Balsamic Setian with Steamed Kale and Butternut Squash - Praise, Hail Seitan!

Making seitan on my own led to a different set of struggles. Eventually I could replicate several items I had loved as a carnivore and was happy about it. Yet, I have found that seitan worked best in roles you may not have even considered as a meat-eater. The following recipe was one I found recently on the “Working Class Foodies” site. It was a video recipe detailing how to make seitan from scratch. This recipe was at the end of the video and I've made it a number of times.

Lightly pan-fried seitan, steamed butternut squash and kale, enhanced with a little Balsamic vinegar. The flavors are subtle – the mix of the slight bitter from the kale and the sweet tang of the vinegar coupled with the minor crunch of the breaded seitan and the give of the squash leaves all senses satisfied.

The recipe takes a bit of effort – you have to work with it a good bit of the time, but if I was to serve a seitan dish for meat eaters, this would be it. It is not trying to be anything it's not – and that's why it works!

Time: about 1 hour

Difficulty: moderately, though goof-ups do not seem to affect the final dish much

Ingredients:

1 medium sized butternut squash, peeled and chopped into medium sized cubes

1 bunch of Kale

4 cups of pre-made seitan medallions

3 T Balsamic Vinegar

¾ cup of All-purpose flour

1 T corn starch

¼ cup olive oil for frying the seitan, plus 1 T more for sauteing the mix

1 t salt, more if needed

1 t pepper, more if needed

Process:

1. The first thing is too figure out how you will steam your squash and kale. Here is how I do it. Fill up a large stock pot with water; place a steamer pot in it and begin boiling the water. Peel squash, and then separate the top (long) part from the base (wide part.) Begin to chop into apx. 1” x 1” x 1” cubes. When the water has come to a boil, place chopped squash in the steamer and loosely cover. Steam for about 25 minutes – you want the squash soft but not mushy.
2. While the squash is steaming, squeeze the water out of the seitan medallions. I've had the most success wrapping the seitan in cheese cloth and squeezing the water out, over a sink. Once you have finished with this, place the seitan on a dish.
3. Begin heating the ¼ cup of oil in a large frying pan on low medium heat (4/10). Prepare the coating for the seitan by mixing/ sifting together the flour, corn starch, salt and pepper. Coat seitan in the powder. Once the pan is properly warmed, gently place the seitan in the pan, frying it about 4 minutes a side.
4. While the seitan is frying, chop the kale into thin shreds. Remove the squash from the steamer. Replace with the kale. Steam kale for no more than 5 minutes – it will be BRIGHT green and very soft. Begin heating 1 T olive oil in a second large frying pan.
5. Combine seitan and squash in the second frying pan, stirring regularly. Add vinegar and continue stirring. Add the kale and saute for about 5 minutes, sprinkling with a small amount of additional salt and pepper if desired.
6. Serve.

1. Steam Squash.

2. Pan fry seitan.

 

3. Chop kale.

4. Saute squash.

5. Saute it all.

 

6. Serve.

* By the way, this is one dish that does not do well when reheated.  Everything grows soggy, and tastes, well, bland... and mushy - yep, tastes mushy.