Low Carb Gluten Free Vegan Corned Tempeh & Cabbage (2024)

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Growing up near Boston with an Irish Catholic mother meant that every St. Patrick’s Day, we ate corned beef and cabbage. Yes, I know this isn’t a traditional Irish dish, but it’s certainly become an Irish-American classic, and it’s what many of us here stateside remember when we think of Paddy’s Day. So, this year when I polled all of you on Instagram to see if you would be interested in a St. Patrick’s Day dish, I knew I would end up making a vegan keto corned “beef” and cabbage.

Being that this is a meat-free food blog, you’ve probably already discerned that we won’t be using actual beef. And because I don’t eat any gluten (for the preservation of my gut and immune system), this is a gluten-freelow carb vegan
“corned beef.” So sadly, seitan – the most obvious choice here – is taking a back seat to tempeh.

If you’re soy-free, by all means, use seitan here instead. The recipe itself is pretty simple, but it is a bit time-consuming. Absolutely nothing at all like the original dish (so, no need to brine a brisket for 10 days and then roast it for a whole day), but still more work than just sticking a frozen pizza into the oven.

What were your St.Paddy’s day traditions growing up? I’d love to hear about them in the comments – food related, or not!

Notes on Making Gluten FreeVegan Corned Tempeh & Cabbage

• A big part of this recipe is marinating the tempeh. Otherwise, you just have “normal tasting tempeh and cabbage,” which while tasty, doesn’t really capture the spirit of the dish.
• I use onion powder because it’s easier to control for carbs than a real onion, but you could use real onion here instead. Just keep in mind that the carb count will be higher!
• Like I mentioned above – if you can eat gluten, then seitan will have a meatier texture. If you don’t want to use seitan or tempeh, tofu will work as well.
• The “corned beef” marinade is basically an amalgamation of a ton of corned beef recipes I found out there. I tried to make it as simple as possible, with ingredients that you likely already have. No need to run to the store for a spice you’re only going to use once!
• You have two options with the tempeh – marinate and cook it in a slow cooker in log form, or slice it up and then marinate and cook it. The benefit of cutting it up is that you can cut the time down by a LOT. No need to marinate overnight and then cook for a few hours if you slice it up. 🙂
• If you by some miracle have pickling spices in your cupboard, then you can use 1 tbsp of that in lieu of the cloves, ginger, garlic, onion, coriander, and mustard.
• Similarly, if you have bouillion, then use 1 cube and 1 cup of water instead of the broth. This is actually what I tend to do,
• This gluten free vegan corned tempeh recipe makes for a delicious accompaniment to cabbage, or an awesome filling for a vegetarian reuben.
• So, obviously not all of the marinade will be consumed, so I accounted for about 1/4 of the carbs from the marinade in the final recipe. This is definitely an overestimation, but I prefer that to underestimating!
• To increase the fat, I would recommend adding an extra 1-2 tbsp of olive oil while cooking.

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