Yes, it’s possible to eat delicious comfort food that’s vegan too! In my single days I routinely made a fast and easy Sichuan chicken recipe from Cooking Light magazine. It would be have been from a 2000 or 2001 issue. I still have the recipe and came across it the other day. I’m getting so good at making homemade seitan that’s flavourful and of a great texture that I wanted to try my hand at recreating the abovementioned Sichuan dish.
First off, make the seitan. I use a very basic recipe consisting of 1 cup of vital wheat gluten and 1 cup of water. I stir the ingredients together and then knead them for about five minutes. In the meantime a broth of various seasonings heats up. Once the water is boiling I drop the cut up pieces of seitan.
Here’s the seitan cut up waiting to be immersed in the broth. Doesn’t look too appetizing, but you wait…
The next step is to cook the seitan for an hour while stirring it every 10 minutes.
As you can see, the seitan really puffs up. I nearly had a coronary the first time I ever made it and lifted the lid off the pot. Oh yeah, you’ll want to use a big pot and a lid.
For this recipe I wanted the seitan to hang out in a marinade once it was cooked.
This marinade consisted of tamari, arrowroot powder, rice vinegar and some sesame oil. While the seitan was marinading I prepared a sauce consisting of water with 1/2 bouillon cube (I think chicken seasoning would work in this instance), more tamari, agave nectar, rice vinegar, vegan Worcestershire sauce, arrowroot powder, chili paste, grated ginger and grated garlic.
After marinading, I heat up some oil and throw in the seitan and some broccoli pieces.
Once heated, I add the sauce and let the sauce thicken while coating the seitan ad broccoli. Admit it, it looks good.
Throughout the cooking process, I’ve got some brown rice cooking. Soon we’re ready to eat.
i’ve never tried sietan…what is the texture, what is the taste or is it similar to tofu in that it takes on different flavours? is it sold chilled or dry?
The texture is chewy but soft. It does take on different flavours. I guess that’s why it’s cooked in a broth. I’ve never seen it sold here. I always make my own with vital wheat gluten and water. The VWG is sold at health food stores. Just make sure you buy VWG and not just wheat gluten or something like that.
This stuff is really good. If you’re someone like me who sometimes misses the texture of meat in vegetarian dishes, this is about as close as you’re going to come. Its consistency is almost “fleshy”. And, unlike tofu, the flavors don’t just stick to the outside, they infuse the “meat” itself. Very tasty.