maple-dijon seitan with rice pilaf

  

Overview

Time: 45 minutes
Dishes: large skillet, medium pot

Hello, hello Dear Readers!

When I was a youngster, I worked at Bakers Square, where I really loved the Honey Mustard Sauce. Of course, the sauce was over chicken, but I was veg by then and put the sauce over baked potatoes. Here I bring you the vegan version, complete with Easy Simple Seitan cutlets. I am sure they would be great with Gardein, as well.

The sauce has quickly browned onions before adding the yogurt, Dijon and maple. Your yogurt can be sweetened because the maple is sweet, so just adjust the amount of maple depending on the sweetness of the yogurt.

I used cashew milk yogurt by Forager, and I am certain that a coconut based yogurt will impart coconut flavor, for better or worse. 

I absolutely adore rice pilaf and this dish lends itself to a simple pilaf, so I incorporated that into the recipe. All told, the recipe took 40 minutes to prepare, from fridge to table, with delicious results. Serve with a green salad and you are set with a complete meal in very little time.

If you need inspiration for your weekly menu, check out ours HERE.

Enjoy!

Speedy Cooking Tips:

• Gather your ingredients.
• Make the rice first.
• Mince 1/4 of the onion while the medium pot heats. 
• Slice the rest of the onion while the seitan browns.
• Move the seitan to a plate or the cutting board once browned.

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Maple-Dijon Seitan with Rice Pilaf

www.ZsusVeganPantry.com

Makes 4 servings 

weekday

Serve with green salad or steamed broccoli.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup long-grain white rice

1/2 cup orzo 

1/4 large onion, minced 

2 cups vegetable broth 

1 tablespoon olive oil

8 Easy Simple Seitan Cutlets

3/4 large onion, thinly sliced 

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1-2 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on sweetness of yogurt)

1. Rice Pilaf: Add the oil to a medium pot over medium heat. Add the rice, orzo, onion, garlic. Stir well and cook until golden, about 4 minutes. Add the broth, cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 

2. Seitan: Add the oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the seitan cutlets and brown both sides, about 2 minutes. Remove to a plate.        

3. Onions: Add the onions and garlic to the skillet. Season with salt. Cook, covered, until browned, about 8 minutes. Stir as needed. Add splashes of water as needed. 

4. Sauce: Remove the Onions from the heat. Add the yogurt, mustard, maple. Stir well. Taste and add salt and pepper. Add the Seitan cutlets to the sauce. Serve with the Rice.  

 

© 2021 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

This recipe has been included by Twinkl among their top 

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vegan vegetarian meatless plant-based

indian butter seitan

Overview

Time: 45 minutes
Dishes: large skillet, large bowl, air-fryer 

Hello, hello Dear Readers!

Excellent meal - and pretty easy, to boot! This  Indian meal is very tasty and it, too, comes with it's food lore.  Since I am using seitan, you can probably guess (or already know) that this dish is originally made with chicken. The story goes that the tandoori chicken at a restaurant was drying out as it sat waiting for customers to buy it, so the owner created a curry sauce to keep the dish tender. 

This sauce, like many North Indian sauces, tend to be made with tomato in some form or another, and this one is similar. It has tomato sauce and calls for cream. Since we are already marinating the seitan in a flavorful yogurt sauce (the tandoori part of the dish), I figured it would be great to just add it to the sauce and not need any cream at all.

This worked beautifully and tasted great! 

Be sure to make your own seitan and I give you the Making Monday version for making Easy Simple Seitan Loaf. It takes about 1 hour, including kneading, so there is no reason  not to make it. A few simple steps and you have tender, flavorful seitan, ready to make this dish.  

If you need inspiration for your weekly menu, check out ours HERE.

Enjoy!

Speedy Cooking Tips:

• Gather your ingredients.
• Prepare the rice, if using.
• Make the marinade first and marinate the seitan while you prepare the sauce.
• Air-fry the seitan while the sauce simmers. 
• Use your impeccably clean fingers to pluck the seitan from the marinade (or use a fork) and gently shake off excess marinade. 
• Save the marinade for the sauce.

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Indian Makhani - Vegan Butter Seitan

www.ZsusVeganPantry.com

Makes 4 servings 

weekday

Serve with rice or naan.

1 cup plain, nondairy yogurt

1-inch ginger, grated

4 cloves garlic, grated

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 pound seitan (Easy Simple Seitan or store-bought), cut into 1-inch pieces

1 tablespoon oil

1 medium onion, finely minced 

1/2 cup cashews

2 teaspoons garam masala

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup tomato sauce

4 whole cloves

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon vegan butter or vegan ghee (optional)  

1. Marinade: Add the yogurt ginger, garlic, turmeric and chili powder to a large bowl. Mix well. Stir in the seitan pieces. Set aside.       

