A meat substitute starter of tempeh mysterious flighty type served up (4)
I believe the answer is:
tofu
'a meat substitute' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'starter of tempeh mysterious flighty type served up' is the wordplay.
'starter of' indicates taking the first letters.
'mysterious flighty type' becomes 'ufo' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'served up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
The first letter of 'tempeh' is 't'.
'ufo' in reverse letter order is 'ofu'.
't'+'ofu'='TOFU'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tofu that I've seen before include "soybean curd" , "Substitute for meat" , "Soy bean curd" , "Substance used in vegetarian cookery" , "'Soft white food, made of soy milk (4)'" .)