Tempeh-Broccolini-Kale with Avocado Salad and Thin Crispy Crackers (No Added Fat)

Thanksgiving was great last week. We had 122 people at our pre-Thanksgiving on Monday and 622 at Thanksgiving. All three evening news programs covered our Thanksgiving event. This was probably the smoothest Thanksgiving we've had with minimal lines. People loved the food!

Often, we get away for a long weekend right after Thanksgiving, and we did just that this time, enjoying a relaxing visit to Wilmington, NC, about 2 1/2 hours away. We always like visiting Tidal Creek Coop there and stopping at Eden's Vegetarian Restaurant enroute (on the way back this time). Today, I cooked with parsnip in the pressure cooker for the first time, and made a tempeh-broccolini-kale vegetable dish.

Ingredients

• 3 ounces tempeh cut into 3/8" cubes
• 1 broccolini, top 1" and then 2nd 1" cut across, rest of stems composted
• 1/3 head kale, stems composted and leaves roughly hand cut into 3/4" squares
• 1 parsnip and 1 carrot, each cut into 3/8" slices with wider slices halved
• 1 large shallot cut into approximately 1/4"x5/8" slices
• 1t ginger finely diced
• 1T chickpea (or other kind) miso
• 1/2 cup water

Process

1. I put all of the ingredients into my Instant Pot pressure cooker and cooked at high pressure for 3 minutes.
2. After the pressure cooking and when I was ready, I slowly released the pressure and removed the top, and served.

I also made a simple avocado - tomato - shallot salad; I wanted to mix in some lemon juice to delay browning of the avocado, but we were out of lemon and lime, so I used a bit of apple cider. I brought back from the coop in Wilmington a new Crunchmaster cracker that has plenty of taste but only 3g of fat per 12 crackers (I served three crackers apiece, so feel comfortable labeling this dish as no added fat), and included this as well.

Results

We all enjoyed dinner. The main course had a good substantial feel and taste. The parsnips were good pressure cooked.

Ideas for the future

I couldn't add it because I was cooking for my Dad, who doesn't eat garlic, but some garlic would go well with the avocado as well as with the main course.