Praise Seitan!!!

Seitan (pronounced say-tan--I've heard the emphasis on both syllables) is wheat gluten, and is sometimes called wheat meat. All the starch is washed from ordinary flour, and it is mixed with water to form a tough dough, then simmered. Seitan has a chewy, almost meaty texture if done right. You can buy seitan pre-made or make your own. I buy Instant Gluten Flour, which has directions right on the box, although some cookbooks have recipes for actually going through the process of washing out the starch. Forget that. Buy the instant gluten flour or a seitan quick mix and save yourself some time. I also recommend not cooking it in plain water, but flavor it up with vegetable broth or a add seasonings to the cooking water. Seitan can be kept refrigerated for about a week or frozen for several months, but unlike with tofu, freezing really doesn't change the texture of seitan. I usually cook my seitan in large lumps so I can decide when I'm making the recipe if I want to do chops, strips or nuggets.

Today, I made seitan and simmered it in a broth from La Dolce Vegan!. I also found a recipe for Tomato Walnut-Crusted Seitan in the book. I made a few changes--the book recommends using the "chicken" style, and I cooked my seitan "beef" style, and when it comes to seasonings, I play fast and loose with the measurements. The dish, crusted with ground walnuts and flour, was delicious! I noticed the lovely tomatoey flavor shining through every few bites. And the texture was almost perfect. As I was eating, I wondered why I hadn't made seitan in a while. Yeah, it's time-consuming to make, but that can be done on the weekends and then used later. I will definitely make this recipe again.

For my sides, I made another pot of the marvelous bulgur pilaf from The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook and heated up some leftover asparagus. Most vegan foods I've had heat up really nicely as leftovers, but asparagus is definitely an exception. I'm going to have dessert a little later on. When I was in my apartment building's little convenience store last night so my boyfriend could grab some seltzer water, I saw they had soy ice cream from a company called Double Rainbow. And the makers were very nice to label it vegan. Cherry chocolate vegan ice cream--mmmmm.