Italian style Seitan with Broccoli Polenta

I love making seitan, it is so much fun to work with wheat gluten. I try to make a batch once a month and freeze it, so I can use it in any dish to add extra protein and yumminess. Most of the seitan recipes call for humongous amounts of water and then boiling for at least 1 hour. I did all that in the past, thinking no pain, no gain; but not anymore.

Voila!! I have been making my seitan following Julie Hasson’s steamed Italian sausage recipe which has been in the blogosphere for quite sometime now and I have to say this recipe is awesome for following three reasons. First of it is extremely simple to put together; secondly it’s almost impossible to mess the recipe; third and final the end result is super delicious.

I followed Julie recipe to the T and the original recipe can be found here. I made sausages with half the dough and cutlets with the other half. The only change I made was to use a pressure cooker instead of a steamer to steam the seitan. I steamed it for 25 minutes (without the whistle, of course). I thought this is the most convenient seitan recipe ever, no fuss, no mess. I used the cutlets to make Julie’s Spicy Italian Cutlet Parmesan. For side dish I made Broccoli Polenta from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra.

Ingredients:
Polenta – 1 cup
Broccoli – 4 cups, very finely chopped about ¼” pieces
Olive oil – 2tbsp
Salt & Pepper – to taste
Method:

• Bring 3½ cups of water and salt to a boil.
  
• Add polenta in a slow and steady stream; add oil, salt and pepper, mix well. Reduce the flame to low; cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once done, cover and let rest for 10minutes.

Pasta with Beanballs

This recipe from Veganomicon is very tasty and easy to put together. I had some cooked kidney beans that I froze sometime back and it took minutes to make these (Opening a can of beans would have taken the same time).

Ingredients:

Cooked Red kidney beans – 3 cups

Vital wheat Gluten – ¼ cup
Plain Breadcrumbs – ½ cup

Soy Sauce – 2tbsp
Tomato Paste – 2 tbsp (I used 1 tbsp crushed tomato instead)

Olive Oil – 2 tbsp plus more for frying
Garlic – 1 tbsp, minced

Lemon jest – 1 tsp
Dried thyme – ¼ tsp

Dried Oregano – ¼ tsp
Marinara Sauce - 4 cups (either home made or store-bought)
Pasta - 8 oz.

Method:

• Mash the beans until there are no whole beans anymore. The texture should not be too smooth.
• Add all the other ingredients and mix with a fork to combine. Then using hands, knead the mixture for 1 minute until everything is completely mixed and firm. Roll into walnut size balls.
• Preheat a large sauté pan on medium. Add ¼“of olive oil and slowly drop in the beanballs. Cook for about 15 minutes, tossing often, until browned on all sides. Remove and drain on a paper towel.
• Remove all but 2 tbsp oil in the pan. Slide the beanballs back into the pan and slowly add 1/3 cup marinara sauce; toss to coat. Cook for about 15 minutes.
• In the meantime cook pasta (I used small shell pasta) according to package directions. Drain and transfer back to the pot. Pour the remaining marinara sauce over pasta and mix.

To serve, place some pasta in a bowl, and top with 4-5 beanballs and their sauce. Slurp.. yummy..

South Indian style Pepper-Seitan Curry

As I mentioned in my previous posts here and here, I have started venturing into making and cooking mock meat. I tasted mock meat for the first time at Veggie Heaven. It’s an all vegetarian Chinese restaurant that serves great mock meat dishes along with all-vegetable stir fries, noodles and rice dishes. Their menu looks like a regular Chinese restaurant menu with Taro chicken a la king, beef with broccoli, baby shrimp with chili sauce and so on. But they are 100% vegetarian and also vegan friendly dishes.

I loved their curry chicken and General Tso’s chicken. So after a little research and information from my colleague, I decided to make my own seitan at home. I bought the ingredients seen here and made my first baked seitan. It was really good. I boiled seitan the second time I made it. I thought it was better than my first try. It makes a whole lot of fake meat. I refrigerated half of it in the broth and froze the other half. I used half of the refrigerated to make this pepper-seitan curry.

Ingredients:
Peppers – 2 medium, chopped into big bite size pieces
Seitan – ½ cup, chopped
Onions – 1 medium, chopped into big bite size pieces
Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped
Curry powder – 2tsp (I used Priya Madras curry powder)
Chili powder – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a heavy bottom pan; when the oil starts to shimmer add onions and peppers. Cook on medium high flame, till the veggies start browning on the edges.
• Move the veggies to one side of the pan; add seitan to the other side and sauté till they are slightly browned all over.
  
• Once that is done, mix everything in the pan, lower the heat to medium; cover and cook till the onions and peppers are tender, about 6-8 minutes.
  
• Add the tomatoes, cover and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add salt, chili powder, curry powder and ½ cup water. Cook for another 5 minutes till all the flavors come together.

Serve with rice or roti.



This is my entry to JFI & VoW-Bell Peppers event, being hosted by lovely Pooja.

New Pantry Additions

Lately I’ve started expanding my pantry staples with items that I have never used before. Here are some items that are new in my pantry/ fridge: Vital wheat gluten, Nutrition Yeast, Flax seed meal, Miso, Wheat Germ.

I made Seitan with Vital wheat gluten and nutrition yeast with Seitan O' Greatness recipe from here. This is a very versatile dish and you use any seasonings to make it your own. I added some cumin pd, coriander pd, pinch of turmeric. My husband thought it tasted a little bit like chicken, but it did not have the texture of chicken.
To use, just sauté in little bit of oil and you can use it in million different ways. Freeze the unsautéed seitan in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, it makes quick and easy BLD (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) recipes, so always make the complete recipe even if you are making for two.
I made Seitan Curry with mixed vegetables and coconut milk with half of the log (no pics.. sorry) and used half of the rest in wraps (lavash wrap smeared with mayo and filled with seitan, rice, onions, tomatoes and spinach).
I’m still snacking on the rest of the sautéed seitan. So good.. yummmmm..