Bring the flavors of your favorite takeout to your kitchen with this Takeout Orange Tempeh recipe. It's a vegetarian-friendly meal flavored to the top with orange, honey, and soy sauce, and complete with broccoli and snap peas!
The most delicious takeout tempeh right at home
Nothing is better than a cozy Friday night in with your favorite takeout and a movie. But when you can make that takeout-style dish right at home? Well, that just might be better.
This takeout orange tempeh recipe packs in the flavors of your favorite local dish. Though it tastes like orange chicken, it is instead made with tempeh for a vegetarian-friendly ingredient list. The flavors are brought together with orange zest, orange juice, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, garlic, and more.
Let's just say... it's a party for your taste buds. And if you'd like to learn more about tempeh and what it is, check out our What is Tempeh? guide!
Ingredients in takeout orange tempeh
Orange tempeh begins with a base of hearty ingredients including broccoli and snap peas. The flavor comes together when we add an orangey sauce made with none other than orange zest and orange juice!
Base
- Broccoli: Start with 12 oz of broccoli. You can use fresh or frozen.
- Snap peas: Then, include 4 oz of snap peas!
- Water: ½ cup of water will be just enough to steam the veggies.
- Avocado oil: 2 tablespoon of avocado oil will be used to cook the tempeh.
- Tempeh: As for the tempeh itself, you will need 16 oz, chopped into bite sized pieces.
Sauce
- Orange zest: First up for the sauce is the zest from 1 large orange.
- Orange juice: Save the orange after zesting the peel, as you will need ½ cup of fresh juice!
- Soy sauce: Next, add more flavor with ¼ cup of soy sauce.
- Rice wine vinegar: ⅓ cup of rice wine vinegar will add a nice bite to the sauce.
- Honey: Use 3 tablespoon of honey to add an all natural sweet flavor.
- Garlic: Now for the best part, garlic! Use 4 cloves of minced, or 1 teaspoon of powder.
- Ginger: Include 1 teaspoon of ground ginger for extra flavor.
- Red pepper flakes: ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes will add a nice bit of heat.
- Arrowroot powder: Finally, complete the sauce by adding 1.5 tablespoon of arrowroot powder. This will help thicken it up to the right consistency.
Tools needed to create this recipe
To create orange tempeh at home, you will need a large dutch oven, a stirring utensil, a glass measuring cup, and a whisk.
For measuring, you will need the following sized cups: ½ tsp, 1 tsp, ½ tbsp, 1 tbsp, ¼ cup, ⅓ cup, and ½ cup.
How to make takeout style orange tempeh
Whether this is your first or 100th time cooking with tempeh, you're in for an easy recipe!
To begin, add the broccoli, snap peas, and water to a large dutch oven. Steam over medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes or until fork-tender, and then drain. You may need a couple of extra minutes if cooking from frozen.
Add the avocado oil to the heated dutch oven.
Once the oil is hot, add the tempeh. Let cook for 6-8 minutes until browned.
While the tempeh cookies, add the orange zest, orange juice, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes to a glass measuring cup. Whisk together, and then mix in the arrowroot powder.
Add the broccoli and snap peas to the tempeh, and then pour the sauce on top.
Let the tempeh, veggies, and sauce reduce over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and soaked the veggies.
Benefits of tempeh
Tempeh is a go-to source of protein for plant-based eaters, but it's a great addition to diets including meat as well! Each serving contains a whopping 18 grams of protein, making it a very protein-dense source. Additionally, one serving also contains healthy amounts of fat, carbohydrates, fiber, and iron, and it supports everything from heart and bone health to insulin, inflammation, and blood pressure.
Storing leftovers
After cooking, takeout orange tempeh is good to eat for about 2 days. Keep it refrigerated in an airtight container to preserve the freshness and flavors!
If you liked this recipe, you'll want to try these!
Now that you've tried tempeh, I won't blame you if you're hooked! Here are some more tempeh-based recipes to try this week.
Photos by Moriah Sawtelle and recipe by Erin Antoniak.
Ingredients
- 12 oz broccoli
- 4 oz snap peas
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoon avocado oil
- 16 oz tempeh chopped into bitesize pieces
- Zest of 1 large orange
- ½ cup fresh orange juice
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ⅓ cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoon honey sub maple syrup for vegan
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flake
- 1.5 tablespoon arrowroot powder
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven, steam broccoli with snap peas and water over medium high heat for 6-8 minutes or until fork tender. Drain.
- Heat dutch oven over medium-high heat and add avocado oil.
- Once hot, add tempeh to oil. Let cook for 6-8 minutes until browned.
- While that’s cooking, in a glass measuring cup, add the zest of 1 orange, fresh orange juice, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, garlic, ground ginger, and red pepper flake. Whisk together. Mix in 1.5 tablespoon arrowroot powder.
- Add broccoli and snap peas back to tempeh, then pour sauce on top.
- Let tempeh, veggies, and sauce reduce over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened and soaked veggies. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Per serving. Nutrition is an estimate.
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Alyse says
This is so great!! I went vegan about a year ago and am still trying all the vegan alternatives to my favorite dishes. I did use maple syrup instead of honey to make it truly vegan 🙂 I used to get orange chicken at every Chinese place, and this definitely compares!! It’s delicious and even my meat eating fiancé liked it.
Erin says
Hi Alyse, so happy you both loved it!