Teriyaki Tribulation

An alert blogger recently pointed out that the teriyaki sauce component of the Tempeh Teriyaki on page 296 in 1000 Vegan Recipes was too sour. It’s easy to see why: the recipe calls for 1/4 cup lemon juice and just 1 tablespoon sugar. I checked my original recipe test notes, and it listed “2 tablespoons sugar” (not 1). Just to be sure, I made the sauce recently using 2 tablespoons of sugar and it tasted just as I had intended — not too sweet, and still a little on the tart side, but in a good way. So, if you have the book, please change the sugar amount in that recipe to read “2 tablespoons sugar” not “1.”

Of course, if you prefer a very sweet teriyaki sauce, then you can add even more sugar to suit your taste. The best way to make sure it (or most any recipe, for that matter) tastes the way you like it is to observe a cardinal cooking rule: taste it as you’re making it.

By the way, for a yummy (and sweeter/fruitier) variation on this sauce, you can substitute orange or mango juice for the lemon juice (adding sugar to taste). Try it with baked, grilled, or sautéed tofu, tempeh, or seitan. (I used tofu this time).

That recipe will be corrected for the next reprint of the book, as will the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies, on page 428 where it calls for “1/2 cup vegan margarine” — it should, instead, call for “1 cup” ( “/2” was somehow added during the editing process). Once you make the correction, be sure to make some of those cookies — they’re so good!

A word about typos: All books have typographical errors, so it’s not unusual to find a few, especially in a book with more than 600 pages. There’s always a chance that between the tested recipe and the printed page a typo can be accidentally introduced. If you ever have a question about any of my recipes, feel free to e-mail me either through my website or blog, and I will respond as soon as I can.