadn’t seen food since 7. I’m not beating myself up over it either, I mean, it’s not like it was a pint of Ben & Jerry’s (which is okay too sometimes ;)) but I wasn’t hungry either!
I am so bad at eating out of boredom! It’s terrible. I am all about health foods and I am very good at eating healthy during set meals, but then a few hours later I have a raging snack craving for no good physical reason. Haha. Oh well. As long as we see our problem and try to fix it, right? It could be worse! Anyways, my favorite ethnic food is vegetable coconut korma with basmati rice and some naan or roti. It’s vegan, and it’s one of the meals I show to omnivore friends/family to get them to see how delicious vegan food can be. I live in a small town and there is this Indian restaurant that is (literally) attached to a Sinclair gas station, but it is INCREDIBLE. I’ve tried the same dish at high-end, expensive Indian restaurants in swanky areas, and they haven’t been nearly as good.
I love eating different ethnic food! Growing up, Latin inspired dishes were the ones we ate the least but now, thanks to living in argentina and having a Dominican boyfriend (whose mom makes the BEST beans!) i eat latin dishes the most!
I *personally* dont think that eating at night is a problem. I get a certain amount of calories and the only thing meal spacing affects for me, is my energy level. But if its 9 at night and i still have 300 calories, you better believe that i’m going to eat something:):):) The problem really is boredom eating throughout the day. Mindless munching (normally on junk) when im not hungry.
Why dont you allow yourself to have something light at night like a piece of fruit. So you still get the activity of eating and dont feel left out or tempted to eat something else and your body gets a little bit of energy but you wont feel stuffed when you get to bed!
I love ethic cuisine but I’m always hesitant to play with it because I think it’s just so much better left to the experts. But this tempeth recipe does sound delicious. Maybe I should give it a try.
This recipe is amazing! I still need to try tempeh though…I have been wanting to forever! 🙂
I love Thai and Japanese food as well! That is strange that their summer rolls didn’t come in the thin rice paper. I love traditional summer rolls!
We posted similar things yesterday…too funny! Great minds think alike… lol
http://thehinzadventures.blogspot.com/2011/08/cauliflower-and-chickpea-stew-with.html
I’ve done the same thing (eat when not hungry because it’s there) many times. When I slip-up, my strategy is similar to yours- I just make a healthy choice at the next opportunity.
I can’t choose just one favorite type of ethnic food! I love Japanese (seaweed salad omg), Thai (peanut sauce= heaven), Indian (the spicier, the better!), and Middle Eastern food (HUMMUS!!). Also anything Mediterranean-inspired (it must involve olive oil and/or seafood) has me on board.
I have the late night eating problem too, though lately I’ve been keeping it under pretty good control. My suggestion is to suck on a piece of candy or brush your teeth after your evening snack/dessert so you’re not tempted to eat again. Focusing on another activity when you’re done (blogging, cleaning, etc.) will keep your mind off of the munchies!
Oh I definitely struggle with the snacking thing. I don’t know why I eat when I’m not hungry and although my snacks are generally healthy – nut butters, hummus, crackers, rice cakes – I still don’t NEED them. When I have these trip-ups I try to evaluate the rest of my day prior to the snacking. Did I restrict my calories too much? Did I have a really hard workout that left my body wanting more food? Did I need more protein today? More often then not, there’s a reason for my craving and if I identify it I can keep a look out for the same problem in the future. That way, I’ll be sure to up my protein or have a healthy snack after a hard workout to keep my hands off the late-night munchies later.
Hands down Japanese easily. And remember tomorrow is another day!
Blame it on the boys! My husband’s snacks are typically the downfall of my diet too.
My first comment here~ Love the blog.
There is much to be said for this. Fortunately Isaac seems to generally be supportive and healthy as well! For many women (and men) trying to be healthy, significant others greatly influence outcomes. Psychology today had a good article on it:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201108/how-do-your-relationships-affect-your-health/in-sickness-and-in-health
I’ve never thought to combine tart + pb frozen yogurt, usually I keep the tart + fruity flavors together and all the other chocolate/creamy ones together but, that combo sounds weirdly delicious right now! It’s so hard to pick just one fav ethnic food, but probably Thai. It just slightly edges out Indian for me.
I love your impromptu edamame salad! Yum!
http://mylessseriouslife.blogspot.com/
I love Thai food…however I always order the exact same thing where ever we go 🙂 Oops…I’ll have to work on that! Indian food is something I’ve always been afraid to try at home. Maybe I will give this a shot!
My husband and I love Indian food! We tried it for the first time about a year ago and fell in love! so good.
Evening snacking is my downfall too, but I usually don’t beat myself up about it–I’m usually hungry at night!
My favorite ethnic cuisines are Japanese and Mexican!
I saw this post today and was excited to see a cauliflower recipe! I actually made the roasted one instead that you linked to, but added the raisins and tempeh from this and left out the peas and cilantro because I didn’t have them around. Super yummy! As for portion control, I’m currently trying to stop myself from eating the whole thing!
LOVE Japanese, cuban/spanish and mexican food!
cumin and cauliflower go SO well together. always
I don’t know what it is about tempeh and tofu, but I’m so scared to try them. What’s the worst that can happen!? I just have to do it.
yes! have been eating curried cauliflower and broccoli for the whole summer! so. delicious. 🙂
Oh my goodness that sounds really good! I seriously want this right now lol. I never went to Thai Diner Too.. I’ve heard a lot of people raving about it, but my step-dad said he went once and described to me and why he was disappointed. He said it wasn’t as fresh and didn’t seem to have the same idea that Thai food usually has. Which I guess hence the word “diner” in the name.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Indian food and Thai food is a runner-up 🙂 As for late-night snacking… I do get hungry at night, but not terribly so, so I just eat a little snack. Perhaps you just need to do things that will take your mind off of food? Say if you eat out of boredom or convenience just step away from the kitchen or whatever is making you think about food 🙂
XOXO!!!
mm that curry dish looks amazing! I’ve been on a curry kick lately. Your food at Thai Diner Too looks good! I’ll have to check it out soon! I really like Tip Thai on staples mill – it’s MSG free and you can get brown rice with your meal.
made the Curried Cauliflower with Tempeh last night for dinner…served it over barely…was a fully satisfying and yummy meal!! thanks for posting! can’t wait for lunch, i love leftovers 🙂
keeper recipe for sure…
i also practice the ‘no eating after 8 pm’ rule…
i used this recipe as inspiration last night – turned out great! love your blog
http://bugontherun.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/rest-of-week-recap-new-curry-recipe/
I made this for my husband and I tonight and it was delicious! We gobbled it up. I highly recommend you try this recipe.