Seitan Gyros - I Can't Believe it's Vegan

I am so excited to share this dish.  It's a vegan Gyros pita made with an herbed seitan.  I found the recipe in the VegNews Magazine. There's a whole section of Greek vegan recipes this time including:  Spanikopita, Baklava, and this Gyros complete with a tzatziki sauce. These recipes are by Catherine Dorrell, The Messy Vegetarian Cook. I haven't made seitan from scratch in a long time.  Thought I'd give it a try.  My son, Marty used to work at a Gyros at the mall, maybe I could entice him to have dinner with us. He does have a hard time in a kitchen usually full of food finding something he thinks he'd like.

Fake meats aren't something I eat a lot of.  I did experiment more with them when I was transitioning from meat.  At the first VegFest I attended, I watched a demonstration in preparing vegan sausage, seitan, by the founder of Field Roast.  It was a good demo and I immediately went home and cooked up a good batch.  I used fresh herbs and dried cranberries and nuts, I think.  It was tasty, but it wasn't something I was really excited about.  I wasn't thrilled about the texture, it was a lot of work.  I boiled it in the crock-pot I think for a long time. I also didn't think too much gluten in our diets is a good idea. After all, Seiten isn't for the gluten intolerant.  It's largely Vital Wheat Gluten, so should probably only be eaten occasionally, in my opinion.

It started with a recipe I saw for Herbed Feta.  It looked interesting, easy, and I had some extra firm tofu in the fridge and dried herbs in the pantry.  I'd love to have another vegan cheese recipe in my kitchen.

Herbed Feta

1 16-ounce package extra-firm tofu, cut into ½-inch cubes
2 cups filtered water
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano

In a large saucepan over low heat, combine all ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.  Set aside to cool and then refrigerate overnight.  Drain and use in place of feta.

The longer they sit in the brine, the tastier they become. 

While I was reading the feta recipe I noticed the whole page was about the Gyro sandwich.  I did have some vital gluten around looking for a home.  I had some left over from a recent project and was wondering what to do with it.  I'll give seitan another try, it's been awhile.  I am sooo glad I did!  This turned out very flavorful and tender.  It wasn't too difficult either.  The ingredients are mixed together, dry and wet.  Then it's kneaded for 30 seconds, rolled in foil, steamed 45 minutes, then the whole roll is popped in the oven for 30 minutes.  I was very surprised at the color and texture when it opened the roll.  When it went it in, it looked kind of like bread dough.  It came out looking like a nice sausage.  I'm amazed.
 

For the Seitan:

1¼ Vital Wheat Gluten
1/3 cup soy flour
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rubbed thyme
¼ teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon allspice
¼ cup red wine
1/3 cup vegetable stock
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup diced yellow onion
3 cloves garlic, minced

In a large bowl, stir together wheat gluten, soy flour, oregano, salt, thyme, cumin, pepper, and allspice.  In a blender, blend wine, vegetable stock, olive oil, onion, and garlic until smooth.  Combine liquid and dry ingredients and knead into dough for about 30 seconds, forming into a 6-inch-long roll.  Wrap the dough in foil and twist ends to seal closed.

In a steamer, steam dough for 45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350º, then bake for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly before unwrapping and cutting into paper-thin slices.

Tzatziki Sauce

1 cup unsweetened vegan yogurt
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 teaspoons fresh chopped mint
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
½ cup peeled, grated cucumber, patted dry

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Slice Pitas in half, sprinkle some fresh lemon juice over the seitan slices, add fresh onion, tomato, lettuce, or your favorite greens.

Wasabi Oven Home Fries

This is a quick and tasty treat I tried yesterday.  I finally got around to opening up my latest VegNews Magazine.  It didn't take long to find something easy to try.  I noticed some Wasabi Oven Fries that looked pretty good and I had a small bag of little organic yellow potatoes.  I took the warm bowl of home fries out into the yard with a glass of tea and joined my husband who was already out with the camera trying to catch some good shots of the extra large full moon.

Wasabi Oven Fries

     a recipe by Terry Hope Romero

4 cups russet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled, and sliced ½-inch thick.  (I used the small organic yellow potatoes and I didn't peel them.)
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons aonori seaweed flakes (I had some crumbled Wakame dried seaweed.)
1 tablespoon wasabi powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt or tamari
1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Preheat oven to 475º

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  In a large mixing bowl toss potato slices with oil and spread in a single layer on baking sheet.  Roast for 20 minutes, then flip the fries.  Roast for another 4 to 8 minutes, or until crisp.  Transfer baked fries back into large mixing bowl.

