Spicy, saucy, pan-fried Korean barbecue tempeh is stuffed into warm tortillas with creamy avocado slices and crispy greens to make these flavorful wraps.
At some point when I was living in Philly, Korean barbecue became a really popular thing. Of course, I was never able to partake, because at the time none of those places offered Korean barbecue veggies. I would just listen to people rave about how awesome the food was, how delicious and satisfying, and how they had to roll out the door because they ate so much. I’m not going to lie: on one hand, I was a little grossed out by the concept of stuffing oneself with that much meat, but on the other hand I was kind of jealous because boy did they seem to enjoy it.
So here I am with some vegan Korean barbecue of highly questionable authenticity. It blends the flavors of Korean food and barbecue food, which are the top two most delicious things on earth. No wonder everyone was so obsessed! I’ll confess to knowing very little about how Korean barbecue is eaten. Does one use chopsticks? Or perhaps dig in with their hands like in the states? I don’t know, so I threw it into a wrap, and I loved it!
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Korean Barbecue Tempeh Wraps
Ingredients
For the Korean Barbecue Sauce:
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 tbsp. gochujang
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tsp. freshly grated ginger
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
For the Tempeh Filling:
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 2-8 oz. packages tempeh, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 red bell pepper sliced into strips
- 1 red onion sliced into strips
- 2 scallions chopped
- 1-2 tsp. sesame seeds
For the Wraps:
- 4 large flour tortillas
- 4 large lettuce leaves, or a few handfuls of sprouts
- a few forkfuls of vegan kimchi, optional but awesome, read the label to ensure it's vegan
- 1 avocado sliced
Instructions
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Stir all sauce ingredients together in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, lower heat and allow to simmer about 10 minutes, adding a bit of water if sauce becomes too thick.
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While sauce simmers, coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and place over medium heat. Add tempeh and cook about 5 minutes, until pieces are browned on bottoms. Flip and cook 5 minutes more. Raise heat to high and add bell pepper and onion. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Lower heat to medium again and pour sauce into skillet. Cook just until sauce is very thick and coats tempeh and veggies. Remove from heat and stir in scallions and sesame seeds.
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Place a tortilla onto a work surface. Arrange a lettuce leaf or handful of sprouts on top. Top with avocado slices, kimchi if using, and then tempeh mixture. Fold the end of the tortilla closest to you over fillings, then wrap the sides inward. Roll the wrap away from you to enclose fillings. Repeat until all tortillas and fillings are used.
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Serve.
I tried cooking with tempeh once ages ago and it did not turn out well. Maybe I’ll give another shot…
Some people don’t like tempeh because it has a somewhat bitter taste. If that bothers you, try steaming it for 15 minutes or so before cooking. My husband isn’t a big fan of the texture, but he likes it in recipes where it gets crumbled instead of cooked in slabs or cubes, so you could give that a try – it would probably even work as a variation on this recipe. :)
I lived in Indonesia for a while (where tempeh originated)and the locals never cook tempeh without first steaming for 10 minutes.
I just made these yesterday for lunch with my husband and we absolutely loved them! I added a couple more things to the sauce like nutritional yeast and lime juice, but man these turned out so well. The sauce is awesome, I have some left over and I can’t wait to make something else with it. I actually used some of the unheated sauce to marinate the tempeh for a little bit before cooking, since tempeh isn’t my favorite and I wanted it to get as much saucy flavor as I could. I don’t know how much of a difference that made, but by the end I was sneaking tempeh bites out of the pan. Delicious.
Yay!! I’m so glad you both enjoyed them!!
Your recipes have yet to fail me, Alissa! Thank you for your creative genius. I made this for dinner and my skeptical husband was scraping the bottom of the pan for every last bit of flavor. Normally he hates tempeh. I didn’t steam first but had a very fresh package to use. I fried on cast iron on high (forgot to turn down to medium and the kitchen got quite smokey) for a bit less than 10 min total including the onions and peppers. By the time I added those, the oil had been soaked up so I dry fried as long as possible then added the sauce and stirred until it was really sticky. The tempeh soaked up a ton of flavor without even marinating or steaming first. I used sprouted grain wraps which were a perfect compliment. I didn’t have kimchi or avocado on hand but I made the wraps with arugula, julienned carrots, and mung bean sprouts. They were just perfect and I will certainly be making these over and over again! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! My husband it’s a fan of tempeh either, but he loves these as well. :)
Loved this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing it!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I just saw your recipe. Can I use tofu instead of tempeh?
I think tofu would work well. Enjoy!
This recipe is perfection! Even my newly picky 2 yo asked for more. I did steam the tempeh and it was such a great texture. But the real star…the sauce. I’ve made more than a handful of your recipes now and they’re always delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Love this recipe soooooo much. Do you think
We can use rice paper wrappers instead of flour tortillas?
Glad you like it! I think using rice paper wrappers is a great idea!
Would this be good cold the next day for a bring to work lunch?
Yup! I’ve sent my husband to work with the leftovers and he really enjoys them. You might just want to leave the avocado out because it will turn brown – you could slice up a fresh one and add it just before eating it, or sub something like vegan mayo.