As many of you know, about once every two months we get a major fiendin’ for Mexican food. Our local options aren’t great, and among those, the vegan selection is pretty much bean flautas. So. We scratch the Mexican itch by making one of several different feasts, almost all involving guacamole, (homemade) refried beans, and then some variation on tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tostadas, quesadillas, or the infamous taco salad. On a good day, the feast involves Mexican rice. As you’ve learned by studying the Soymilk Flowchart, we’ve been on a crazy okara seitan chik’n kick lately. So we decided to switch things up and make spicy chik’n tacos–with refried beans, guacamole, and Mexican rice!

These things rocked a camel’s ass! Don’t get me wrong–I love a good tempeh taco any day–but these were a really nice change of pace. The beans and rice were probably the best we’ve made as well. This, I think, owes to the more traditional kitchen food chain we employed. Beans are usually made with some sort of fat and or stock and rice is almost always made with chicken stock. We used the leftover stock from our batch of seitan. We cook the seitan in Frontier ™ brand unchicken stock, which (a) gives the seitan a more chicken-y flavor and (b) produces a really nice stock–more robust than the unchicken stock on its own. What started way back with our soymilk is now working its way into the finer flavors of our Mexican feast.

You may already be familiar with our guacamole and refried beans. And you should definitely acquaint yourself with seitan chik’n: ours or Zoa’s okara seitan recipe.

Spicy Chik’n

To make the chik’n, follow one of the recipes above. In a bowl, mix up some taco seasoning. Add about 1/4 cup of water–just enough to make a medium thin paste–like a thin smoothy. Toss the chik’n patties in the mixture–one patty per person (the mixture will cover about 4 patties)–coating well. Store in a sealed container and refrigerate–the longer the better, for deeper marinade penetration (dirty!). When your beans and rice are just about done (or are just finished and on low heat) toss these guys on the grill, cooking until you get delicious grill marks on both sides. They should probably also be cooked thoroughly, but hey, you know what you like. Cut into cubes or strips, as per your preference.

Mexican Rice

We researched a ton of authentic Mexican rice recipes and cobbled this one together out of what seemed to be the common ingredients: rice, onion, garlic, tomato, stock.

• 2 cups long-grain rice (we used brown basmati)
• 4 cups chik’n stock (ideally from seitan)
• 1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1/2 large tomato, de-boogered and chopped coarsely
• salt, to taste
• green onions, cilantro, and/or lime to garnish (optional)

In a medium-sized saucepan, saute the rice in oil over medium heat, until it begins to brown (or turn browner, in the case of brown rice). Add in the onion, garlic, and tomato, then the stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover, cooking until the rice is soft and the stock has cooked in. If the rice finishes before the stock has cooked off completely, you can remove the cover and turn the heat up briefly to evaporate the remaining stock.

We served these in home-baked corn tortillas, with sides of refried beans and Mexican rice, and with a green onions, cilantro, lime, and a Corona ™, to garnish.

With the 4th of July right around the corner, the summer grilling season’s about to hit its peak. The 4th may very well be the actual peak for lots of people.

For vegans and vegetarians fortunate enough to have a largely veg friend group, or a veg party/event to attend, this is always a great time. For those of us with a more “diverse” social group, this can sometimes be a source of stress or anxiety. Amy and I are lucky enough to have a really supportive group of friends, who not only respect our lifestyle, not only cater to our lifestyle when they have parties, but many of whom are happy to eat vegan themselves some or most of the time.

