cashew seitan.

 

This dish is easy, ready in about 20 minutes, and is loaded with flavor and easy to customize to your liking. The original recipe called for chicken, but I swapped it for some upton’s seitan, and I love the texture. You could swap for tofu too, I imagine, but I needed a change of pace. Below is my take on the recipe:

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 package uptons seitan
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 heaping cups broccoli florets
• 1 cup red bell peppers, diced small
• 1 cup shelled frozen edamame
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
• 1/2 cup unsalted dry-roasted whole cashews
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Asian chili garlic sauce, or to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 to 1 cup green onions, sliced into thin rounds (from about 3 or 4 green onions)

DIRECTIONS:

1. To a gallon-sized ziptop bag, add the cornstarch, salt, pepper, seitan, seal, and shake to coat seitan evenly.
2. To a large skillet, add the oil, and seitan, and cook for about 4 to 5 minutes over medium-high heat, flipping and stirring so all sides cook evenly.
3. Add the broccoli, bell peppers, edamame, garlic, and stir to combine. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.. While vegetables cook, make the sauce.
4. To a medium bowl add the soy sauce, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar, chili-garlic sauce, ginger, and whisk to combine; set aside.
5. Add the cashews to the skillet and stir to combine.
6. Add the sauce and stir to combine. Allow sauce to simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 2 minutes.
7. Add the green onions, stir to combine, and serve immediately.

taquitos.

Taquitos! These are one of my family’s favorite things that I make so I figure its about time I document it.

1 package uptons chorizo seitan or ground seitan
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 T vegan cream cheese
1/2 red bell pepper
spinach (optional – i add this to sneak some greens into it; i dont add a ton, maybe a few handfuls, chopped really good)
Green onions
2 tspn chili powder
Juice of half a lime
1/3 cup salsa (I  highly recommend trader joes salsa authentica for this)
Vegan cheese (we use daiya)

Flour tortillas

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare a 9×13 pan.

Saute your seitan; when it starts to get warm, add all the rest of the ingredients, except for the vegan cheese. mix well and cook for a few more minutes until the vegan cream cheese is all melted.

Warm your tortillas and line each tortilla with some vegan cheese; Place a heaping tablespoon full or so of the filling. Roll tightly and put into the pan. Continue until you run out of filling. you dont want to fill them too full because you want to be able to make sure to roll them nice and tight.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, flip and bake for about 5 minutes more until crispy.

Top with guacomole, vegan sour cream and more of that delicious trader joes salsa!

219. pesto quesedillas.

I saw this idea on pinterest – only it involved cheese and chicken. Tonight I made my own version and it was DELICIOUS.

First, I made some pesto. I just kind of wing my pesto. I took a handful or so of basil leaves, a handful or so of baby spinach, about 3 Tablespoons pistachios (I didn’t have pine nuts), 2 cloves of garlic, 1/3 cup vegetable broth, 1 T olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 T of nutritional yeast and blended it up in the vitamix.

Then, I sauteed some uptons seitan in a pan.
I chopped up some baby tomatoes from my garden.

I took a large tortilla, smeared on the pesto, cooked seitan, tomatoes and added some mozerella daiya cheese. Cooked this in a pan, and ate it right up. Holy cats, was it good!

160. korean style tacos with pickled cabbage.

My co-worker Jeanne made something similar for her blog a few days ago, and when I saw it pop up in my feed this morning I knew exactly what I was making for dinner tonight! I had all the ingredients lingering around from my chinese salad earlier in the week. And we got to sit outside at our new patio table and enjoy these.

I modified the recipe to veganize, and I was really afraid these would be kind of salty. They proved me wrong however, and were rather delicious. They are supposed to be similar to bulgolgi. We also topped them with avocado because its delicious and we figured it couldnt hurt. It really helped balance the flavors. Good stuff for sure. Ill be making these bad boys again! Oh, and I had a fresh package of el milagro corn tortillas, so that made these extra good!

2 T sugar
5 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
Squirt of sirachi or some chili paste
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 package seitan
corn tortillas
3 tablespoons sliced green onions
Avocado

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a shallow dish. Add seitan to dish; cover. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes or
2. Remove seitan from marinade, and discard marinade. Cook the seitan in a pan over medium heat until ready. Make tacos and top with pickled cabbage:

3 cups chopped napa cabbage
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Place cabbage in a medium bowl with garlic. Bring vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and chile paste to a boil. Pour hot vinegar mixture over cabbage; toss. Let stand at least 30 minutes.

157. chinese “chick’n” salad.

For being vegan, I don’t eat alot of salads. I gotta make sure I get protein, and I’m lazy about all the work that goes into making salad. I like ALOT of stuff in my salad. Oh, and I hate most bottled dressings, so that means I usually have to make my own on top of everything. And dressings usually have alot of oil in them, which is a big turn off to me.

But I am a vegan who LIKES a good salad. Just usually when someone else makes it.

I found this recipe to make a chinese chick’n salad. And it was totally worth all the time it took to make it. And the dressing had no oil in it. Yum. Yum. Yum.

I made a big batch of it, kept the seitan and the dressing seperately and will make individual salads for me for lunch this week.

Here’s my take on it:
1 package uptons seitan (or tofu, or some other protein)
1 small head lettuce, chopped
1/2 cup napa cabbage, chopped
2 large green onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced into sticks
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp shaved almonds
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 oz. saifun noodles*
3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
peanut oil

1. Cook your seitan until its ready.
2. In a large bowl, combine the lettuce, cabbage, green onions, carrots, cilantro, shaved almonds, and sesame seeds. Mix.
3. In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients: rice vinegar, sugar, white vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper.
4. When seitan is done cooking, add to the salad bowl. Warm up some peanut oil in a pan and fry the saifun noodles. They should only be in there a few seconds and immediately puff up when they hit the hot oil. Dry on paper towels to get rid of excess oil.
5. Add the salad dressing to the salad mixture. Toss in the large bowl.
6. On a large plate or bowl, lay the crispy saifun down, then top with the salad.