Lemon Seitan, My Way

Blind Faith is a vegetarian restaurant in Evanston, Illinois. It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump from my Chicago neighborhood, so I frequent the restaurant often. Well, I did until they changed its menu and removed a few of my favorite vegan dishes. They still have a few good vegan dishes like the Seitan Fajitas, but why, oh why, did they remove my favorite–Lemon Seitan?! Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. My boyfriend suggested we try to make our own one night, so we did. It turned out just as good as the Blind Faith version…actually better since I could make it myself. Now, you can too. Enjoy and happy cooking!

LEMON SEITAN
First, you will need to make a batch of seitan. It’s easy to make, but takes about an hour to cook. This recipe will give you enough leftover seitan for wraps, sandwiches, or stir fries. I really like to use slices of cold seitan on a quick sandwich: toast, veganaise, and sliced seitan–simple yet tasty.

Seitan
11 oz. vital wheat gluten flour (half of a 22 oz. pkge.)
1 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce (Bragg Liquid Amino is a great substitute with a lot less sodium!)
1 Tbsp smoked Paprika
1/2 Tbsp Cumin
1/2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1/2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1/2 Tbsp Black Pepper

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then add liquids and work into a uniform dough. Add more water as needed to combine ingredients completely. Simmer in flavored vegetable stock for about 1 hour. (Kind of looks like a brain when cooking. Not so appetizing but it tastes yummy!) Cool in pot with broth before refrigerating. Store the seitan in some of the broth to keep tender.

Use half of the seitan in this recipe. Save the rest for wraps, sandwiches, and stir fries for the rest of the week. Will last about 7 days stored in the frig.

Chop half of the seitan into bite-size chunks and set aside.

Lemon Sauce
Small container, sliced button mushrooms
1 small yellow onion, sliced in thin strips
1 large lemon
Approximately 2-3 cups + 1/2 cup vegetable stock (used leftover from cooking seitan)
Approximately 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste

In small bowl, whisk together about a 1/2 cup of vegetable stock  and 2 tbsp. flour until smooth to make a roux; set aside. (You may need to add more flour as I am guessing on the measurements here…I added a little flour to a little stock until I had a thick pasty substance to add to the sauce as a thickening agent.)

Saute the mushrooms and onions in a medium skillet.

Taking about 2-3 cups of the vegetable broth used for cooking the seitan, place it in a medium to large pot and begin to warm on low to medium heat. Add the juice of one large lemon and stir. Add the roux and whisk the sauce together. (Add more roux or stock as needed to create the consistency you prefer. Do not add flour directly to the sauce. It will not make it thicker, it will just creates clumps of flour in the sauce. It’s best to just make another roux if you want to make a thicker sauce.) Add the mushrooms, onions, and seitan to heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with brown rice and steamed broccoli.

Serves: 4

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