Still, any time you’re in the minority and your beliefs are openly available to public scrutiny–in this case eating–there’s bound to be some conflict, question, or exchange. Over the years, I’ve noticed one really good way to keep this positive is to bring something homemade to grill. Here’s why:

• People are far less likely to criticize something that you made yourself. They may not agree with your beliefs, but they’re your friends, and it’s a bold move to call bullshit on something someone made. It’s a like a personal attack. Invariably, of course, someone will tell you that your homemade brats look like poop. To which you should reply: “That’s funny. So funny that the first time I heard it, I fell off my dinosaur I laughed so hard.”
• In my experience, folks are more curious about homemade grillables. On many occasions they’re even tried our homemade burgers, brats, and patties.
• If you can name all the ingredients in something, it’s not so mysterious. People often ask, “What’s in that?” If you can tell them, it becomes less foreign, more acceptable.
• If you’ve used local, organic ingredients, it’s almost ethically unassailable. The conversation doesn’t always have to be about animal rights. It can be about supporting the local economy, reducing environmental impact, not eating stuff that’s processed, avoiding packaging, steering clear of hormones, food safety, etc. They’re your friends, right? So they’re probably awesome and smart. They like to talk about these things. Any discussion that raises or brings to focus our awareness of the food that we eat is a good discussion. You’re also bound to pick up a few advocates along the way. There are plenty of meat eaters who support local and organic.
• You can vary how “meaty” your burgers/brats/patties are. This ranges from, say, a black bean burger at one end (most people are omnivores, so they do eat beans)–which makes no pretense of being meat–to a seitan brat or barbecued seitan on the other. In the middle, you’ve got stuff like breaded chick(pea) patties, which have a aspire to something chicken-y, but do so in the form of a pretty familiar bean. Generally, the less your grillable aspires to be meat, the less others are likely to criticize and the more likely they are to try one themselves. Small victories, right?

Of course, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t get pumped about grilling veggies and such (in fact, you probably should have some veggies)–asparagus, squash, zucchini, shish-ka-bobs, portabellas, etc–just that there’s something kind of nostalgic and satisfying about having a “traditional” grillable. So why not kick it the fresh, homemade, vegan way?

Some of our favorites are:

Black Bean Burgers

Chick Patties

Vegan Dad’s version of Isa’s Seitan Brats

Memphis BBQ Seitan

Seitan Chik’n Cutlet

Happy grilling!

Having slogged my way through those first two funky batches of soymilk, it was time to try again, this time using the proper measurements. It turns out that one SoyQuick cup = 1/2 actual cup. Of course! Does anyone else see this as a disaster waiting to happen? That being said, the first batch wasn’t a total disaster–many recipes actually call for “2 cups” of soybeans (i.e. 1 actual cup, which is what I used). For this most recent batch, I followed Julie Hasson’s recipe pretty closely, but used Zoa’s filtration method, to compare against the previous batch. Though still a tad beany, it was much smoother and tastier than the first round. I would actually dunk a cookie in this batch, did in fact enjoy it on a bowl of cereal. Observe:

To get a sense of the taste, and where I might want to go with it, I didn’t add anything to the soymilk initially. Though not as beany as the first batches, it was still just outside the drinkable-on-its-own range. As per Julie’s recipe, I added in 4 tbsp malt extract powder (make sure it’s extract powder, not just powder; and don’t use syrup; you can find it at shops that sell home-brewing supplies). This gives the soymilk a richer taste, and sweetens it just a hair–not enough for it to be “sweet”, but enough to cut any bitter edge and cut down on the beany flavor. If I were going to use this as my unsweetened batch, I would have stopped there. But I wanted a drinkable version that I could put on my cereal, so I added 1 tbsp of sugar. It’s still not sweet, per se, but was awesome on my cereal.

Aside from using too many beans and not filtering enough the first time, I think I also made a few mistakes with sweeteners. I used agave in one and brown rice syrup in the other–and then re-filtered the soymilk after adding the syrups. This caused the second jug of the first batch to separate horribly.  I should have been much more scientific in my approach, but I can’t recall which jug had which sweetener. Using the powers of inductive reasoning, I’ve concluded that it was the brown rice syrup batch that separated, as that was supposed to be the “unsweetened” batch, and it was the unsweetened batch that separated. So. Agave would appear to be safe. Additionally, I don’t know if it was the brown rice syrup, the second filtration, or the combination of the two that was truly at fault. I think as a general rule of thumb, stick with powders over syrups. Syrups separate. The best bet for sweetening is probably to follow Zoa’s lead and just add raw dates to the soymilk maker up front.

