Protein-packed vegan dinner bowl

What's one of the most common questions someone adhering to a vegan diet gets asked?

But where do you get your protein?

So today, we're talking a bit about protein. There are all kinds of great plant-based options out there.

One is the quinoa bowl with miso-glazed tofu, pictured above.

Soy--in the form of tofu, tempeh, or edamame--is one of the more well known plant-based protein options. Seitan is also a fabulous protein source (check out my seitan in a balsamic red wine reduction, here; or a seitan pot roast option, here), as are quinoa, beans, peanut butter, chia seeds, and hummus. If you're looking for slightly more processed food, there are a lot of options as well. These days you can find many varieties of vegan meat alternatives at natural food stores. One of my favorite vegan sausages that you can buy off the shelf are called Field Roast, and they make great frankfurters, deli slices and burgers as well.

For more information about some of these foods, check out one of my past Vegan MoFo entries, here.

Looking for something sweet? I recently discovered a fabulous recipe for protein-packed cookies with peanut butter and chia seeds from Ashley Wood.

And the recipe for the bowl pictured above? It comes primarily from the NY Times.

It essentially involves marinating some tofu, then dipping red peppers in the marinade and roasting both in the oven.



Put that over a bed of kimchi and quinoa, and you're good to go! The recipe actually calls for brown rice, but I like the additional protein you can get from substituting the quinoa. Now get out there, and enjoy your protein!

Barack Obama Meal--i.e. Seitan Piccata with Broccoli

I'm going to keep today's entry short but sweet.

Today's Vegan MoFo prompt poses the question--what would you make if Barack Obama was coming over for dinner?

I interpreted this as--what is your absolute favorite meal that you'd love to share with someone to really make an impression?

My answer--seitan piccata!! Seitan piccata is one of those meals I always enjoy when I go to a fancy vegan place (like Blossom or Candle 79), but somehow it always seemed a bit too crazy to make in my own kitchen. But no more!

Where did I go for this seitan piccata recipe you ask? Do you even have to ask? Veganomicon. But then I discovered that Isa has recently posted a slightly revised version on PPK! Either way, you won't be disappointed. This is so good (tasting the sauce made me do my happy dance). I made the chicken stylee seitan with this and I really love it for the taste and texture. Delish!

In discussing the post with one of my friends, her response was, "What does Obama like to eat?" Of course! So a quick google search told me--broccoli! I've paired my seitan with some broccoli (your welcome Obama!) sautéed with garlic, a splash of white wine and a pinch of oregano, basil, and thyme (and salt and pepper of course!).

If this plate looks a bit bare, let's just say I had some trouble with my yellow potatoes, so my mash never made it to the plate...but I'd definitely recommend serving over some mashed potatoes. That's the perfect piccata pairing, in my book.

Pak Choi Stir-Fry with Seitan

One of the vegetables in our CSA share was pak choi (which I realized is actually just bok choy!). This chinese cabbage is fantastic for stir-frying, so I decided I'd go for something quick, easy and relatively simple.


The pak choi was relatively small (like a baby bok choy), so it mostly consisted of leafy greens.

Ordinarily when stir-frying I would add garlic to the oil first thing (to season). We also had some small onions in our CSA, however, so I decided to throw these in instead.


For my protein I decided to add seitan, which I think is the easiest vegan protein to throw into your stir-fry. (see my previous entry for more information on seitan)

Pak Choi Stir-Fry with Seitan
What You'll Need:
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 very small onion (or 2 large cloves garlic), minced
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 8 oz. package seitan, cut into small pieces
1 tbsp cooking wine (I used dry sherry)
1 small bunch of pak choi (baby bok choy), (sliced thinly on the diagonal, separate the chopped leaves separated from the chopped stalks)

What You'll Need to Do:
Place the peanut oil in your work (or frying pan) and spread around evenly. Raise the heat to medium-high, and after a minute add the onions. Sauté the onions for a minute or so, until fragrant. Add the chopped stalk of the pak choi, 1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon soy sauce and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Sauté another 3 minutes or so, then add the seitan and turp up the heat to get a good sear. Add another teaspoon of soy sauce. Sauté the seitan for about 3 minutes on each side, until beginning to brown, then add the cooking wine to deglaze the pan. Add you greens, and...you guessed it...another teaspoon more soy sauce! Reduce the heat to low, and cover until your greens are just beginning to wilt and soften. Turn off the heat, stir and eat!



