Asian-style Seitan and Kale Salad

Since purchasing my steamer, I've been making a TON of kale (if you haven't noticed in the more recent posts). It makes cooking greens sooo easy - wash and insert. Steam. Eat.

This dish was an attempt to making something that the crew I was feeding (DR and LF) would like. I had the seitan left over from lunch meatz adventures. Here, I steamed the kale to soften it before plunging it in cold water to cool it off. After spinning it to remove the water, I was left with a nice base for this salad. I added avocado, seitan, onion, asperigus and carrot. The dressing is seasme oil, soy sauce, rice vinigar, and some seasme seeds. Very quick and very good! Kale and avocado are like a dream together.

Blueberry Cheezecake

Cheesecake for DR's birthday. This is the second time I've made this recipe and I added lots more lemon - lemon zest, lemon juice. Wait, it already had lemon juice. But still, it needed more lemon to be a LEMON cheesecake.

But it was good. We ate the whole thing quicker than I want to admit.

Enchiladas!

There is nothing I can say about these enchiladas. They are the best thing I can make. Everyone loves them. Blah blah enchiladas!

The filling is brown rice, "burger" crumbles, and a ton of mushrooms. I cook this and add some chili powder and cumin. Fill tortillas and drown in sauce. Interestingly enough, the sauce is actually from a Betty Crocker cookbook my mom gave me for my 21st birthday. It is the only recipe I use because it is very easy and very tasty.

The sour cream sauce is actually a new recipe I came up with. It is raw! Cashews blended with apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, a little salt and some water. DR loves it and keeps asking about it. I guess I'll have to make it more often.

Pasta with Chard and Mushrooms

Here is one of my creations using the lunch meat seitan. As I noted in my last post, this stuff is awesome.

The pasta is very basic and easy. Saute an onion in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, add sliced mushrooms and cook until they are soft and ready to rumble. Add chopped seitan.

Meanwhile, boil water and add pasta. During the last 2 minutes or so of cooking, add in washed and chopped chard. Drain and then toss with the onion/mushroom/seitan mixture. Add a little salt and balsamic vinegar and stir to combine. Ta da!

Veggie Lunch Meat

Lunch meatz. Oh my, this stuff is good. I decided to invest in a plug in steamer (both to save on gas but also because my little steamer can't handle our vegan veggie load!). I knew that some recipe writers were making steamed seitans, so I decided to get to work on it. I found this recipe on Vegan Dad's blog for veggie lunch meat. OMG this stuff is GOLD. Easy to make and the flavor is mellow enough to cook with but also tasty just cut up and munched on. I've made some recipes with it recently. I'll be making this more often. I can't wait to try some different flavors.

Mushroom Gravy and Kale

It is pretty obvious that DR and I took the KALE CHALLENGE this last week. All that means is that we bought a TON of kale to eat and we will eat it all!

DR really likes mushrooms and she likes gravy, so I made the Awesome Mushroom Gravy from vegweb. She had hers with kale and steamed potato and I made some brown rice to add to my plate. It was a nice, quick dinner and the gravy was mighty tasty! I think gravy gets a bad rap for being fattening or boring, but I've seen so many awesome ways different vegan recipes have used gravy - full of veggies and good things - that I think it is a good part of a balanced vegan diet! It makes me want some tempeh sausage gravy with biscuits. Yum!

Kale and Seitan

I came up with this recipe the other day. I just put it over on vegweb, so that is really exciting! I made the "lunch meat" recipe from vegandad's blog, which is a bean-gluten loaf that is steamed and then baked to a yummy finish. It works really well in this recipe since it absorbed the "juices" well and held its shape.

This recipe is also good if you mash avocado into the cold leftovers, as I found out the next day. Enjoy!

Kale and Seitan

1 huge bunch of kale (about 8-10 cups sliced)
2 c seitan, sliced, cubed or chopped
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp ginger
2 TB canola oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 TB soy sauce
2 TB rice vinegar

Clean and chop kale. Steam for 5-10 minutes, or until bright green and softer. You could also dunk it in boiling water for a couple of minutes, uncovered, under bright green if you don't have a steamer.

Meanwhile, slice the onion into thin half moons and mince the garlic and ginger. Heat the oils in a large skillet or wok over medium heat and add the onion, ginger, and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are just translucent. Add sliced seitan (if it is packaged in water, drain it first) and stir to heat though.

Around this time the kale should be done. Take the kale and add it to the skillet/wok and stir to combine. Heat for a couple more minutes or until kale is done to your liking. I tend to like it pretty "crunchy."

Turn off heat. Sprinkle on the soy sauce and rice vinegar and stir to mix everything together. Enjoy! You may want to add the soy sauce and vinegar to taste. I have given approximate measures but I don't measure it.