Thursday, August 28, 2008

Getting creative with my breakfasts, part three: seitan!

When I think of seitan, one of the last things that come to mind are breakfast (the first few are DELICIOUS, YUM, and WOW THAT LOOKS LIKE SAUSAGE). However, on my recent breakfast creative streak, I decided to make seitan 'gyros', very loosely based on a recipe from Nava Atlas' Vegan Express. I say very loosely because I ended up straying very, very far from the original recipe. :)

I ended up with a lovely little seitan stir-fry, and it was insanely delicious. I usually prefer 'sweet' breakfasts, rather than savory, but this is exquisite.

Sorry for the bad picture, I was too hungry to try to make it look nice!

Now, what sort of seitan did I use, you ask?

I originally wanted to use RnSK's recipe from the PPK Seitan O'Greatness thread, but of course I kept making my own changes and substitutions.

Here's what I ended up doing:

Peggy's Garlicky Seitan

(preheat oven to 350)

1 1/2 cups wheat gluten
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp coriander seed (whole, not ground)

Mix these dry ingredients together in a bowl until combined

In another bowl, mix:

2/3 cup water
1 1/2 tbsp leftover bean soup, or hummus would do just fine
1 1/2 - 2 tbsp finely minced garlic
1 tbsp finely minced onion
1 tbsp tamari sauce
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

***Before adding them to the bowl of liquids, I first used a mortar and pestle to combine the garlic and onion and bean soup. The original recipe asked to puree the onion & garlic into a paste, but I decided to be hardcore and go the good old-fashioned way. I didn't quite end up with a paste, but I enjoyed the little bits of garlic throughout the seitan. YUM.

Add your liquid ingredients to the dry bowl. Stir, knead, and make sure it's all well incorporated. Roll into a log and wrap with foil, nice and tight. Place directly on rack in preheated oven.before baking

Bake for about 75 minutes. That's how long I went for and was pleased with the results...

Once you take it out, let it sit for a few minutes to cool down JUST UNTIL you can touch it safely. Open up the foil and remove your seitan log. Be real careful, since the steam can come out all at once. That can end up being reallll dangerous! Let your seitan cool some more.

At this point, I started slicing up my log into thin rounds, little chunks, and fat little 'fingers'. Slice however you like! I also made some thicker rounds that I ended up grilling as little mini-burgers. In the future, I'd totally love to make a special fat burger seitan log that will be sliced into nice thick gluteny patties. :)
I took this picture because that slice of seitan was just tooo weird. That little chunk of garlic/onion looked way too much like a piece of animal fat from a nasty meat sausage. Ack! My mom ate that slice. Doesn't that look weird, though?

I can't believe I don't make seitan that often. It's real easy, tastes hella good, and the flavour combination possiblities are ENDLESS. I'll also admit to eating little chunks of seitan straight out of the freezer.. hehe.

4 comments:

Bianca said...

Your breakfasts are always so amazing. They make me wish I could start my day over again and eat more breakfast...but I guess there's always breakfast for dinner!

tofufreak said...

hehe it DOES look like a chunk of fat! weird. delicious breakfast!

Carrie™ said...

Looks incredible delicious!

Peggy said...

binca- Thanks! This has only been for the past few weeks, but I'm really enjoying this way more than cereal/oatmeal with berries. :) Breakfast for dinner can definitely be an option!

tofufreak- yeahhh it was weird :S and thanks!

carrie- thanks! :)