Salisbury.Fake dinner, food

Seitan Roast with Sides

Hello!  Happy new year!  I hope you are doing well, and I hope your food goals are going well, too.  If you’re participating in Veganuary, congratulations, I hope you succeed.  I also like to remind myself that when I’m trying a new thing and I have a slip up, it isn’t the end of everything and I just pick up where I left off.

This post is a long one, but I wanted to start the year out with a bang.  It’s all mostly recipes with a few notes for one or two of the recipes.

That said, let’s just get right in to the recipes.  Seitan roast, warm fennel and apple salad, ginger carrot and red cabbage salad, and a pomegranate reduction for the roast.  There’s also peas on the plate, but I just steamed those.  If you need a recipe for steamed peas, please let me know.

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Seitan Roast

Note: if using plain vegetable broth/stock, add in more salt than you think you might need.  Seitan is very easily bland, so adding in about 2 teaspoons of salt will help make it not be bland.  I know that sounds like a lot, but you’re making up the difference from a bullion cube or paste.

Ingredients

Dry:

2 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten (no substitutes, sorry 😦 )
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 1/2 tsp each garlic and onion powder
2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt (see note if using vegetable stock instead of water)

Wet:

2 cups warm water
2 tbsp oil of choice (I used olive)
1 heaping tbsp bullion paste or 2 bullion cubes (I use Better than Bullion No Chicken base)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar (or regular white vinegar)
1 tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener

Method

Whisk dry ingredients together to distribute everything equally.  In a separate bowl (or, like I do, use a glass measuring cup), mix together the wet ingredients.  There will be separation of the oil, so don’t worry, it’s normal.  Add your wet to your dry and stir to combine.  A soft dough should begin to form.  This will be wet, but it shouldn’t be shaggy (where it easily pulls apart and stringy).  Once you get a ball to form and all of the vital wheat gluten is mixed in, start kneading inside the bowl.  Knead for about 2-3 minutes, or until it becomes a bit firmer.  You shouldn’t be able to pull it apart very well at all at this point.  Let the dough rest for about five minutes.  Press the dough into a rectangle (I did this on a baking tray for easy counter clean up) and then roll into a log.  Wrap in parchment as tightly as you can without ripping the parchment.  Roast at 325 degrees F for one hour in a roasting pan  with 1/4 cup of water in the bottom.  I used foil balls to elevate the seitan above the water so it wouldn’t soak into it.  It will act as steam though, so it will evaporate a little as the seitan cooks.  Let cool for about half an hour so the seitan can set.  If it gets too cooled down, slice the seitan and then warm in a skillet with some butter or oil till golden brown.

Freeze leftover seitan in portions for up to 3 months.  Leftovers can be used for anything you’d like, really.

Warm Fennel and Apple Salad

Note: Slice the apple while the shallot is browning in order to lessen the oxidization of the apple.

Ingredients

1 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
1 shallot, minced
Juice of 1 orange
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

In a large skillet, melt 2 tbsp butter (or use oil).  Cook the shallot till it browns, then add in the fennel and apple.  Cook down for about 5-7 minutes, flipping every now and then to ensure even cooking.  Add in orange juice and salt and pepper and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes.

Ginger Carrot Red Cabbage Salad

Note: This is a small batch worth because I didn’t want to make too much since it’d be me eating most of it.  To make a full head of cabbage, just double the dressing recipe.  I know it might not seem like enough, but trust me, it will be.

Ingredients

1/4 of red cabbage, shredded
1-2 carrots, shredded

Dressing:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a medium bowl, toss together the carrot and cabbage.  In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients until thoroughly combined.  Pour over the carrot and cabbage and toss until salad is coated.  Set in the fridge until serving.

Pomegranate Reduction

In a small saucepan, bring 8 ounces of pomegranate juice and 1/2 tsp of maple syrup to a rapid boil, then lower the heat to a simmer until liquid reduces by half.  Mixture will thicken as it cools.  Spoon over seitan roast at the table, or can be used before slicing the roast.

Salisbury.Fake food, Weekly Update

Daiya Pepperoni Pizza Review

I love pizza.  It’s one of my favorite foods.  The first being macaroni and cheese.  Macaroni and cheese is very easy to replicate as a plant based food.  Pizza, however, is a little trickier.  So far, I’ve made my own vegan style pizza (pizza dough recipe here).  While Daiya is the most familiar brand of vegan cheese out there, it does have a distinct flavor, so I can always taste when it’s used.

Obviously, a Daiya pepperoni pizza is going to have the distinct taste of Daiya. (Do you say day-ah? or dye-ah?)  I have tried a few vegan pepperonis, and the attempt by Daiya is the closest to what I remember pepperoni tasting like.  That said, this pizza is better fresh baked from the oven.

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The crust on this is disappointing.  I don’t like a majority of the gluten free options available because they often have little to no flavor.  This is no different, unfortunately.  The cheese never really melts either, it just kind of goops.  Which isn’t bad, just a little off putting.

This pizza does not warm up well if you don’t eat the whole thing.  The crust turns soft and the toppings become kind of mush.  All in all, I am not a fan of this pizza.  But I’m not against trying other kinds of the Daiya brand pizza.  Maybe this one wasn’t the best because I expected familiarity with the pepperoni, and there are some meats you just can’t fake.  Lucky for me, Target stocks this pizza regularly in their frozen section for a lot cheaper than other places.

I give this pizza a 6/10.

A small update on my progress.  I hit the ground running last week and only had one bite of cheese at a party for a friend.  I had a KFC biscuit last night, but it was drier than I remember them tasting, so I didn’t eat any more.  I haven’t had any sugar past what is in fruit, and some of my already purchased stuff.  I don’t actually have that much in the way of processed sugar, which is interesting.  I did take my Christmas candy to work, which hurt my heart a bit.  Chocolate is a comforting food for me.  But I’ve noticed a huge difference in my cravings.  I did have the one bite of cheese, but I didn’t want more.  It was a new feeling when normally I’d go wild and eat a whole block of cheese without hesitation.

My food has been mostly whole food, plant based, as much as I can get it.  I did finish off a package of vegetarian friendly sausage, and a package of Gardein chicken strips, both of which I don’t think I’ll purchase again.  But I’ve eaten a lot of rice, and broccoli and cauliflower.  It’s a challenge to find stuff I like to eat because I’m not a fan of vegetables.

One of the things I’ve been telling myself is to eat what I know I like.  I made a tray of roasted vegetables with broccoli and cauliflower, and I tossed in some brussel sprouts.  Turns out, I really don’t like brussel sprouts.  But I do like peas, carrots, corn, green beans.  It’s not difficult to eat foods I like, so I decided to make it a goal to eat more of the vegetables I do like in order to train myself into eating better.  I don’t like salad, and I don’t like weird textures vegetables can sometimes get when they’re roasted or cooked.

So my advice is to eat what you know you like when it comes to “healthy” food.  If you eat more of it, eventually you’ll come to crave it.