Have you heard of chicken Lazone? The origin of the dish seems to be a New Orleans restaurant. It is spicy Cajun style chicken, pan fried and served with a spicy cream sauce. It was something I loved when I was a kid, and so of course I decided to make a vegan version. This vegan tempeh Lazone delivers! It is so perfect, so flavorful and so fast to put together. Steaming the tempeh, then tossing it in a dry rub, baking and then simmering in the Cajun cream sauce creates the most epic tempeh ever!
I know a lot of people who don’t love tempeh, or are even reluctant to try it because they don’t know how to make it taste great. Well, give this vegan tempeh Lazone a try and you will never look at tempeh the same way again! This method of cooking it makes it so tender and yummy. The Lazone sauce is to die for and imparts even more flavor.
I love to serve this tempeh and sauce over pasta. I think it is the best option, but you can use gluten-free pasta to make this whole meal gluten free. It is also really delicious with steamed veggies or roasted root veggies.
This recipe uses really basic ingredients, most of which you may already have in your pantry. I know I usually do! Most of the time, if I am trying to figure out what to make mostly with just the stuff I can see hiding in the back of my pantry, I make this Tempeh! I keep tempeh in my fridge most of the time, and I generally have a can of coconut cream in the pantry. The rest is mostly spices. Just throw everything together and you have a cheap, easy, hearty and insanely yummy meal!
Vegan Tempeh Lazone
Ingredients
- 16 ounces(usually 2 blocks) Tempeh
- 2 Tablespoons Olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons Garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon Oregano, dried
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
For The Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Olive oil
- 6 Cloves Garlic, chopped
- 1/2 a Sweet onion, chopped
- 1 Can(13-14oz) Coconut cream or full fat coconut milk
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon Smoked paprika
- Pinch of Cayenne pepper
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- First, you want to steam the tempeh. Cut the blocks of tempeh into triangles. Then place in the basket of a steamer, add about an inch of water into the steamer pan, and steam for about 10 minutes on medium. The tempeh should feel a bit softer.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees(F)
- Then add the tempeh to a large bowl, drizzle the olive oil on to the tempeh and toss to coat it all evenly.
- Then either in a large ziploc bag, or a large mixing bowl, stir together the smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, oregano and salt. Then toss the tempeh in the spices to coat completely.
- Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray, then place the tempeh onto the sheet pan. Bake for 15 minutes, flip and bake for 10-15 more minutes or until the tempeh is brown and has a nice crust.
- While the tempeh is baking, make the sauce. Heat the olive oil on medium high in a large non-stick skillet. Then add the garlic and onions.
- Saute the garlic and onions for about 5 minutes, reducing heat as needed, or until the onion is translucent.
- Then add the coconut cream, vegetable broth, smoked paprika, cayenne and a pinch of salt and pepper. Heat on medium and bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, the sauce will thicken up. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Once the tempeh is done, add the tempeh to the skillet with the sauce, and scoop some sauce over the tempeh. Let the tempeh cook in the sauce for about 5 minutes.
- Serve with pasta if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
I got the ingredients to make this for dinner, it looks and sounds so freaking awesome. Anyways I’m reading your page now and the recipe and noticed the nutrition information. I don’t think that can be right. The tempeh alone has 45g of protein per block, and there’s two blocks in there. I think this would be a high protein dish. I just wanted to bring that to your attention. I cannot wait to try this dish. Thank you so much for sharing it. I just love your recipes!!
Thank you so much! The nutritional information is calculated for me automatically and sometimes it is not accurate. For some reason it gets vegan proteins wrong often.
Thanks for responding to this. I noticed it too. Your food is amazing I share it with everyone I possibly can.
I plan to cook this recipe tomorrow! I’ve never cooked with tempeh before and I know there are different types. Which type did you use? I can only recall 3-grain as I type I remember. I”m excited to give this a shot.
Any type is fine, I usually use the plain tempeh from Trader Joe’s. I think that works best if you can find just plain blocks of tempeh. If not, whatever you can find will work!
This looks delicious! Can I make it with tofu instead?
Yes, a few people have said they used tofu and it was delicious. You can just skip the steaming step of course!
If I can’t have coconut, will oat or almond milk work?!
I would try it with oat milk, since it is a bit thicker than almond milk. It may not be quite as thick as it would be if you used coconut milk, but I think it will work out fine!
I just made this, and it’s beyond delish! Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe!
P.s. you’re my hero–i recently became a vegan and your blog has helped me so much!
Made this tonight and it was terrific. I subbed oat milk for coconut and added a little earth balance and tapioca starch to help it thicken. Holy cow…it was so special, unique and delicious. Thank you ❤️
Hi! So many items are constantly out of stock at my local grocery stores these days and believe it or not this includes tempeh. I do have tofu, could this work with tofu? Any tips for me?
I think tofu would work, you can just skip them first step of steaming , of course and press the tofu instead. Then just follow the recipe the rest of the way and coat it in the spice rub! I hope that helps!
Wow this was soooo incredible!!! Perfect treat meal during a quarantine, so flavorful and perfect balance of spices. Can’t wait to make again!!
Made this last night for dinner & it was so delicious! One of my new favorite tempeh recipes. Steaming the tempeh then baking it really makes the texture great. I only had half a can of coconut milk, so I subbed the rest with oat milk & it worked just fine. Served w/ some angel hair pasta, fresh parsley & a side salad made a great dinner 🙂
I had no coconut milk, so I blended 1/3 cup of cashews with 1 cup of water with a pinch of salt as a last minute cashew milk substitute. It came out perfect! It thickened up nicely!
That sauce was so freakin’ good, I could drink it by the cupful. I made the recipe as is and it was perfect. The tempeh was delicious and had a great texture and, as I said, the sauce was unreal. I served it over pasta but next time, I’m for sure putting it over mashed potatoes.
This is one of our faves! Soo tasty. We have trouble finding tempeh and I don’t have the patience to make my own very often so we use typically use tofu. Works just as well! Also, to add another color we’ve added some frozen peas to the mix. They’ve been a nice addition!
Love this dish! I’m always looking for ways to cook tempeh and this one by far is one of the best. Creamy and rich my family had thirds. I left out the cayenne since I have little ones. Next time I will cut my tempeh in smaller triangles so I have more sauce to spread on the noodles. Delish!
SOOOO GOOD! This is a new favorite! We are adding this to our dinner rotation because everyone loved it. I think I’ll try it with some tofu instead of tempeh next week. The only change to the recipe I made was added some corn starch to the seasoning mix to coat the tempeh and it gave it a really nice crust.
Would you recommend unsweetened or vanilla coconut milk?
This was delicious! I will definitely be making this again and I’m curious to try it with tofu like another commenter mentioned. Thank you!
Coconut cream or coconut milk? Thanks! I’m excited to try this. I love tempeh.
Thank you so much for this tempeh idea! I had frozen tempeh which I got at “my” asian supermarket. Usually it tastes a bit strange, but steaming it before baking it in the oven was great! I loved the sauce, too, but used oat cream instead of coconut. We will definitely make this again!
This would LITERALLY be my last meal on earth. It’s the first Cajun dish I’ve made and I love it!! I find that adding a tablespoon or two of flour to the onions/garlic after they finish cooking helps make the sauce extra thick.