Seitan Asada Tostada!

There's something about the name "carne asada" that sounds so very enticing to me; it hints of richness and spices, of something slightly mysterious and definitely delicious. It sounds a heck of a lot more appealing than "roasted meat." I've never actually had any authentic carne asada, but surely that's no reason to miss out now.





I played with the new easy beefy seitan recipe, adding about a quarter cup of oats to the dough for texture and a tablespoon of vegetarian Worcestershire sauce for depth of flavor. The first batch was pretty damn good, but this was far better - plus, it slices very thinly.

That's my main beef (ahem) with all the baked SoG recipes out there; they always seem too tough to slice very thinly. I'm not looking for a meat substitute whose virtue lies in it, well, not being meat. I want something that's delectable on it's own. Oh, okay ... there's a time and place for all kinds of seitan, but there's only so much jerky one woman can take.

But I digress ... thin slices, thin slices. I figured this seitan would be great for seitan asada tostadas. The marinade was a mix of lime juice, meyer lemon juice (because our tree's been very productive this winter, relatively speaking), balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil, cumin, ground coriander, and oregano. I tossed the slices in a ziploc bag with the marinade and let it sit a couple hours, turning it occasionally, before pan-roasting it till slightly caramelized. Oven baked tostadas, refried beans, and the steak, then julienned romaine, chopped tomatoes, avocado and scallions and sour cream.

This dinner made me very pleased indeed - it was delicious and I felt like we should have some sort of frozen cocktails. Of course, the front yard is also still frozen, so maybe I'll wait ... but next time, I'm trying this on the barbecue grill outside!

Easiest Beef Seitan EVER!! (And Pretty Damn Tasty, Too.)

*beef and Guinness stew with champ and pan roasted brussel sprouts*

So I just discovered that amazon.com sells groceries. They've probably been at it for ages, but I never noticed; I'm not generally thinking "mushroom spread" when I'm ordering books. But, now that I know ... I might have gone a little overboard. I now have ten pounds of nutritional yeast, among other things. I get a little obsessive sometimes.

But, I also got meatless beef broth powder, made by Frontier, the folks who make the meatless chicken powder I like to use in my chicken seitan. Oh, my. This stuff is FANTASTIC! It makes making beefy seitan the easiest thing ever! I became so excited that I couldn't decide what to make for dinner. I was thinking Mongolian beef and broccoli, then carne asada soft tacos, then beef satay. In the end, though, I had to choose the obvious: for St. Patrick's Day, I made seitan beef and Guinness stew. And it was awesome.


*seitan beef and Guinness stew: Happy St. Patrick's Day!*

I'll work on the recipe further - this was the first shot, after all - but something this easy and delicious needs to be shared right away!

Easy Beefy Seitan Yumminess

2 c water
1/4 c nutritional yeast
2 T meatless beef broth powder

1/2 c water
3/4 c vital wheat gluten
2 T meatless beef broth powder
2-3 T steak sauce
couple shakes liquid smoke

Combine the first three ingredients in a large sauce pan and bring to the barest simmer. Combine the rest of the ingredients and kneed for a couple minutes. Cut the dough into four pieces and add to liquid. Cover and cook on low heat, turning the seitan occasionally, until the liquid has been absorbed (about an hour). Easy peasy!