Fall Favorite Maple-Mustard Tempeh Bowls

September 07, 2021

Dressing being poured on top of tempeh bowls with a spoon.

Hello lover. Like, wow, really, HELLO.

This salad is my absolute fall favorite, but also summer favorite, and winter favorite, and every season favorite.

It’s a bowl of feel-goodness that starts with kale massaged with avocado to make it nice and tender and delicious, a high pile of roasted sweet potato and roasty marinated maple-mustard tempeh, some sweet crunch and color from an apple, and a little something unexpected, salty, and briney from the sauerkraut.

I KNOW, I know, I know you – you think the sauerkraut is such a weird idea. I texted my sister excitedly about this recipe after I made it (she is vegan) and she was like, okay but um… no to the sauerkraut. People are not going to like the idea of it. I shall be ridiculed. I understand this.

But please at least try it before you vote me off the island – it adds saltiness and a little bit of that yummy funk that makes every bite that much more zippy and exciting.

Ingredients for maple mustard tempeh bowls. Each ingredient has text over the top in a purple bubble.

Tempeh All The Way

I am fairly new to tempeh (you too?) and do you know what? It is fabulous. Affordable, intriguing, sturdy, nutty, and chewy in a much more interesting way than tofu, and keeps me full all day long.

The Ingredient Details

Here’s what we have going on for our short ingredient list:

marinated tempeh
kale
sweet potato
apple
sauerkraut – yes, seriously
avocado

The marinade for the tempeh is so simple and so basic and yet so NEXT LEVEL for the sweet, slightly punchy, tangy flavor it gives to the entire bowl.

Maple mustard tempeh in a white bowl with a spoon.

Make This Bowls Come Together

Your sweet potatoes and tempeh get roasted up, your kale gets a nice massage with the avocado to really break it down and make it into something you’re actually excited to eat, and the crunchy apple and sauerkraut round out the flavor and crunch factor to make this bowl just a beautiful cornucopia of wholesome fall eating.

And – did I say this? – the tempeh lasts amazingly well as leftovers, so it works beautifully as an SOS meal because you can save the roasted sweet potatoes and tempeh and build yourself a nice lunch or dinner salad all week long.

Maple mustard tempeh bowls in a grey bowl.

Did I crown the whole thing with a little bit of a crunchy onion sprinkling? Yes I did, because that’s how I like to live my life, okay? Crunchy onion toppings are just a way of being for me right now.

If it’s possible to be obsessed with a salad / bowl / wholesome gang of vegan goodness, I am 100% there with this thing.

God bless food for being so wonderful. ♡

Maple mustard tempeh bowls in a grey bowl with a gold spoon. There's extra dressing and tempeh on the side and a blue napkin under the bowl.

Maple-Mustard Tempeh Bowls: FAQs

I can’t find tempeh. Will this work with tofu instead?

Absolutely! It would be delicious with tofu.

Will this keep as leftovers?

Definitely! This is actually a great recipe to meal prep and save for lunches throughout the week. Just keep your bowl ingredients separate from the dressing and drizzle on the maple-mustard goodness right before eating.

What kind of kale did you use here?

Curly kale, but dino (lacinato) kale would also work.

Prefer To Watch Instead Of Read?

Source notes: I’ve been on a YouTube recipe video bender lately, and Sweet Potato Soul has long been one of my favorite sources for fun vegan recipes and lifestyle videos. ♡ This recipe from Jenné was the one that inspired this recipe! Her salad includes a few more ingredients, and cooks the tempeh and the sweet potato separately. It’s gorgeous. In an effort to make this as doable and SOS-friendly as possible, I just scaled back on the ingredient list and roasted the tempeh and sweet potato together on the same pan.

Fall Favorite Maple-Mustard Tempeh Bowls

Author: Lindsay
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 4-6 servings

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Description

These tempeh bowls are a true fall favorite! Massaged kale, sweet potatoes, roasty marinated maple-mustard tempeh, crunchy apple, and the unexpected pile of briney sauerkraut.

Ingredients

Units

The Maple-Mustard Dressing:

1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup stone ground mustard
2–3 tablespoons soy sauce
2–3 tablespoons olive oil

The Bowl Stuff:

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 blocks tempeh, cubed
3–4 cups kale, cut into small pieces
1 avocado
1/2 cup sauerkraut
other toppings / add-ins: quinoa, crispy onions, pecans, apples, dried cranberries

Instructions

Video

Make the dressing and marinate tempeh: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Shake dressing ingredients in a jar. Marinate the tempeh in about half of the dressing for about 30 minutes, or just while the oven heats up.
Roast tempeh and sweet potato: Place marinated tempeh (with marinade) on a baking sheet. Add sweet potatoes to the other half of the baking sheet. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast for 25-30 minutes. When both are browned and roasted, toss the tempeh with a little more dressing so it soaks up lots of mapley-mustardy flavor.
Get the kale all yummy: Pro tip: place the kale in the same bowl that the marinated tofu was in so it can grab onto all the leftover marinade in the bowl. Massage the kale with a little bit more dressing and the avocado, so the avocado kind of smashes into the dressing and makes it tender and a little bit creamy.
Toss and serve: Toss up the roasted tempeh, sweet potato, kale, sauerkraut, in a big bowl with any other extras that you like. I mean, RIGHT?! It’s shockingly good.