With a new batch of soymilk on the way, I also had a new batch of okara on the way–meaning I needed to use up my previous store. I didn’t do anything to dry my okara out, beyond mashing it with a spoon into the filters during the filtration process. So, my okara is “wet”. Before I explore the intricacies of wringing out the okara a little, I thought I’d explore the limits of laziness and establish some uses for a wetter okara.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I made Zoa’s Okara Seitan Chik’n. Aside from the salad and bowties, I made a veggie & chik’n couscous–using not only the okara seitan, but also cooking the couscous in the broth from the seitan. Everything in its place.

The next night, Joe treated me to his famous Spicy Ramen (recipe forthcoming!), a true delicacy. Made, not surprisingly, with seitan chik’n.

As you may have noticed, asparagus is no longer in season, and broccoli now is. Farewell asparagus! Welcome broccoli!

Even after making the okara seitan, I still had 2 full cups (actual cups, not SoyQuick cups!) of okara leftover. What to do with it? Then it hit me–broccoli & rice bake-em-up! I replaced the tofu with the 2 cups of wet okara and the 2 cups of faux milk with 1.5 cups of water. Also, since the farmer’s market was the next morning and I’d run out of broccoli, I used kale from our garden, subbing 2 cups of chopped kale for the broccoli. It turned out perfectly!

As is true of the standard version of this recipe, you will end up with too much sauce. Save out 1 – 1.5 cups, and you should be left with just the right amount. You can use the leftover sauce for Okara Chik’n Al-faux-do–for a double dose of okara action!

And what better time? Summer squash is popping up everywhere at the farmer’s market. But maybe this is too much? I’ve gone off the okara/soymilk deep end?

Perhaps, perhaps. Of course, this is just the sort of challenge I appreciate–and just the sort of challenge you’ve come to know and love during my occasional bachelorhoods: how can we use everything up without wasting anything? In general, we should train ourselves to see reducing waste and getting the most out of the resources that we use as a fun challenge, rather than an oppressive burden. In centuries past, this is how people had to cook–something that we’ve moved away from with advent of better preservation and, ultimately, processed, packaged, single-serving meals.

Consider it: making one batch of soymilk has shaped, in many ways, two weeks of cooking. Not quite the same as buying a carton of soymilk. And what happens to all of the waste produced during the commercial soymilk-making process?

[A]s a significant byproduct of soy milk and tofu manufacturing, okara is commonly used as animal feed since its production usually exceeds demands for human consumption. For this reason, it is not uncommon for tofu and soymilk factories to be located close to animal farms in many Asian countries. In Western countries, okara is used almost exclusively for the production of pig and cattle feed, although it does appear as an ingredient for vegetarian burger patties. – Wikipedia entry on Okara (food)

So, chances are that if you’re consuming commercial soymilk, you’re contributing (very) indirectly to factory farming. I say this uncritically, as we’re all enmeshed in the tangled system and can only extricate ourselves one bit at a time. The focus here is not on why you want to avoid commercial soymilks, but why you might want to make your own–as a way to be closer to your food and its production; to reduce physical waste; to eat more locally; and to understand your diet holistically, to see your food choices not in the context of a single meal, but rather as a week of meals, a month, a season.

Okay. I’m getting off my soapbox now and heating up some leftovers!

So you probably know by now that we here at Irreverent Vegan aren’t down with the container action. We’ve made great inroads over the last few years toward ditching a lot of the packaging and buying more stuff fresh and/or in bulk. At this point, our worst offenders are probably soy/rice/almond milk/creamer and orange juice (which, yes, comes from Florida…so it’s really kind of an eco-no-no anyway…what’s next our bananas?!). So, after getting a soymilk maker for Christmas (the SoyQuick 930p), I figured that–6 months later–it was high time to make our own soymilk.

