Saucy Seitan

Saucy Seitan

  • One batch of homemade seitan, or two boxes of store-bought seitan
  • I onion, sliced
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • marinade ingredients:
  • 6 T soy sauce (definitely use low sodium since there is a lot of soy sauce in this recipe)
  • 6 T sherry
  • sauce ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup + 1 T soy sauce
  • 4 1/2 T corn starch
  • 3 T sugar
  • 4 1/2 t white vinegar
  • optional garnishes – cashews and scallions
  • olive oil for cooking

Combine soy sauce and sherry and marinate seitan in it for an hour.

Discard marinade and saute seitan over medium high heat in a little olive oil until brown on both sides.  Remove from pan.

Saute onion and garlic in 1 T olive oil for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl combine sauce ingredients.  Add sauce to onions and garlic in the pan.  Stir for a few minutes as it thickens.  If sauce is too thick for your liking, add vegetable stock 1 T at a time.

Return seitan to pan.  Let warm through.  Garnish with chopped scallions and cashew nuts.

Grilled Tofu Chimichurri

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I haven’t had any inspiration recently to try new recipes – that is – until today, when my grill was repaired.  I made this recipe from ingredients I just had on hand and it came out delicious.  It’s so green and pretty and tastes great!  I can’t wait until this summer when I can use my own tomatoes and cucumbers, but this will do for now.

In a blender combine 

  • 1/2 c olive oil
  • 3 T cilantro
  • 3 T parsley
  • 2 T lime juice
  • 1 T red wine vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 T orange juice
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 t agave
  1. Slice tofu and marinate in this sauce for at least half an hour.
  2. Grill tofu, reserving extra marinade.
  3. Slice cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado.  Serve with tofu, and spoon reserved sauce on top.

Raw Cookie Dough?

Growing up, my mother always let me lick the spoon whenever she was baking.  Yummmm.  Unfortunately for my kids, until recently, I never let them have that pleasure.  The thought of salmonella, and who knows what else from raw eggs prevented me from allowing them to partake in such a simple pleasure.  Fast forward to the present – when everything I bake is vegan . . . licking the spoon has become a favorite pastime.  It’s so much fun that we decided why not just eat the whole thing raw?  These raw cookie dough bites were made by my 13 year old daughter, who has so much fun rolling, dipping and decorating them!  And I never have to worry about raw eggs!!  How great is that?

Our favorite recipe comes from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, a wonderful cookie cookbook!!!  But you can just google “vegan cookie dough” and lots of delicious recipes will come up.  Try any one – what can possibly go wrong with cookie dough?  Just make sure you put the dough in the fridge for at least 15 minutes before you make them into balls. Try rolling the balls in sugar so that they are not too sticky, and if you dip them in melted chocolate, make sure you put them in the fridge again so the chocolate sets.  Have fun!!

Cutlet Cordon Bleu

Yummmmm.  This came out fabulous and I will definitely be making it again (my family has already made me promise to do so soon).  All I did was make my crispy cutlets and then after flattening each piece, I put one slice of “ham” and 1-2 T daiya shredded mozzarella cheese on one end and then rolled it up and placed it seam-side down in the skillet.  After browning both sides, I placed the cutlets in a glass dish and baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Finally, I topped them with the following sauce.  I would say it felt like we were at a fancy french restaurant, perhaps in St. Remy in wonderful Provence, but apparently cordon bleu is an American recipe.  Well, it felt like an amazing experience anyway – a journey for the taste buds!

Sauce for Cutlet Cordon Bleu –  In a bowl, combine 1 t vegan worcestershire sauce, 1 T dijon, 2 T sherry, 2 vegan bouillon cubes (I use rapunzel) and 1 c soy milk.  In a pan, melt 3 T butter.  Add 3 T flour and stir until bubbly.  Add the mixture from the bowl and heat through.  Spoon over cutlets.

Perfectly Pleasing Pizza

Ice cream and pizza – the two things I thought I would have the hardest time giving up when I became vegan.  Boy was I wrong!  Dairy-free ice cream options are really delicious!  My personal favs are purely decadent cookie dough and  Yours Truly Cones from Tofutti which I can get at my local Shoprite.  When I “need” an ice cream sundae I can go to Lula’s and I am completely satisfied.  Also, I can join in on any trip to Haagen Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s because they always have a few flavors of sorbet that are yummy and infinitely better for my figure (but I always ask about the ingredients because you can never be too sure – Haagen Dazs chocolate sorbet, for instance, has egg whites).   As for pizza – in the beginning, I was just fine with ordering it cheeseless with lots of veggies, but then I found daiya.  Who knew a vegan cheese could taste so good and melt so well?  Now,  I can either bring a bag to my local pizza place and they will throw it on my pie, or I can make pizza at home and then it is even more satisfying, and imho, even more scrumptious.  One or another of my kids is usually more than happy to help make pizzas and the dough can either be bought frozen, or made from scratch.  I made the dough here from a recipe in the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook.  It is very simple to make and always comes out perfectly.  Most pizza dough recipes are vegan, so just find one and go for it!  The best thing about making pizza at home is being able to really experiment and design your own perfect pie.  Here, my daughter made a “chickn” pizza with salsa verde, and extra garlic baked into the crust, while I chose one with truffled mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted parsnips and roasted sweet potatoes.  Imagine all the possibilities!!  Being vegan has never been so easy!!!