2. Onion: Add the oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, cashews, garam masala and cumin. Cook until the onion is translucent, about 2 minutes. 

3. Sauce: Add the broth, tomato sauce, cloves and cinnamon stick to the Onion. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, partly covered.  

4. Air-Fry: Remove the seitan pieces from the marinade (save the Marinade). Either air-fry on 4000F for 10 minutes, or bake in the oven for 20 minutes on 450F. Add the reserved Marinade to the Sauce. Taste and add salt and pepper. Thin with water if needed. Stir in the seitan. Stir in the optional butter. Serve with rice or naan.  

© 2021 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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vegan vegetarian meatless plant-based

making easy simple seitan loaf

Welcome to Making Mondays, dear Readers! 

This seitan recipe is definitely where you should begin with your seitan skills. It is simple, easy and very delicious. It does not have the unique seitan flavor that comes with over cooking, so it can adapt to the recipe you put it into much better than other recipes I've seen. 

The ingredients list is simple and the instructions are straightforward, but it is still tender and very tasty. This seitan is more neutral in flavor and therefore can be used in a variety of recipes. 

There is nothing odd or particular about this recipe and you can make it by hand or pop it into a bread machine or food processor (use the plastic blade).  

Most of my dishes that need seitan use this recipe (like Kettle Goulash , French Dip or Picatta), unless I need something stronger flavored or need a different texture, like the Pulled Seitan for my Pot Roast Charcuterie.  

There is a definite strategy for keeping the odd seitan flavor down - don't raise the temperature of the cooking liquid above boiling. If you do, the seitan has a strong, odd flavor. That means, no steaming it, either, because steam is hotter than boiling water.

Make sure you use vital wheat gluten like this one HERE, otherwise you will not make seitan, but perhaps bread. That is the brand I buy when I am out, otherwise, I order a 25 pound bag from Azure Standard, who deliver to most places monthly. 

When you measure your gluten flour, stir it before measuring or sprinkle it into the measuring cup. That way the flour is not packed. If you just scoop, you can over measure by as much as a half a cup! That will lead to dense, rubbery seitan.

Get your fingers a little messy and make seitan - it tastes better, with a better texture and better price than buying seitan in little packages. 

Below is the step by step.

Enjoy!

       

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Making Easy Simple Seitan

Makes 1 loaf or 8 cutlets; doubles easily 

www.ZsusVeganPantry.com

1. Broth mixture: Add the ingredients to an instant pot and  bring to boil on the saute setting, or bring to boil in a pot on the stove and transfer to a slow cooker. 

4 to 6  cups water

1 tablespoon tamari 

1 bay leaf

2. Liquid mixture: Add the ingredients to a measuring cup and mix:

1 cup water

1 tablespoon olive oil

3. Flour mixture: Add the ingredients to a medium bowl and mix:

1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (stir flour before measuring)

2 tablespoons chickpea flour

2 tablespoons Easy Savory Broth Mix

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

3/4 teaspoon salt

4. Knead: Mix the Liquid mixture into the Flour mixture and knead for 3 to 5 minutes to develop the gluten.  Either form into a loaf about 1.5 inches thick or slice into 8 pieces and roll as thin as you like (1/4 -inch thickness is ideal for cutlets).

5. Cook: add the loaf or the cutlets to the simmering Broth mixture and reduce the temperature to barely simmering. In a slow cooker, cook on medium to high, covered.  Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, until firm to the touch. Cool before using. Freezes well. Keep in the fridge in the broth for up to 1 week.  

NOTE: If cooking on the stove top make sure not to boil the broth while cooking the seitan or the seitan will have a unique flavor. Keeping the cooking below boiling keeps this unique flavor to a minimum.

© 2021 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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vegan vegetarian meatless plant-based

pot roast charcuterie

   

Overview

Seitan - prep 15 min, cook 3 hours
Roast - prep 15 min, cook 1 hour
Dishes: slow cooker, large roasting pot, oven

Hello, hello Dear Readers!

I am so excited to bring you this meal! At first, I thought it would be really difficult and time-consuming, but it turns out to be easy enough for a family-centered weekend meal. I offer you Pot Roast Charcuterie!

The roast is made with a spin on my Aquafaba cookbook pulled-seitan recipe and it is perfect for a pot roast style meal. The seitan falls apart as is expected, because it is laced with smashed chickpeas. Not to worry, though, because the chickpeas are so inconspicuous that when I told my diners that it had chickpeas, they were quite surprised.

The roast takes 3 hours to cook, but only 15 minutes to prepare, including kneading (use a bread machine or stand mixer, if you want to). If doing it by hand, less than 10 minutes. 

After browning the onions and potatoes, a simple roux is prepared and the gravy's base is created. Add the roast, return the vegetables to the pan and roast for 1 hour. 