Observe, a glass of delicious, frothy, homemade soymilk (with a cookie from like a month ago–why won’t it go bad?!):

I figured right now–in the throes of pseudo-bachelorhood–would be an ideal time to experiment; Amy’s in Reykjavik, so I alone am left to deal with the disastrous-or-delicious consequences of home soymilk production. My hope is that by the time Amy returns, I will have perfected homemade soymilk, deftly replacing our pre-packaged soymilk with my own, like a ninja in the night. Instead of just making one batch to start with, like a normal person, I decided that I must make two batches, one sweetened, one unsweetened, duplicated poor results be damned! While this is an idea that I will someday return to, once I’ve perfected my recipe, I don’t recommend it for the first batch. Here’s why, numbered for your convenience:

1. I somehow lost the instruction book and some of the parts [this is unusual; SoyQuick was prompt with their PDF instruction book email]
2. One of these parts was a cup. But it’s not actually a cup, as in “1 cup”.
3. The recipe called for 2 cups of soy beans. But not 2 cups as in “2 cups,” but rather 2 cups as in 2 of the included cups.
4. Whoops.
5. I decided to go with recipe on the SoyQuick site, for reference, when I really knew that Zoa over at the Airy Way was the true expert.
6. As Zoa points out, Julie’s recipe (on the SQ site) conveniently edits out the entire filtration part of making soymilk, which, truth be told, is 90% of the work. There’s no way you can filter everything with a gold coffee filter. Go with Zoa’s process–multi-step filtration.
7. It was a bit bean-y. I now understand that this is a result of using like 30% more beans than I should have.
8. Next time, Gadget.

All of that being said, for a first batch, this was pretty darn good soymilk. I’ve been using it every day in my breakfast shake, to savory and creamy result. I’m not sure if I would actually dunk a cookie in it, as I grossly lead you to believe in the above photo. But I can imagine a point when that will be the case. And that’s what matters. It’s not what you made, but what you will make.

While I knew about okara (repeat after me: okara is not okra, okara is not okra) from the Airy Way, I was a little overwhelmed by it at first. It’s like a soybean mashed potato. This stuff just had to be awesome…but what to do with it? Zoa uses it in her version of our version of Joanna Vaught’s Seitan Chik’n. Where else to go with this amazing stuff? On this, dear readers, I will have to get back to you.

In this grand knowledge’s stead, however, I give you The Soy Flowchart!

Despite my mixed success with batches 1 & 2 of soymilk, the enterprise in general has been great: soymilk for my breakfast shakes and okara to make seitan, which in turn has contributed to 3 outstanding meals thus far (part of the Cooking For One regimen).

Meal 1: Chik’n Caesar Salad

You might remember this one.

Meal 2: Rosemary Chik’n Bowties

This was an offshoot of the pasta from the other night, this time including okara seitan and mushrooms. Additionally, I used bowtie noodles and sliced the garlic into thin slivers instead of dicing it. Lastly, instead of a variety of herbs, I decided to focus on just fresh rosemary. Good choice.

Meal 3: Summer Solstice Salad

Okay, so I’m a couple days late; the summer solstice just passed. But. The pertinent fact remains that it’s this particular time of year that you can get lettuce, asparagus, and the first inklings of tomatoes from your garden and/or the local farmer’s market. There’s a very small window when you can get both a local tomato and local asparagus. When you can, you should. Toss in a little okara seitan, some toasted almonds, and douse lightly with olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.

This is probably one my top salads. I almost felt guilty eating this by myself, it was so awesome.

Stay tuned for:

Soy Beans vs IV: Round 2

and/or

How many things can Mark make with okara seitan?!

