Wordless Wednesday: Salad, Mushrooms, & Peppers

So, This Is Seitan!

I’ve never made seitan, though I think I’ve tried it professionally prepared. Vegan Monologue recently posted her recipe for homeade seitan, along with points about the cost of prepackaged seitan and a mention of its nutritional value. I bought some prepackaged just to be certain l Iiked it, then decided to give the recipe a try. 

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Points I ignored which you shouldn’t:

Let it dry, even if the broth is calling to you like a siren song.

It really is enough for months. Even though the above looked pretty both in the picture and in person, you will never eat that much. Ok, *I* will never eat that much in one sitting.

Pan-frying and whatever it was I did up there with the broth are not the same thing, but it was fun and the flavor was yummy.

Seitan is chewy. Maybe it would have been less chewy if I had been more patient. If you want to try the fried flavor brothy goodness, party on, but then let it dry & fry it for real later. I liked that better than the fragrant but chewy first round.

I froze the rest, then thawed one slice, put it in the processor, fried the little seitan shreds with a dash of nutritional yeast, refrigerated it, and later made a faux cheesesteak, which I heated in the oven. (Real cheese, faux steak: I’m vegan-friendly, but vegetarian myself). I even added some ketchup for an authentic feel after the picture was taken. Good stuff!

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Her recipe is perfection, but I had to change some minor details due to a combination of allergies, personal taste, & what I had around. 

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Seitan Ingredient Modifications: 

1 tsp marjoram to Mrs. Dash

No onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

+ a dash of nutritional yeast

+ a dash of parsley

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Broth Ingredient Modifications: 

No soy sauce

1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon liquid smoke

1 teaspoon Habanero Catsup

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Prep Modifications: 

I left it as one big loaf and cut it after removing from the broth.

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Enjoy!

Babybella Salad

Every 28 days or so, I randomly go on a cleaning/cooking/washing binge, and the results are often comical. Last week’s flurry of posts was a prime example, and there were still several dishes I made after those posts! My refrigerator is now organized by category and size of item, my clothes are now organized by style and frequency of usage, and the list goes on and on.

The first little dish I made was this big salad. I don’t know what it is about my chemistry that makes me think

*I*MUST*MAKE*A*GIANT*SALAD*RIGHT*NOW*

but ok, sure, salad is healthy. Why not?

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Ingredients:

Romaine lettuce, cut as you like it.

Shredded cheese

Sliced babybellas

Sliced scallions

Oregano, dried flakes

Basil, dried flakes

A dash of ground black pepper

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Directions:

1. In huge bowl, place lettuce and scallions.

2. In small bowl, place mushrooms, cheese, & spices. Stir.

3. Dump small bowl contents into large bowl. Toss.

4. Serve

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I had this mostly with balsamic vinagrette, but it was also good plain. I imagine it would be great with olive oil. It’s pretty easy to veganize this one, too, which I might try doing later. Enjoy!

Babybella Prep

Babybellas, the smaller version of the portabella… Whenever I think of portabellas, I think beautiful and portly. For a delicious sandwich, you can’t go wrong with the portabella, but for just about everything else, I use babybellas.

This picture was taken one of many times I’ve fried babybellas over medium heat, with a coating of olive oil on the pan, and a spoonful of imitation butter. Usually, this produces a gravy, which I then use on other dishes.