How you present it is up to you - you can serve it like a regular pot roast or you can go one step further and present it as a charcuterie plate. I highly recommend the later, especially if you have an extra 5 minutes to spend on presentation. Adding some pickles, whipping up the horseradish crema and slicing some bread is not hard at all and makes a lot of difference. 

It brought my family to the table, where we gathered around the tray and not only enjoyed the pot roast, which was really delicious, but each other's company as well. 

Enjoy!

Speedy Cooking Tips:

• Make the roast the day before. It is best cooled before prepared as a pot roast.
• Heat your pan high heat. Pan fry the onion and carrot while you chop the potatoes.
• Pan fry the potatoes while you gather the broth and flour.
• Use a sturdy wooden spatula to remove all the brown bits at the bottom of the pan after you add 1 cup of the broth.
• Prepare the horseradish sauce, the tray and the pickles while the roast bakes.
• Add the roast to the tray first and then surround with the other ingredients.
• Serve family style.   

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Pot Roast Charcuterie

www.ZsusVeganPantry.com

Makes 4 servings 

weekend

Preheat oven to 350-F.

1. Vegetables: Add the oil to a large, oven safe pot over high heat. Add the onion and carrot and brown. Remove to a plate. Add the potatoes and brown. Remove to the plate.         

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 small onions, quartered

4 medium carrots

4 medium potatoes, quartered 

2. Roux: Add the flour to the pot. Stir well with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom to loosen any browned bits. Add 1 cup of the broth, stir well to avoid loops. Add the rest of the broth, tamari, thyme and Rosemary. Stir well. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat. 

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups vegetable broth

1 tablespoon tamari 

1 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme

1 teaspoon fresh or dried Rosemary

3. Pot Roast: Add the seitan and reserved Vegetables to the Roux. Transfer to the oven and cook for 1 hour.   

1 Pulled Seitan Roast

4. Cream: Mix the sour cream, horseradish and sugar. Serve the stew in bowls, add a dollop of Cream and add fresh ground pepper.  

1/2 cup nondairy sour cream

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

1/2 teaspoon sugar   

5. Serve: Serve the  Pot Roast with the Cream on the side or prepare as charcuterie by arranging the Pot Roast in the middle of a tray, with the Vegetables around it. Add slices of bread, pickles, radishes, the gravy and the Cream.   

Slices of bread

Dill and/or sweet pickles

Sliced Radishes 

© 2021 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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kettle goulash

  

Overview

Time: 30 minutes
Dishes: large pot 

Hello, hello Dear Readers!

Although no kettle required, real Hungarian Goulash is slightly thick, but not from flour; it is thick from paprika and the starch from the potato. In fact, there is six tablespoons of paprika in this meatless, vegetarian and vegan soup. It was really scrumptious and so easy to make! 

Kettle Goulash differs from regular Goulash in thickness. Regular Goulash is more soupy and Kettle Goulash is thicker - whether that is because of the method of cooking (kettle on an open fire evaporates liquid faster) or because of the mounds of paprika that is poured on the meat even before any liquid is added, I am not sure. However, I do know that I like this version a lot! If you like it soupier, add more water and serve with pasta.

I used Gardein beefless tips this time, but both my son and I think it would be better with seitan. Our husbands, however, thought it was great as is - so there you have it - a matter of opinion, again. 

I made this the old-fashioned way, where the onion is first cooked a little and then the protein is added and shrouded in paprika. It is not stirred but is covered and cooked for 5 minutes. Then the broth is added along with the vegetables, stirred well, and simmered. 

I highly recommend trying this soup! Serve with some crusty bread and garlicky greens; it is very filling and delicious, not to mention crazy easy to make.

NEW TO PLANT-BASED EATING? Get my free zines and check out the wrap-up of Fall 2020 recipes HERE. Great way to set yourself up for success!

Enjoy!

Speedy Cooking Tips:

• Chop the onions and garlic.
• Chop the seitan (or use beefless tips; do not thaw) while the onion cooks.
• Cover to cook the protein and paprika together.
• Chop the vegetable while the protein cooks.

 

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Goulash

www.ZsusVeganPantry.com

Makes 4 to 6 servings 

easy

1. Onion Base: Add the oil to a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for 4 minutes, until the onion is golden. 

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2. Protein: Add the Gardein or seitan on top of the Onion Base. Add the paprika evenly. Do not stir. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. 

4 cups frozen Gardein beefless tips or diced Easy Simple Seitan (Fall 2020) 

6 tablespoons Hungarian paprika

3. Vegetables: Add the potato, celery, carrot, pepper, tomato paste and vegetable broth. Stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to boil and reduce to a medium simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.  

2 large Russet potatoes (20 ounces total), peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes

2 celery ribs, sliced

1 medium carrots, sliced 

1 medium bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

4 cups vegetable broth

4. Serve: Season to taste and serve with crusty bread. 

© 2020 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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