Guest Chef Seitan and Tempeh Prep with Asparagus, Vimala's Black Chickpeas, Salad

I'm delighted that Duke University's Nasher Museum (contemporary art museum) asked me to be one of three guest chefs this summer; my vegan meal is this coming Thursday. I spent much of the afternoon working with their head chef today, including making some walnut (substituting for macadamia nut, which we'll have on Thursday) crusted blackened tempeh, carrot ginger soup, and a jerk seitan (my menu, with some corrections to be made, is available online). The seitan that they sourced didn't look great, and in fact was okay but I'd much prefer to use another product; I'm glad we tried it out today. So, I came home with some extra tempeh and seitan.

On Thursday night after my new advanced photography class that I am teaching, we went out to one of my favorite restaurants, "better than homecooking" Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe, and have some leftovers. I used the black chickpeas from that meal. I cooked some asparagus, chopped into thirds, with a little bit of olive oil, and mixed the asparagus with the tempeh and seitan. A nice, fresh salad rounded out the meal.