Holy hell, these things are killer! Here’s the recipe I followed on PPK’s Facebook page. I pretty much followed the directions exactly, but I used a yellow onion, which worked out great. We did use some of the smaller rings in addition to the largest rings (love those little guys!) and also made our own breadcrumbs in a food processor instead of using storebought. Those are the only changes.

I would like to try them sometime with the suggested Videlia onions, we just never seem to have any on hand. One suggestion: be sure to time these so that you can eat them AS SOON AS they come out of the oven.  We waited a bit and some of them got a little flaccid as a result.  We served them with BBQ seitan sammiches with the leftover BBQ sauce from the other night, and grilled spicy asparagus (in season- huzzah local eatin’!). This time to maximize the BBQ deliciocity-to-chik’n ratio, Mark cut the seitan cutlets into strips, coated the outside with the requisite rub and sauce and grilled away.  Once finished, he coated with more sauce.  See?

A yummy mid-sping chilly night of grilling and baking goodness, to be sure!

I’ve never been a huge BBQ fan, but Sunday was a great day for grilling and Amy decided it was high time for me to give BBQ another chance.

So I whipped up another batch of seitan chik’n cutlets and we scoured the internets for BBQ sauce recipes. You know who’s awesome at grilling and BBQing? Vegan Dad! Holy crap is there some BBQ action there. We went with the Memphis BBQ Tofu recipe, subbing seitan for the tofu. It was a little sweeter than I like my BBQ sauce, but was delicious nonetheless–and much better than the sauces of yore. Anything with whiskey in it rates high in my book (you may want to test your whiskey…then test again for good measure…I like to test mine on ice).

So, everybody loves breakfast for dinner, right? Like when you were 8 and you got to have Fruity Pebbles ™ for dinner?

Well, this is like that–but the opposite! It’s about taking regular dinner-y foods, and converting them into something palatable for breakfast. So, we’re not talking about firing up the grill at 7am and cooking up a black bean burger; we’re talking about the breakfast burrito–with which you’re probably already acquainted–which consists of a tofu scramble, soysage, and potatoes, all wrapped up in a lightly toasted tortilla, and the breakfast pizza–a delicious new treat–which consists of a toasted pita, topped with the same tofu scramble, soysage, and potatoes, but with the addition of pinto poblano/refried beans & chilis.

Truth be told, I’m not sure what relegates these to breakfast. The tofu in your scramble is the same as the tofu in your stir fry. We’ve used tempeh/tvp soysage/soyrizo in soups and all manner of Mexican delights. So what makes this any different?

Thusly, you have our blessing to indulge in dinner for breakfast for dinner.

For both recipes, you will need the following scramble:

Dinner-for-Breakfast Scramble

• 1 batch of tempeh soysage (or the same recipe, using 1 cup dried TVP, rehydrated in 3/4 – 1 cup water)
• 1 lb of extra firm tofu, drained
• 3 medium-sized red potatoes, cut into small cubes
• 1 medium – large yellow or white onion, diced
• 2 – 4 cloves of garlic, minced (optional)

Prepare the tempeh/tvp soysage as instructed in the above link, and let sit, allowing the flavor to soak in. In a large pan, saute the onions in oil over medium heat, until they start to get tender. Add in the soysage and cook until the soysage starts to brown on one side. Crumble in the tofu and add in the potatoes, stirring well. Cook for about 5 minutes, then lower heat to medium-low and cover, stirring occasionally. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

Breakast Burrito

• dinner-for-breakfast scramble
• 6 – 8 tortillas (or however many you plan on eating–but this should fill 6 – 8 )

In a toaster over or frying pan, lightly toast a tortilla (you want it warm, but not crispy). Generously fill with the above scramble. Top with salsa, if available. Roll up then eat up. Outstanding!

