Posts Tagged Seitan

Weekend Breakfast Sandwich

Breakfast sandwiches are easily one of my favorite foods.   Maybe it’s because my parents would always make my sister and I egg sandwiches on italian bread when dinner that night was a bit too grown-up for our tastes.  Maybe it’s because I can’t get enough bread in my life.  Whatever the case may be, I love breakfast sandwiches and have them at least once a week.

In an effort to eat a mostly plant based diet, I have had little difficulty skipping meat, milk and cheese, but I love eggs.  I’m no where near perfect in my food choices, but I do my best.  I try to limit myself to organic, local, cage free and hormone free eggs.  Vegans, don’t leave!  I often make this sandwich completely animal free with slices of baked tofu (ala this post on vegweb) sprinkled with black salt (which gives the tofu an eggy taste) in place of the egg.  It’s still really delicious that way.

My breakfast sandwiches are usually quite basic and not worthy of a photo, let along a blog post, but my sandwich this morning was too good not to photograph.

First, heat a non-stick or better yet cast iron skillet with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.  Once it’s hot, place a thick slice of tomato in the skillet and let it sear on both sides.  It will just take a couple of minutes per side.  At the same time, put a few slices of faux bacon, soy sausage, or in this case some homemade seitan (don’t be scared, it’s really tasty) in the pan to get crispy.

Next, toast a bagel or english muffin (note: I am not a fan of regular bread for breakfast sandwiches- it gets too soggy!).  Smear it with some  hummus.  Yes, hummus on a breakfast sandwich.  It’s delicious!

Then fry up your egg or reheat some baked tofu.  I like my eggs mostly set but still a bit liquid in the center (nommmmm).  Place everything on the bagel, along with some salad greens and a thick slice of red onion, which gives your sandwich great color.  Voila!  A really simple breakfast that tastes like a million bucks.  Add a homemade soy peppermint mocha and call it Sunday morning :)   Enjoy!

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Mini Vegan “Meat” Balls

I’ve made these chicken-style seitan nuggets a few times now, and I’m a big fan.  The recipe comes together in minutes, they bake quickly, and the texture of the finished product is perfect.  Seitan can sometimes be really rubbery and tough, but these are just right.

Last night, I made a batch of the dough and made half into nuggets, and then experimented with the other half.  I was oddly craving Italian Wedding Soup (I have no idea why, I’m pretty sure I’ve never had it before, but I saw a can of it in the store and it looked really good) so I wanted to see if these could work as tiny “meat” balls.  Well, it worked perfectly!

I pinched off tiny pieces of the dough, rolled it between my palms, and placed them in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.  I skipped the breading step in the recipe.  They cooked pretty quickly, just a couple of minutes per side and they were done.  The texture was great!  I’d love to try baking these next, to cut down on the oil a bit, but honestly these were so awesome.

I looked up what Italian Wedding Soup is made of, and while the recipes varied quite a bit, it seemed like a broth based soup with meatballs and greens.

I started with olive oil, onions, garlic, and celery.  Next I added some crushed red pepper flakes, oregano, and dried basil.  When the vegetables were soft, I added some red wine, then added water, vegetable bullion, kidney beans, and the meatballs.  I let that simmer away for 30 minutes or so, then added a few handfuls of torn spinach.  I let that wilt in for a bit, then dished out a bowl.

It was great!  Just what I wanted on this cloudy day.  I think next time I’ll hold off on putting the meatballs in so early, as they got a bit spongy, but the flavor was still great.  The soup also came together very quickly and could be made to feed a ton of people for not very much money.  It’s also pretty versatile.  Like most soups, this “recipe” is one that can be easily modified to use what vegetables and canned beans you might have on hand.  My dad makes a soup similar to this with kale or swiss chard as the greens.  Cannelini beans would also be great here.  Really, soup is a great way to experiment with flavors.

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