In a small bow, combine seaweed flakes, wasabi powder, sugar, and salt.  Sprinkle the fires with the rice vinegar and tamari, if using, then with half the topping, toss the fries, then sprinkle with remaining  topping and toss again.  Serve warm, Enjoy!

These were delightful, salty, sweet, warm and easy. The Wasabi is very subtle.

I also found a great recipe in the issue for Herbed Feta Cheese made from extra firm tofu.  I've got it marinating in the fridge right now.  I'll let you know what I do with that.

BBQ Tempeh and Forbidden Rice Salad

I'm finding more and more that cooking plant based has become habit rather than working on change.  Coming home and preparing dinner is as easy as it used to be before we went plant based.  I was thinking about this last Thursday night.  It only took me about an hour to come up with a great meal for dinner and enough for our lunches for the next day. When I got home from work, I sliced some whole grain tempeh I had in the fridge into strips and and tossed them in a marinade of Wheat Free Tamari, fresh lemon juice, a little Mirin, and a dash of sesame oil.

While the tempeh was marinating I peeled and sliced about eight very nice apple pears I picked up on the way home from work at the local produce store.  I sprinkled the slices with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little spice mixture from the cooking class last week.  I think it had some cumin, ground almonds, sesame seeds, and a little lavender.  I threw the slices in the dehydrator.  Just love dried apple pears, they're like candy to me. They'll be ready in the morning. I like to take them out when they are dry, but still a little moist and crunchy inside.

I put on a small pot of black forbidden rice and a pot kaniwa.  They both take about 20 minutes to cook and when they were done, I tossed them together and added some chopped green onion and diced red bell pepper, Tamari, Lemon Juice, Sea Salt, and a little Raw Apple Cider Vinegar.  Served on a bed of chard chiffonade and fresh sliced cucumber.  I picked the chard and cucumber from the garden Sunday.

Forbidden Rice & Kaniwa Salad

While the rice and kaniwa were cooking I browned the marinated tempeh in about a little less than a tablespoon of coconut oil and added some vegan barbeque sauce I had made up a couple days before.  I made the sauce on Sunday, planning to make this dish sometime this week. I cooked the tempeh and sauce just a few minutes until the sauce was warmed through.

Marinated Tempeh Browning

BBQ Tempeh

The BBQ Sauce is an easy recipe from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw. pg 139

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
¼ cup raisins
1 cup filtered water
2 TB fresh dill, minced (I used 1 TB dried dill)
1½ tsp. raw apple cider vinegar
½ tsp. stone-ground mustard
Sea Salt to taste
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 TB olive oil
¼ cup tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 chipotle pepper, ribs and seeds removed, and soaked (optional)

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes and raisins in the filtered water in a small bowl for at least 30 minutes, reserving soak water.

Place the sun-dried tomatoes, raisins, dill, apple cider vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, olive oil, chopped tomatoes, chipotle pepper, and 1/4 cup soak water from tomatoes and raisins in a blender and blend on high for 30 to 40 seconds until a paste forms.

I spread half of this paste on my tempeh in the skillet and added the remaining soak water to the blender and blended for another 30 seconds to make a nice sauce. I drizzled some sauce on the warm plated tempeh.

Learning New Skills

I lost track with the blog for a little while, life has been busy.  In preparation for my upcoming training, I have been cooking mostly out of two cookbooks, The 30-Minute Vegan and The Taste of The East the last few weeks so I didn't feel I should be posting too many same chef's recipes.  It's just not good chef etiquette.

 Recently I spent three days training to teach plant based cooking with one of my favorite chefs and the author of these vegan cookbooks, Mark Reinfeld, of Vegan Fusion.  I am now in the third phase of the training.  I'll assist in a couple five and ten day classes and then give it a try on my own beginning with intimate demos in the local health food store, the produce store, and private homes.  I'd love to do a demo at the farmer's market using just the ingredients on hand there.  I'm a bit nervous, but excited to try out something new.  I always did love working in the restaurant business.  I enjoy helping people create their own meals and participate in their celebrations. This way, I can be a part of sharing wonderful food without the stress of trying to run a restaurant.  I like that idea. We'll see how it goes.  Not quitting the day job just yet. The training was great and I feel like I have the tools to begin exploring this adventure.

This month I'm assisting an experienced teacher with a three part class based on Dr. McDougall's plant based diet. Then towards the end of the month, I'm off to Portland to assist in a five day intensive training.  Looking forward to cooking with new friends.

First Demonstration:  Tomato Mung Bean Salad

 How to clean the seeds from a chili pepper without touching the seeds. 

I'm creating some great meals in my warm kitchen.  I have quite a few fun recipes to share, I'll be posting some shortly.