Tempeh- solved.

Have you tried Tempeh? We have. It's usually in the "special" refrigerator section with the tofu and numerous attempts at meat substitution. It looks interesting, more body than tofu, and more conventional than Seitan (about which we'll have much to say soon). So of course, we tried it. What is it? Well the answer, like the answer to most questions, can be found on the Wikipedia. But for us, the bigger questions has always been, what to do with it.
The problem: Tempeh is much more dense than Tofu, and so seems perfect for grilling/frying. The problem is that it is so dense that it will reject any type of marinade or grilling sauce that comes its way. You end up with a cooked piece of bare Tempeh, which can be OK, but somehow, you feel like you must be missing soething. After all, it's in the supermarket, people must be able to do something with it, right.
The answer to this less than earth-shattering mystery comes from our new bible, the Veganomicon. Simple. Bring a put of water to a boil. Cut the Tempeh in half lengthwise (to give two squares) and then cut each square on the diagonal to creat a total of four triangles. Boil the triangles for 10 minutes. They'll puff up slightly, and be ready to absorb whatever marinade you have or prefer (we make a soy-based smokey marinade from the Veganomicon, but you'll have to buy it to get that one (and you should definitely buy it). Try it with regular barbecue sauce and grill the Tempeh squares (brown them good). It will finally make sense, tasty, with lots of body, and a nice "protein course" to match with other tasty sides.

Easy. Boil it for 10 minutes first!