Post Punk Kitchen’s Homemade Seitan — Great Taste, Horrible Texture

First of all, I apologize for being an absent blogger the past 6 weeks or so. My husband and I had to put down my beloved Gladys on September 22nd and since then, life has been quite busy. To make up for my absence, I decided to present you all with a seitan recipe I found on the web from the well-known vegan cook, Isa Chandra Moskowitz. To be perfectly honest, after being spoiled with Happy Herbivore’s amazing recipes, I find her a bit overrated.

This morning, while searching for a good seitan recipe, Post Punk Kitchen’s website popped up. I figured this would be the best recipe since ICM is so famous in the vegan community. Well, I am extremely disappointed 😦

Here is the recipe:

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

For the simmering broth: 
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce

Fill a stock pot with the water, broth and soy sauce, cover and bring to a boil.

In the mean time, in a large bowl mix together gluten and yeast.  In a smaller bowl mix together broth, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. Pour the wet into the dry and combine with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has absorbed and partially clumped up with the dry ingredients. Use your hands and knead for about 3 minutes, until it’s an elastic dough. Divide into 3 equal pieces with a knife and then knead those pieces in your hand just to stretch them out a bit. Let rest until the broth has come to a full boil.

Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer. Add the gluten pieces and partially cover pot so that steam can escape. Let simmer for 45 minutes, turning occasionally. Turn the heat off and take the lid off, let sit for 15 minutes.

Remove from broth and place in a strainer until it is cool enough to handle. Slice and use as desired.

Here is the link: http://www.theppk.com/2009/11/homemade-seitan/

The flavor was good, but the texture was pretty awful. Very porous and mushy 😦

I am keeping the broth combination in the stock pot so I can make a second round of seitan later today using a different recipe. I will let you know how it goes! If you have any recommendations, send them my way!

~Kate

One of my favorite meals

Dominex makes AMAZING bread eggplant cutlets that I love to use every now and then for an easy vegan Eggplant Parmesan.

 

I like to pan-fry the cutlets in a very small amount of olive oil and then sprinkle some Daiya Mozzarella cheese on top. Add some quinoa, sauteed onions and peppers, and a little marinara sauce. YUM!

~Kate

Restaurant Review: Spoon Revolution Vegan Bistro ****

Today I finally made it to Spoon Revolution in Concord! Their dishes are 100% vegan and gluten-free. Their menu is very limited so don’t expect a lot of choices if you visit. Today, they had 1 soup (Vegetable Bean), 2 salads (Hummus salad and a garden salad), 3 entrees, and 1 dessert. Each day, they offer a 3 course meal for $8.99, which is what I opted for: Soup or salad, entree, and a dessert, plus iced tea. If you choose something outside of the designated 3 courses, you pay an “a la carte” price. Check out their site for more information.

Mixed greens salad with fresh hummus

Courgette and quinoa cold casserole (Grated young zucchini, quinoa lightly cooked in house vegetable stock and seasoned with walnut oil, fresh oregano and lemon juice, blended with uncooked fresh organic tomato and basil sauce.)

Iced Tea

Mango Madness Mango, banana and apricot with coconut milk, oats and brown rice syrup.

I will definitely go back to Spoon Revolution! Three things stood out to me, though, that prevented me from giving them 5 stars: the limited menu, the sluggish atmosphere and the lack of organic ingredients. Sorry, Spoon Revolution… you just can’t compete with Susty’s!

Chocolate for Breakfast!

Thank you Happy Herbivore for giving me yet another delicious meal to wake up for! Chocolatey Oatmeal! I received the recipe from one of the meal plans. Considering you get about 21 recipes for $5, it’s a pretty inexpensive way to eat healthy and make simple, delicious meals. If you are interested or would like more information, check out the Happy Herbivore’s meal plan website at http://www.getmealplans.com/

 

Bummer

Since starting the vegan diet back in February, I have noticed many benefits ranging from increased energy to fewer stomachaches. Unfortunately, I also noticed I was breaking out more often, specifically around my mouth. Some people said it was hormone-related others said it was my body detoxing. Keep in mind that even during adolescence, I never had any problems with acne.

Last week, I noticed I was breaking out more than usually and assessed my diet. I had several soy-based meals. This week, I decided to cut back on the soy. Sure enough, my skin is clear. It’s nice to know what most likely was the cause, but super disappointing that it is soy 😦 Obviously, this reaction isn’t severe enough for me to cut it out completely, especially since I have been eating soy for as long as I remember, just not in the same quantity as I have been recently.

My plan is to cut back on tofu and tempeh and focus more on beans and quinoa for protein. Any other suggestions?

~Kate

Ancient Aztec Salad

I’m working late tonight and decided to prepare one of the Happy Herbivore’s Quick Meals. I added a few extra ingredients to make it my own. Here it is:

Ancient Aztec Salad:

• 1 cup corn
• ½ cup black beans
• ¼ cup cooked quinoa
• Fresh salsa (I used about 1/4 cup instead of using fresh tomatoes)
• Fresh squeezed lime juice
• A very small amount of olive oil
• 1 piece of Gardein’s Chick’n Scallopini
• Chipotle pepper powder
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Cumin

Cook the chick’n to your liking. I usually pan-fry it with just a little bit of oil to keep it from sticking. I have learned that using water or vegetable broth changes the consistency of the Gardein products so I recommend using olive oil. Feel free to add seasonings of you choice while the chick’n is cooking. I used the Chipotle pepper powder.

Combine the rest of the ingredients. This is great served warm or cold. Pretty ideal for eating at work. Enjoy!

(Recipe from happyherbivore.com).