For the love of Seitan

Yesterday I went to a BBQ. The last time I had gone to a BBQ, although there were lots of vegetarian options, there was no vegan dessert, which made me cranky, as I wanted to indulge in some serious sugar. So this time I brought my own. And all I got was a small slice; everyone gobbled it up and begged me for the recipe. I only wish I had snapped a photo. But I’m sure I’ll make it again, so I’ll update this post with a nice yummy photograph at some point.

I have to admit though, the recipe is not mine. I used this great recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, which incidentally, is the best vegan baking cookbook I’ve ever found. I’ve made lemon bars, peanut butter cookies, fruit tarts, and even fudge, all vegan, and all turning out perfectly. I highly recommend it.

Ingredients for Crust:

1 cup of raw almonds

1 cup of raw pecans

1 full cup of Medjool pitted dates

1/4 tsp salt

Method for Crust:

Put nuts in a food processor, blend until it’s a coarse meal. Add the dates and salt and blend until thoroughly combined. Press into a nonstick 8 or 9 inch springform pan or tart pan. Set aside.

Ingredients for Pie:

5 cups sliced Chandler strawberries (any variety will do but Chandler are particularly sweet).

1 cup ripe Chandler strawberries, whole with the tops cut off

5 Medjool pitted dates, soaked for 10 minutes in warm water and drained

2 tsp lemon juice

Method for Pie:

1. Arrange the sliced strawberries on the prepared crust, set aside.

2. In a food processor, blend the whole strawberries with the dates and lemon juice. Puree until smooth. Pour over the sliced strawberries, smooth out to fill in any holes.

3. Refrigerate one hour at least.

Tags: Fancypants by kate
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I had a mean craving for huevos rancheros brunch this morning. This is what I whipped up. Yum.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium yukon gold potato, diced
1 serrano chile, diced
1.5 tbsp fresh oregano, minced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
4oz tempeh
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 cup Daiya mozzerella “cheese”
1 can refried vegetarian beans
4 corn tortillas
Tapatillo to taste
1/3 cup soyrizo

Method:

1. Saute the red onion on high in olive oil until it gets soft. Add the potato, garlic, serrano, oregano and season with salt and pepper to taste. Saute for 5 minutes, then add the tempeh and saute another 5 min or so, until the potatoes get a brown crisp.

2. Add the bell pepper and tomato, saute a few minutes more until the bell pepper is soft.

3. Heat the refried beans, set aside.

4. Add the Daiya cheese and cilantro to the tempeh mixture. Stir well, remove from heat when the cheese is melted. Add Tapatillo to taste. Set aside.

5. Heat the soyrizo in the microwave for 1 minute, then the corn tortillas for 1 minute.

6. To assemble, lay two tortillas on each plate, just overlapping at one edge. Smooth half the can of refried beans on top, then top with half the tempeh mixture. Sprinkle the soyrizo on top.

Tags: Recipes by kate
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Now, Kate might not agree with me, but not everything has to be fancy, or take time to cook. Often there isn’t the time, or inclination.

If you are new to vegan food, it’s a good thing to have a few of these ideas on hand: things that can be made in under 30 seconds, as long as the ingredients are around. ["And aren't nasty", Kate reminds me. Perish the thought.].

Take bread, slather with tomato paste, toffuti cream cheese and sprinkle oregano on top. Toast until toasty.

Requires:

Tags: 30 Second Meals, Beginner, Quick and easy, Thirty Second Meals by Seitan
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Our friend Joannie didn’t know what to feed ‘the vegans’, so she threw these in a little olive oil, and added a dash of Soy sauce.

Tags: Quick and easy by jon
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Without further ado, I think it behooves me to post the simplest, easiest recipe for seitan.

Here’s all you really need to know:

Mix wheat gluten with equal parts water, kneed for 10 minutes, boil for an hour. Voila, Seitan.

Let me expand on that a bit, though.

• 1 cup wheat gluten
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of basil
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of savory (You can subsitute your own spices, or go without, if you don’t see the need)
• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce (Also optional)
• 1 cup water or vegetable broth (to make the dough)
• 5-7 additional cups of vegetable both (or water) to boil the Seitan in. You could make a stew instead, if you like.

1. Mix the wheat gluten and the spices while dry. If you dump them in with the water, they won’t mix thoroughly.

2. Add a cup of vegetable broth or water.

3. Kneed for 10 minutes or so. This is going to be harder than kneeding bread. Insufficient kneeding results in subpar Seitan.

If you have a bread machine or standalone mixer, I strongly recomend using it. If you are going to be doing this often (we make Seitan about once a week), I would recomend obtaining one. It doesn’t have to be fancy (or even fully functioning – after all, you are just going to be using it to kneed the dough.

4. Bring the rest of the water or vegetable broth to a boil.

5. Break the seitan into small chunks. Keep in mind it’s going to triple or quadruple in size once it absorbs the water. We usually dice it up with a knife before pulling it apart – it’s easier that way.

6. Plop the seitan chunks into the boiling pot. Let simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.

You’ll want to watch the pot. As the Seitan expands, it will also start to float, which can result in the top being popped off.

Then end result, if you flavour with basil and savory, tastes just like fake turkey slices, though the texture is much softer and gooier: good in it’s own way. To make firmer seitan requires a few other tricks, we will divulge shortly.

There you have it. You can find wheat gluten in any store, though it’s usually sold in small, not very cost-effective bags, which are certainly fine for a first attempt. However, as I posted before, we’ve graduated to 50lbs bags we purchased online, and the finished seitan costs about 75 cents a pound, which I believe is about as cheap as protein can get, not to mention delicious protein.. Wheat gluten also keeps forever as long as it remains dry: I had some that was kept cool and dry for over 5 years, a few months ago: it was indistinguishable from the fresh bag we just bought.

Tags: Staples by Seitan
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A Simple one for you: Beef, Greens, Onions Broccoli and Sriracha “Hot Cock” sauce (or your preferred hot sauce). Yes, yes. Everyone I know calls it hot cock sauce. It’s got a big cock on the bottle. [BTW, if you click on any of the pictures, you can see a bigger version.]
hot cock sauce
1. Throw the fake beef strips into your frying pan or wok (If you are into stir fry at all, I do recommend getting a wok. The one I have here is non-stick :< but it was only $10 from Target. In retrospect, an non-stick one would have been a better investment. )
2. While the beef is starting to fry up, chop up an smallish onion, and toss that in too. Not many people know this, but the teat inducing part of the onion is located in the base. If you cut that bit out, onions become much more pleasant to deal with.
3. Now it’s time to add the hot sauce.  I’ve found that it Sriracha, unlike other hot sauces, doesn’t get mellower with cooking, so don’t use too much.
4. Ok, time to chop up and toss in the broccoli. They can go in pretty much right after the onions and hot sauce. With every new item added, I add a bit more olive oil. That way, no ingredient soaks up all the olive oil, and I can use less. The broccoli will start to green up as it cooks.
5. When everything in the pan is just about cooked for your satisfaction, it’s time for the greens. I’ve been eating spinach till it came out of my ears lately, so I picked up mustard greens as an experiment. And it’s turned out well. Definitely adding this ingredient into regular rotation. (If you try picking some up at your local super, make sure you get the ‘flat’ leaves – he curly mustard is bitter if not boiled first.)
Again, adding a bit of olive oil. It might look like a lot of greens but leafy things shrink a lot as you cook them and the water is broken out. Since there’s a lot of them, the stiring has to pick up a bit, so that they all get cooked. At this point, dinner’s almost ready.
Get a bowl and you’re done.

Tags: Beginner, Quick and easy by jon
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