Breakfast Pizza

• dinner-for-breakfast scramble
• 6 pitas (same as above, my friend)
• olive oil OR Earth Balance ™
• ~ 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 cups pinto poblano soup OR
  • 2 cups (1 can) cooked refried beans
  • 1 4 oz can of diced green chilis
  • 1/2 poblano or green bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp smoked chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp oregano
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin

Prepare the scramble as directed above. If you don’t have pinto poblano soup on hand, add the pepper and chilis in with the onions. When the scramble is ready, mix in either the pinto poblano or the refried beans and spices. Continue heating until it’s heated through and through.

Meanwhile, prepare your pitas. If you don’t have a toaster oven, preheat your over to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly brush the pitas with olive oil or slather them with Earth Balance (we used Earth Balance), then sprinkle them generously with dried thyme. Bake in the (toaster) oven until they just start to brown.

Remove them from the oven, then allow them to cool for a few minutes. Dollop the bean-y scramble on them and spread. You can serve these with a fork and knife, or cut them up in advance, pizza-style. Using the latter method, these would make a great brunch treat. Phenomenal!

Does the coop have tons of locally grown spinach because we love it, or do we love spinach because the coop has it?

I don’t know if it’s because tomatoes aren’t in season yet, or if the coop’s surplus of spinach has inspired us, but we’ve been off the tomato lately and on the spinach and/or cream sauces. This is a variation on one of our standbys–VeganYumYum’s Tomato Basil Cream Pasta. Instead of the usual tomatoes/tomato paste, we used our own frozen pesto and fresh spinach. While this, in and of itself, would have been awesome, it was kicked to the next level by the addition of sauteed mushrooms and homemade seitan chik’n–which also gave it that additional protein it was wanting.

Spinach Basil Cream Pasta

• 1/2 lb tomato semolina linguine (or fettuccine/linguine of choice)
• 1/2 HEAD of garlic, diced
• 3 pesto cubes (or ~1/3 cup pesto)
• 1/2 cup ground cashews
• 3/4 – 1 cup of water
• 2 large handfuls of spinach
• ~8 medium-sized crimini mushrooms
• 1 seitan chik’n cutlet (optional)
• 1 or 2 stalks of broccoli florets (optional)
• olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste

In a large pan or pot, saute the garlic in olive oil over medium heat until it just begins to brown. Meanwhile, either prepare your pesto or defrost your pesto cubes. Put some water on for the noodles. Once the garlic is done, toss that in the blender along with the pesto. Grind the cashews in a coffee grinder, if handy, and add to the blender mix–otherwise, just add the cashews directly. Add 3/4 cup water to the blender mix and start blending. Slowly feed in the spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste, and puree.

Meanwhile, once the water comes to a boil, toss in the noodles. If you’re using the broccoli, steam it.

In the garlic pan, saute the mushrooms and chik’n (if using) in olive oil, until the mushrooms are tender and the chik’n has begun to brown. Remove from heat.

Once the noodles are done, add them to the mushrooms and chik’n, then mix in the spinach/pesto blend–slowly. Add just enough to thoroughly coat the noodles and fixins. You may need a little extra later if you let it sit for a bit.

Serve with garlic bread. Or else.

It’s…(drum roll)…Chik’n Caesar Salad!

But why?

1. A friend was eating a chicken-y version at the bar the previous night
2. It’s grilling season
3. Seitan chik’n cutlets are like crack, except they probably won’t destroy your life
4. It’s the salad that eats like a meal!

Caesar Dressing

• juice of one lemon
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup good quality olive oil
• 2 heaping tablespoons Veganaise ™
• 2-4 tsp vegan worcestershire
• plenty of fresh ground pepper
• pinch of sea salt
• 4 big cloves of garlic, finely minced or crushed in a garlic press
• several sprinkles of homemade vegan parmesan (recipe below) to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk briskly until smooth.  Transfer to a cruet and chill.

Homemade Vegan Parmesan

• 1/2 cup raw pine nuts
• 1 tbsp white or yellow miso
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1-2 tsp salt (to taste) (careful-we like our salt!)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until ground to fine crumbly bits.  Try to stop before the mix gets pasty.

