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Pan-Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh

4.5

(23)

PanRoasted Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh recipe
Photograph by Emma Fishman. Food Styling by Pearl Jones. 

The real star of this vegan dinner is the smoky chipotle oil created by frying chipotles in adobo: It gets used to roast sweet potatoes; to fry tempeh crumbles, which become bacon-y in the process; and even used to dress the apple-cilantro salad. Win, win, win. —Ali Slagle, recipe developer and cookbook author

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What you’ll need

Recipe information

  • Yield

    4 Servings

Ingredients

2

shallots, thinly sliced

2

chipotle chiles in adobo, coarsely chopped

1

8-oz. block tempeh, crumbled into pieces no bigger than a chickpea

½

cup grapeseed or vegetable oil

Kosher salt

4

medium sweet potatoes (about 1½ lb.), scrubbed, halved lengthwise

1

small crisp apple (such as Pink Lady or Honeycrisp), cored, coarsely chopped

Zest and juice of ½ lime

⅓

cup coarsely chopped cilantro

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Place a rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°. Heat shallots, chipotle chiles, tempeh, and oil in a large cast-iron skillet over high until oil is sizzling, then reduce heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots and tempeh are golden brown, 8–10 minutes.

    Step 2

    Drain tempeh mixture in a fine-mesh sieve set over a large heatproof bowl. Wipe out and reserve skillet. Transfer tempeh mixture to paper towels; season with salt. Let cool (it will crisp as it cools).

    Step 3

    Add sweet potatoes to bowl with drained oil and season with salt; turn to coat. Arrange sweet potatoes cut side down in reserved skillet; set bowl with remaining oil aside. Roast sweet potatoes, undisturbed, until golden brown and tender, 25–30 minutes.

    Step 4

    Meanwhile, add apple, lime zest and juice, and cilantro to reserved bowl with oil and stir gently to coat; season apple salad with salt.

    Step 5

    To serve, transfer sweet potatoes to a platter. Spoon tempeh mixture over and top with apple salad.

Explore Bon AppétitDinnerMainVeganVegetarianEasyQuickChipotleChileVegetableSweet PotatoPotatoTempehAppleFruitRoastWeeknight Meals
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Reviews (23)

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  • The other reviews are spot-on: It’s a moderately tasty dish, but lots of work for the outcome. Tempeh doesn’t get crispy, despite using more oil than I’ve ever used in a single meal. Tempeh doesn’t really pick up the smoky flavor. Not enough tempeh for 4 servings. Apple salad is delish! So I’m going to try this again with 2 blocks of tempeh, 1/2 can chipotles with the adobo sauce (or maybe even a whole can), and roasting it all on sheet pans instead of pan frying. Fingers crossed!

    • Eak

    • Rochester, NY

    • 7/11/2024

  • This was fantastic! Based on comments re: tempah not getting crispy, I steamed it for 10 minutes (also helps take out bitterness) before breaking into crumbles and frying. Turned out perfectly. The apple slaw is a MUST. Will make again.

    • Margie

    • Indianapolis, IN

    • 5/14/2024

  • My first go at tempeh (trying to be healthy) and I was very pleased. I thought I had a can of chiptoles but started cooking and it wasn't there so used guajillo and some penzeys chile powder. I found myself snacking on the delicious tempeh bits before dinner. Will definitely make again

    • Anonymous

    • phoenix

    • 3/16/2023

  • I enjoyed the flavor of this dish, but I make home made crispy shallots and they take a little longer to make and require more oil than this recipe calls for, so when mine did not crisp up I wasn't surprised. I put them on a parchment lined baking sheet and put them in the oven with my sweet potatoes for between 5-10 min. This helped to crisp both the shallots and the tempeh. I also added a good amount of the adobo sauce to the skillet when cooking the shallots and tempeh, knowing this was the "bacon" flavor mentioned in the description Since I read the reviews before I made the dish I used three shallots rather than two to ensure there was enough to go around. Other than that, no tweaking was necessary.

    • Carolynn Montgomery

    • Los Angeles, Ca.

    • 2/13/2023

  • Disappointed. Looks better in the picture than it was. Took a moderate amount of effort. Won't make again.

    • Jhawkm84

    • 12/11/2022

  • Wow, delicious! What an extraordinary combination of flavours. I think this is my favourite recipe to date. I wasn’t at all sure what it was going to be like when I was cooking it, and my tempeh wasn’t especially crisp, but it all worked together anyway. I found the tempeh to sweet potato ratio was right for me.

    • Jan T

    • Sydney, Australia

    • 8/5/2022

  • The Flavors were good. I didn't have really much oil come off the tempeh mixture and my tempeh was sort of crisped. Not sure I would go through this effort again.

    • Cook

    • Rye, NY

    • 3/21/2022