Say this aloud 10 times.

It seems like you were fans of the one picture in my last post.

Noted.

Today, I have a pretty cool recipe for you. Half of the reason I blog is to (hopefully) inspire you to cook healthy meals. The other half is so I can experiment with stuff and tell myself that it's not a humongous waste of time.

Luckily for you, this post is a product of some successful experimentation! I love when that happens.

I don't know about you, but the only reason I even know about hoisin sauce is because I used to stare at the bottles at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant and repeatedly read the label aloud. "Hoisin." It's too hilarious not to say 10 times. Or more.

Bok Choy with Hoisin Sauce

[Hoisin sauce recipe lightly adapted from here]

Ingredients:

• 1 bok choy
• 1/2 block tempeh
• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons virgin coconut oil
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce (low-sodium preferred)
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seed butter (or peanut butter)
• 1/2 tablespoon honey
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/6 cup water
• optional: chili paste

For the hoisin sauce, start by mashing up the clove of garlic. Anything that remotely resembles a mortar and pestle will work. I used the flat end of an ice cream scoop and a bowl. 

Don't judge. It worked! 

Then transfer the mashed garlic into a larger bowl and add the soy sauce, vinegar, coconut oil, honey, and chili paste. Stir. Then add the sunflower seed butter. Using a whisk, try to make the mixture as homogeneous as possible. It eventually does come out quite smooth! Finally, stir in the black pepper.

I don't suggest taking a spoon and eating it. This sauce is concentrated! Really tasty though.

To prepare the bok choy, first rinse it really well.

Then chop it up. Be warned, you will have a lot of cups of chopped bok choy.

While you're at it, chop the 1/2 block of tempeh into small cubes. 

In a large skillet or pot, heat the vegetable oil over medium. Throw in the tempeh cubes. Before they begin to stick to the skillet, add a few splashes of water and about 3 spoonfuls of the hoisin sauce. Stir the tempeh until it is all coated with the sauce.

Then add all of the bok choy. If it doesn't fit, add half and wait until it shrinks a bit to add the rest. I also added a small drizzle of vegetable oil.

Stir several times so that all of the bok choy gets cooked. Then add the remainder of the hoisin sauce (and more water if necessary). Stir another few times to ensure that the sauce is evenly distributed. At this point, the bok choy should have dramatically decreased in size.

Cover and let cook over low heat for just a few more minutes.

Serve with brown rice.

This is a filling meal!! With the combination of nut butter, greens, tempeh, and brown rice, this dish should keep you satiated for quite awhile. No snacking after dinner necessary!

Except if you need to complete your meals with dessert. I feel ya. Wholeheartedly. I will soon show you a super decadent yet nutritious dessert! Hold onto your seat belts! (Or should I say regular belts? Har har har).