Almost All-Canadian Seitan Pot Pie

 Another Veganomicon recipe test out... turns out seitan pot pie is delicious and a lot of work.  My husband tried this one out.  First he made the seitan which is basically boiled wheat gluten.  The seitan has a great texture and is amazingly tasty for the simple ingredient list.  This is what really took a lot of time - has to be simmered for around an hour.  Overall it took him more than 3 hours of prepping and cooking... this was a yummy recipe but not one we'd do frequently since it's so time consuming.

Seitan Pot Pie - 4.5/5 stars for taste!

If you want to try it yourself: 

Check out this site for the Pot Pie recipe Seitan Pot Pie recipe (& Blog). 

To make your own seitan here's a site with the recipe Seitan Recipe (& Blog).

Seitan Ingredients:

1 cup vital wheat gluten flour
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 cup cold vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated on a microplane grater

Broth:
8 cups water plus 3 vegetable bouillon cubes, or 4 cups broth plus 4 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce 

Instructions:
 Mix together the gluten flour and yeast in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together the veggie broth, soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic.  Pour the wet into the dry and stir with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has been absorbed and the wet ingredients are partially clumped up with dry ingredients.  Use your hands to knead the mixture for about 3 minutes, until the dough is elastic.  Divide with a knife into three equal pieces and then knead those pieces in your hand just to stretch them out a bit.

Prepare the broth
Fill a stockpot with the water, bouillon cubes, and soy sauce and add the what gluten pieces.  Cover and bring to a boil but watch carefully; you don’t want it to boil for very long or on the outside of the seitan will be spongy.  Try to catch it as soon as it boils and then lower the heat as low as it will go so that it’s at a low simmer.

Partially cover the pot so that the steam can escape and let simmer for an hour, turning the seitan occasionally.  Turn off the heat and take the lid off; let it sit for 15 minutes.  Remove from the broth and place in a strainer until it is cool enough to handle.  It is now ready to be sliced up and used.  If you have extra seitan, store in  the cooking liquid in a tightly covered container.

Baja Style Grilled Tempeh Tacos - Worth a try

Ok, this is a full two page recipe for tempeh tacos from Veganomicon (also known as our current favorite vegan cookbook).  We (yeah, my husband cooked this one up for us) tried this out since it was so much different from our normal - maybe a little too differnt - there was a little too much work involved for the end result.  A different taste, nice texture, but not a favorite - we won't do this recipe again. Maybe using red cabbage wasn't the right thing.

It was fun to try out Tempeh again - the spicy beer marinade was tasty - I think I will use tempeh in this way again in a different recipe.

The recipe - two pages



Adding the filling - marinated then pan fried tempeh, lime sauce, slaw, avocado, pepper & tomato





A peak inside - good texture, interesting taste - I would say it's worth a try



  

Chickpea Cutlets with Onion Gravy

I've played with the Veganomicon recipe for Chickpea cutlets and made them my own.  The basic recipe is still the same but I've adjusted and added.  I also like to smother these in vegetarian gravy. A plate of chickpea cutlets and mashed potatoes smothered in veggie gravy is just to die for.  My husband says he could eat this everyday and not get sick of it.

The key here is wheat gluten - buy it at most grocery stores - it makes everything stick together.  I like Bob's Red Mill brand Vital Wheat Gluten (Safeway has this).

The recipe is pretty easty and I prefer baking to panfrying.  I'm sure you'll find this on blogs everywhere but here's my go at it.

Cutlets Ingredients:
1 can (422 ml) cooked chickpeas (rinsed)

2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup vital wheat gluten
2/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/4 cup vegetable broth or water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated with a Microplane grater (or garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (or lemon juice)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 onion chopped finely
 
1. In a mixing bowl, mash the chickpeas together with the oil until no chickpeas are left. Add the remaining ingredients and knead together for about 3 minutes, until strings of gluten have formed.


2. Preheat oven to 375 F.  Meanwhile, divide the cutlet dough into 6-8 equal pieces. To form cutlets, knead each piece in your hand for a few moments and then flatten and stretch each one into a roughly 6 by 4 inch rectangular cutlet shape (about 1/2" thick). The easiest way to do this is to form a rectangle shape in your hands and then place the cutlets on a clean surface to flatten and stretch them.
 
3. Put the cutlets on a lightely greased baking sheet and bake 20 minutes one side - flip - then bake another 10 minutes on the other. 
 

 
Onion Gravy Ingredients:
1.5 cup heated vegetable broth (I like onion cubes)
1/2 onion chopped finely
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp Earth Balance or vegan margarine
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp soy sauce
 
1. In a sauce pan cook onion until soft in the vegan butter.
 
2. Add the flour and mix.
 
3. Add the cornstarch and soy sauce to the veggie broth.  Pour into the onion mix. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until thick. 
 
Now go and mash some potatoes, put everything on a plate, and smother it in gravy!