Seitan Chik’n Cutlets

It’s worth reposting this, since (a) we’ve strayed a bit from the traditional course, and (b) we’ve been making them every few weeks. The thing I love about these–the genius of them–is the cutlet form. Flattening them out makes them dense and very easy to work with in other recipes. In the not-too-distant-future (lalala), I’m gonna rock the PPK’s version as cutlets.

• 2 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
• fresh rosemary and thyme sprigs
• fresh oregano and sage leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 cups cold unchicken/veggie broth (we use the bulk unchicken broth from Frontier ™)

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients, mixing well (I like to use a fork for this, since wheat gluten is so light). In a smaller bowl, combine the garlic and water. Mix the garlic-y water in with the dry ingredients. Knead into a uniform dough.

Fill a large pot with the cold broth and add the herbs and bay leaves.

Rip off a piece of dough in roughly golf-ball-sized chunks and ball it in your hands. Using wax paper or a ziploc bag, flatten the ball out as thin as you can. It’ll stretch back once you peel if it off the paper/bag. Drop it into the broth. Repeat for the remainder of the dough. After you’ve dropped the final bit in, let them all sit in the cold broth for 10 minutes. Then, bring the water to a gentle boil, reduce heat, and cover, cooking for 1 hour. Remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes. Note: These aren’t super zesty on their own; that’s part of what makes them awesome in so many different dishes. They’re now ready to grill/bake/bread/fry/eat raw caveman-style.

Finally, building the salad

• Green leaf or romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sizeable shreds
• 2 seitan chik’n cutlets, grilled and cut into strips
• 1/4 large purple onion, cut into thin slices then quartered
• croutons (we make our own out of old bread–just cut into cubes, douse with olive oil and herbs/spices, and bake at 400 for 10 – 20 minutes, until crunchy)

Grill two cutlets until they’re cooked through and, ideally, have grill marks. Grilling is about grill marks more than anything. Take heed.

Fill a large bowl with the lettuce, onions, and croutons. When the cutlets are done, cut them into strips and add them to the rest of the salad. Toss the whole thing lightly with the salad dressing.

Then eat, eat, eat…and keep eating, all you want. It’s salad.

We still had two seitan chik’n cutlets leftover from our gumbo, and this last time we made them in chik’n broth (which added just enough extra zang to make this my new favorite seitan recipe), so, after our beautiful weather turned cold, rainy, and gray, it was indubitable that we had to make a chik’n soup of some sort.

We wanted something a little heartier than our chickpea noodle soup, so we opted for something creamier and with potatoes. Additionally, we had some amazing fresh Hungarian paprika from Amy’s recent trip to Budapest. So, we rocked this euro-style, added some tarragon, and went for an unusually savory (in the traditional sense of the word) soup.

Savory Chik’n Potato Soup

• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 large or 2 medium-sized carrots, peeled and cut into disks or half-disks
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 4 large cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, half cut into bite-size pieces, half diced
• 2 seitan chik’n cutlets, cut into small cubes
• 4 cups of chik’n/veggie stock (we used the seitan stock)
• 4 cups water
• 1 tsp Hungarian paprika
• 1 tsp tarragon
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp Earth Balance ™
• 1/2  cup soy creamer (or use 1 cup soymilk, and reduce the water by 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 – 1 cup roux

In a large pot, saute all of the veggies in high heat oil over medium heat. Meanwhile, in a medium-sized skillet, lightly brown the chik’n in the Earth Balance ™. When the veggies are soft, add in the stock and the water. When the chik’n is lightly browned on most sides, add that as well. Add in the spices, then the creamer.

Make a roux with about 1/2 cup flour and just enough cold water to get a batter-like consistency, mixing with a fork or small whisk. Slowly whisk the roux into the soup, until it’s the desired consistency. Amy likes a thin creamy soup, I like mine thick. So it goes. Poo-tee-weet.

Enjoy!

(or else)