Vegan "Corned Beef" and Cabbage

It's that time of year ~ Hallie Kay Erin Day is nearly upon us! What? St. Patrick's Day? Ah, yes...that's right. I got sort of distracted on St. Patrick's Day, 2000, and life has never been the same. Hallie Kay Erin go bragh! (did I spell that correctly?) Anyway...the kiddo's birthday is on St. Patrick's Day, so I usually try to do a St. Patrick's Day themed meal a few days early, so she can have whatever she likes on her birthday. Most often, I make colcannon, which we all love (bear in mind, when I say "all," I mean, those of us who eat most foods. I set aside plain mashed potatoes for Kaia before adding the cabbage and onions). However, I have been thinking for some time about trying to see if I can come up with a vegan "corned beef" and cabbage recipe that passes muster. After reading a few recipes online, I decided to just wing it. I am so glad I did.

Okay. So, I am still experimenting with seitan. I don't feel like I have this recipe completely refined yet (I think I need to work on my method a bit), but the family LOVED it. I felt it was so, so close to perfect, but maybe not quite there, but it got rave reviews from Shane and the kids, who asked me to please, please make it again. So, I guess it is good enough to post :) If you know of a better seitan prep method, you should probably try it that way. I am going to keep working with this and update it as needed. In the meantime, this was very, very tasty.

VEGAN "CORNED BEEF" AND CABBAGE

Seiten:

1 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. each: ground ginger, allspice and coriander
3/4 c. water or vegetable broth (cold)
1 TBS soy sauce
1/8 tsp. Liquid Smoke

In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients. In a measuring cup or small bowl, combine all liquid ingredients. Add liquid to dry ingredient and stir until thoroughly moistened. Knead dough for about 5 minutes, until it is very elastic. Shape into a log. Let rest in bowl while you prepare the veggies.

Veggies:

1 TBS oil
about 28 oz small, whole potatoes, scrubbed
2 cups baby carrots (or roughly chopped regular carrots)
1/2 - 1 whole head of cabbage, very roughly chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp. dill
1-2 TBS prepared brown mustard
1/8 tsp Liquid Smoke
generous sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a large souppot over medium-low heat. Add veggies, dill, salt and pepper and stir to coat. Combine vegetable broth, mustard and liquid smoke and add to the pot. Bring to a boil.

Get your raw seitan log and just lay it on top of your veggies. (The idea is to let it steam as the veggies cook.) Right about now, it should look sorta like this:



Weird, huh? If you do a better job of kneading and shaping you seitan, it will be prettier than mine.

Reduce to a simmer and cover. Let cook without lifting the lid for about 30 minutes.

Carefully remove seitan to a plate or cutting board. Stir the veggies in the pot, taste, and adjust seasonings. Use a knife to cut your seitan into roughly 1/2" thick pieces. If you want the pieces to be a rougher, more organic shape (I did), use a fork to just gently pull off pieces. Place the pieces back in the pot, on top of the veggies again. Replace lid and simmer until all veggies and seitan are done. I cooked mine for another 30 minutes, and some of the veggies were slightly overdone, IMO. Next time, I will probably reduce the time by a few minutes. I would suggest checking it after about 20.

That's it. Yum!



I thought the seiten was a bit too soft, so I was thinking, next time, I might steam it and then fry the pieces in a bit of oil before returning them to the pot. However, Shane said the texture was reminiscent of "stew meat" that has been cooked in broth for a long time, and he liked it. One of the first things Hallie commented on was how much she liked the texture of the seitan. So, maybe it is just me. Apparently, everyone else thinks this recipe is great just as it is. You can try it, and see what you think. The flavour is GREAT. I suspect it is more like ham than corned beef (I don't quite remember corned beef well enough to say for sure). Whatever it tastes like, it sure is yummy.

Enjoy!