rants & recipes

The title is sort of in jest - I think I made my log a little longer and thinner than normal, but didn't decrease the baking time and so my first attempt at Italian sausage seitan was a little dry on the ends/edges (but quite tasty with pasta sauce and how else does one eat Italian sausage, anyway?). This dryness issue will be remedied next time.

See Notes for improvements.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups vital wheat gluten
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• pesto:  ~ 1/4 cup pine nuts, 1/3 - 1/2 cup walnuts, 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
• 3 tbsp A1
• 3 tbsp oil
• about 2 tbsp Campbell's Tomato Soup (leftover - it's not exactly that great)
• ~ 2 tsp dried basil
• ~ 1 tsp Italian seasoning (basil, oregano)
• ~ 1 tsp dried parsley
• ~ 1/2 tsp ground fennel
• pinch or two of chili powder
• ~ 1/4 - 1/2 tsp spicy mustard
• ~ 1/8 - 1/4 tsp each ground sage and rosemary (not too much, or it'll taste like stuffing! :)
• 3 cloves garlic, microplaned

Instructions:

1. I ground the nuts, the rest of the "pesto" ingredients, the 1/2 cup yeast, the red pepper flakes, the rest of the dry flavoring/herbs  in a blender (no, I don't have a food processor) until well ground.
2. Then, combine rest of dry ingredients, "pesto".
3. Combine wet ingredients, garlic.
4. Add wet mix to dry.
5. Knead until combined.
6. Form a log, roll in foil, twist ends tightly.
7. Bake at 325 degrees for approx. 90 minutes.

Notes:

• based on the famous seitan o' greatness recipe here, with a few modifications to the spices found here.
• next time, I will add a little more oil/liquid and a dash of liquid smoke.
• I may have used a little more basil, it's hard to tell from my notes.
• makes good meatballs, if you don't mind cube-shaped meatballs.
• definitely leave out pine nuts, if you don't have them - sub any other nut or more walnuts.
• LESS DRY: when made a second time, I increased the oil to 4 tbsp, increased the A1 to 4 tbsp, added an extra tbsp of water and used 3 tbsp ketchup in place of the 2 tbsp tomato soup. The result was very tender (the 2/3rds of middle was under-done at 80 minutes cooking time but made a great "ground seitan" for this recipe).