Sunday homemade goodies

Running low on my first batch of seitan, it was time to make more. I've so been looking forward to it, since I've been wanting to try some different things on my next batch.

The recipe on this blog for Vegan Korean Bulgogi Style Seitan gave me inspiration for my next seitan experiment.  This time I didn't want to go with just a few herbs and powdered stuff. So I decided to add chopped veggies. I stayed in my comfort zone and chopped onions, bell peppers, and carrots using my blender's chopper attachment.

I also added a little liquid smoke as I read on someone's blog that it can help make it taste more "meaty". I checked the ingredients and nothing really stood out as potentially coming from animal products. I still also added the garlic powder, plus included Hungarian paprika and black pepper.

Another thing I did differently this time was I did a first kneading, let the dough rest for around 10 minutes or so, and then kneaded a second time.  I've seen a lot of recipes on the web where they do this, even though the recipe on the package didn't say to do so.  I had to try it and see if it'll make a difference in texture.

I also wanted to cut it differently this time, so as to make it more like little seitan "steaks". I can always cube these or slice like strips as well before using in a dish.

So, this is what they looked like before simmering:

Seitan "steaks"

I also wanted to change the flavorings in the water. I don't want the seitan to end up with a bias towards any flavor profile in particular, so I just went with 3 cups water and 3 cups vegetable broth.
It simmered for an hour, and this is the result:

In retrospect, I could have also put some liquid smoke in the water. I might do that next time.  I can't wait to grill these and make a little barbecue sauce for them. Mmmmm!!!! All stocked up for the week now.

I also played around with tofu today, making me a mix of veggies, nuts, and extra-firm Nasoya tofu for brunch, along with a couple slices of my homemade French bread.

This was so good!!! Oh, and this was my first time trying Daiya cheddar. I really like it!!  It does melt nicely and I don't know how they got the flavor right, but it tastes a lot like cheddar cheese. If the veggies look familiar, that's because it's the same combo that I put on the seitan above. I just chopped them a little more coarse for this dish, finer for the seitan. I also added a couple of handfuls of my nut mix (almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds). I cooked all this in Earth Balance vegan butter, seasoned with soy sauce and a little powdered ginger, and I have to say it came out pretty darn good.

For dinner, I also made a homemade spaghetti sauce with TVP using my slow cooker. I hadn't played with TVP yet - it was time!

I reconstituted it with vegetable broth according to package directions. I totally love the stuff!  On spaghetti sauce and chili it's a must.  Also I want to look into maybe making some "cheatballs" with it.

The sauce was pretty basic - canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, dehydrated onions, and herbs to taste (I used oregano, rosemary, thyme, a little cayenne pepper, and lots of dried basil from my yard). Also put in some evaporated cane juice to cut on the tomato acidity.  I used no salt since a) I'm kind of 'anti-salt', and b) the canned tomato products have enough salt of their own.  I added the TVP about halfway through and also used an immersion blender to break up the whole tomatoes.

I had this with whole wheat linguini and - GASP! - I think I was so hungry (by then it was around 7:30pm) that I just sat down to eat and didn't take a picture of my final product. Hahaha! However, it still looked just like regular spaghetti sauce with ground meat in it, despite being vegan and all.

I did try a couple of parmesan cheese alternatives on it:  Galaxy Food's Vegan parmesan, and nutritional yeast.  I didn't mind the Vegan parmesan too much, but nutritional yeast (or, as I'm going to start calling it because it looks so much like it - fish food flakes) has a slight tanginess that makes it the winner in my book, at least for this purpose.

So today I played with tofu, TVP, and made seitan. Quite a productive day in my now vegan kitchen. :-)