Tempe Penyet (Smashed Tempeh With Sambal) Recipe (2024)

Every tempeh dish is better if you start with great tempeh! Commercially produced American tempeh is usually much denser and more bitter than Indonesian tempeh. Either simmering American tempeh in boiling water for 10 min or brining it in very salty water for the same amount of time helps the tempeh fluff up and reduces the bitterness. There are small batch tempeh like Barry’s (in NYC) that better match the Indonesian stuff.

I've found that steaming the tempeh slices prior to marinating them helps the marinade to absorb better.

Seriously? “3/4 cup plus two tablespoons of water”?Next time try “about a cup of water” and save some ink.

Any thoughts about using a store bought sambal in tread of homemade? Would that work for this recipe?

An authentic tempeh penyet would have a much spicier sambal. In addition to the medium spicy cabe merah (cayenne), you would use almost as many of the hotter cabe rawit (birds eye chilis). Many Americans would find this too hot, but if you want to try it the authentic way, include 8 cabe rawit in your sambal.

(Half) Indonesian here! In my opinion, Bango is the indispensable brand for Kecap Manis, but if you want to make your own in a pinch from readily available ingredients, you can boil 1 cup soy sauce with ½ cup brown sugar (substituted for palm sugar, which is a little harder to find).

Has anyone prepared the dish with jarred sambal?

Sambal is a condiment that goes with everything! Dollop it over eggs for breakfast, use it instead of chilli oil with pizza or eat it with any curry, stir-fry, noodles or rice dish!

My first foray into tempeh, and I had not yet read the helpful notes on streaming or boiling. Still, my results were scrumptious. My highly skeptical, tofu-averse husband deemed it a winner. My only complaint, as I usually have, is that the recipe took me well longer than indicated.

Thin rectangles is the best way to describe it!

This is such a complex and well flavored dish. Worth all the prep work that goes into it. I highly recommend!

I boiled the tempeh first which made the taste nuttier. I used commercial Olek Sambal but added it to sauteed shallots and cored sliced Roma tomatos and green pepper after I removed the Tempeh from the frying pan. I let it all cook and adjusted the sambal to local tastes. I pressed the tempeh into the mixture and let it marry. I used English cucumbers and tossed them in rice vinegar. I found a commercial dark sweet soy and drizzled that on the tempeh with some lime . Very good!

No way was this 30 min. The chopping alone was 30min. Next time I’ll put it all in the food processor.

This was very tasty. I would add additional sambal to make it saucier.

I added sliced Okra to the Sambal with the other ingredients since I had it in the fridge. Worked great.

Any suggestions on how long to marinade the Tempe?

Only use three seranos

I made this with pre-made Sambal instead, and it was awesome, but really spicy! I cooked the jarred Sambal a bit to toast it, and steamed the tempeh before marinading. It really needed the cucumbers and sweet sauce to calm it a bit. I soaked the cucumbers in rice vinegar first, and used a lot of lime.

I tried this with Sambal Olek, the pre made jarred sambal. It was really good, spicy!! I’m not sure how it was compared to the recipe. I browned the Sambal Olek a little, and I steamed the tempeh before marinating. It was delicious, but I’m not sure how it compares to the one listed here. I’m going to soak the cucumbers in rice vinegar next time- this was unbalanced- too much heat without enough balance of citrus or sweet.

This was a great success, a dish that gets better with every bite. If you love heat, go all in on the 10 hot peppers, but I used 2 dried cayenne and one fresh jalapeño and that gave it a lovely warmth without searing heat. Onions were a decent substitute for the shallots. Frying the tempeh was messy but worth it; I wonder if baking them would work? Anyhow, kudos to Lara Lee for bringing this wonderful dish to us.

Really good. Took me more than the estimated time to cook and had trouble finding the peppers.

My husband and I really loved this dish. Followed the recipe (almost) as written, subbed brown rice for white rice and made the kepap manis dupe from soy sauce and brown sugar. The flavors are bold and well balanced. I loved the crispy texture of the tempeh, which is something I’ve found difficult to achieve with tofu. All the slicing was definitely a labor of love but I would absolutely make this again.

have made this twice, both times neglecting to read the recipe all the way through to the end and it was terrific anyways. Eventually I'll remember the rolling pine, lime juice and cucumber. Nice weeknight meal, hard to go wrong with shallots and fresh tomatoes. I'd never used tempeh before this; the stuff I bought was pre-cooked and it didn't seem right to marinate in a lot of water, so I skipped the water. Will look for raw(?) next time I'm in the store, maybe try the water next time.

As an Indonesian I can confirm this dish recipe is good! I did mine with Tofu cubes instead and it was delicious! <3

So tasty. I made this over two days. On day 1, I made the sauce. It easily took me 15 minutes to chop. I’m not sure who does the math on these recipes, but it definitely is not a 30 minute meal. Nevertheless, I was glad to find a new way to make tempeh.