My Thoughts:
This is a really simple, straightforward stir-fry recipe. There are all kinds of fun ways to spice it up! You could add ginger along with the onion or garlic at the beginning, red pepper flakes or white pepper at the end, etc. My favorite stir-fry topping to add on is toasted sesame seeds! In the picture above there is some seared polenta on the side--a very weird starch pairing, I must admit (our pantry was running bare!). I'd recommend serving with rice, or even rice noodles or soba. If you want to serve with noodles, you can add the pre-cooked noodles to the stir-fry at the very end, along with some hoisin sauce and soy sauce, to moisten.

As with most stir-frying, I would recommend starting with your heat on medium-high and adjusting as needed. I like to use a non-stick wok, but any large non-stick, heavy-bottomed skillet should work well!

Delicious Seitan in a Balsamic-Wine Reduction

Seitan is one of those foods that I truly love but most non-vegetarians have never heard of or encountered. It's actually just made from gluten, which is the main protein of wheat. While I haven't yet endeavored to make it on my own (although I'd like to!), it is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as a sort of mass that is then cooked before being eaten (I know I'm making it sound delicious, right?). Depending on how you make it it can have a kind of chewy or stringy texture, although I prefer the type that less resembles meat, and is more of an open palette onto which I can project my own flavors. It was actually first developed in China, and is commonly used in other Asian nations, particularly for vegetarian cuisines (it's often used as imitation duck). When I go to a vegan restaurant I'm often drawn to the seitan dishes, and if I'm at a good place, I find they rarely disappoint. I love seitan piccata, and I've had a sort of wine-braised seitan at several restaurants that was just to die for. Typically, however, when I'm cooking, I just throw it in with a stir fry. It does have a bit of its own inherent flavor, and if you add a splash of soy sauce to that it can be quite good (see my entry on pak choi stir fry).

The other night though I was thinking to myself, why can't I prepare a seitan like the one I have in the restaurants? I didn't have much time to prepare dinner, but I thought the least I could do was make some sort of pseudo-wine-balsamic sauce and let the seitan cook in it a little. I came up with something so super-easy and delicious it blew my socks off!

So if you're feeling a bit adventurous, and you've never tried preparing seitan before--tonight could be your night! Some regular grocery stores carry it, but you'll probably have the best luck at Whole Foods, or a natural foods store. I usually buy the West Soy brand, simply because it's the most affordable and also very tasty. Other brands are a bit more pricey, but also have larger sort of "cutlets" that are probably nice if you want to do some preparation similar to a chicken breast or something. West Soy seitan comes in large chunks as well as strips. Anyway, here's my recipe--you won't believe how simple it is!

Seitan in a Balsamic-Wine Reduction
What You'll Need:
1 8 oz. package of West Soy seitan (in chunks)
1/4 cup red wine (I used an open Malbec-Syrah we had lying around)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar*
1/8 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
1/8 tsp dried rosemary
1/8 tsp dried thyme
freshly ground black pepper and salt, to taste

What You'll Need to Do:
Cut the seitan chunks into smaller slices (about 1/4" thick). Place the red wine and balsamic vinegar in a  medium-size saute pan or sauce pan and heat them slowly (I find a pan with about 7" diameter works best, you want the sauce to slightly cover the seitan, but also have enough room so that the seitan is not overlapping in the pan). Raise the temperature to medium, add the seitan and cover. The sauce should be bubbling steadily with the lid closed, you may need to raise the heat to medium-high. Cook the seitan about four minutes on each side, it should begin to brown lightly. At the end of the eight minutes the balsamic-wine reduction will be almost completely reduced and cooked into the seitan. Add the herbs and mix while in the pot. Enjoy!

*using good-quality vinegar can make such a difference when cooking, particularly in a recipe like this! I like De Nigris.