Vegan Pot Roast & Gravy

I really wanted to make yorkshire puddings and I remembered seeing this vegan pot roast recipe in Vegan Vittles. A perfect pair with my beloved yorkshires! Both E and I loved the gravy, though it was more pureed vegetables with some flavourings than a traditional gravy. As for the pot roast, it was okay but very spongey. I like seitan but prefer it to be more solid and chewy, like this baked seitan. Though the sponginess could be my mistake - I may have over-kneaded it. Regardless, it was still an exciting food experience as I've never had vegan pot roast! And I've only made gravy once. I'll try and make the gravy again without the pot roast.

So far I've tried two other recipes from Vegan Vittles - chickpeas a la king and barbecued buffalo zings. The buffalo zings were okay, but I wasn't a fan of the chickpeas a la king. I've yet to try a vegan cream sauce I've liked, except one that used coconut milk (from How It All Vegan!). I think it's because the nondairy milk I use is always soymilk which has a pronounced flavour. Anyway if you're familiar with Vegan Vittles, please let me know your favourite recipes!

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Seitan
Baked Seitan
Puttanesca Tofu
Chickpea Cutlets

Vegan Pot Roast & Gravy
Adapted from Vegan Vittles

Dry Ingredients
1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

Liquid Ingredients
1 cup water
3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce

Oil for Cooking
3 tbsp olive oil

Vegetables
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

Cooking Broth
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp rd wine vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf

For the dry ingredients: Place all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and stir with a whisk until well combined.

For the liquid ingredients: Place all of the liquid ingredients in a small bowl, and stir until well combined. Pour into the dry ingredients, and mix well with a wooden spoon. If there is still flour around the edges, add a small amount of additional water (1-2 tablespoons only). You should now have a large, firm, spongy mass of gluten in the bowl.

Knead the gluten directly in the bowl for about 30 seconds only, just to blend. (Do not add any more flour. Kneading any longer than this will make the gluten fluffy, spongy, and breadlike, rather than dense, chewy, and meat-like.) Form into a loaf, and return it to the bowl.

Place 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large, heavy pot, and place over medium-high heat. When hot, add the gluten loaf and brown it evenly on all sides, taking care that it does not stick to the sides of the pot. Transfer the roast back to the large bowl and set aside.

For the vegetables: Pour the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil into the pot and place over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onions and cook and stir for 15-20 minutes, or until they are lightly browned and starting to caramelize. Watch closely and adjust the heat as necessary so they do not burn. Add the carrots, and cook and stir until they are softened, about 5 minutes longer.

Add the broth, tomato paste, vinegar, soy sauce, thyme, garlic and bay leaf, bring to a boil. Return the roast to the pot and turn the heat down to medium-low. Partially cover the pot (tilt the lid so there is room for steam to escape) and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Maintain the heat so that the liquid barely simmers, and turn the roast over about every 30 minutes.

When the roast is finished cooking, transfer it to a cutting board. Cover it loosely with foil and let rest for 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf from the pot and discard it. Transfer the cooking liquid and vegetables to a blender or food processor, and process into a smooth, thick gravy. Pour into a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat until warmed through.

To serve: Carve the roast on a slight diagonal into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a serving platter, overlapping them slightly, and spoon some of the gravy over the top.

Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Seitan

I've made baked seitan before, which was really delicious. But have never tried "regular" seitan. I've never seen it for sale in grocery stores here (except for maybe this really spongey slightly scary looking thing at an Asian grocery store). So I finally made it myself! And it was most exciting. And easy to make. I think I still prefer the baked seitan but this simple boiled seitan is more versatile because it's not really flavoured. While I enjoyed it, I don't think it's something I'd make all the time because I'm just as happy with tofu. I used the seitan in a dish from Vegan with a Vengeance - cold udon noodles with peanut sauce and seitan. Can't go wrong with noodles, peanut sauce and vegetables!

Random Abby photo! I love how her back legs are just splayed open.

I think this recipe is infinitely adaptable. Use tofu or tempeh or some other meat alternative instead of seitan. Use spaghetti, fettucine, or rice noodles instead of udon noodles. I used some kamut udon noodles which were good and I loved that they were made with kamut but they're expensive so I won't get them often. And use whatever your favourite vegetables are or whatever you have in the fridge.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Soba Noodles with Zucchini Ribbons
Honey-Mustard Marinated Tofu
Sunflower Rice Bowl
Lemon Miso Tofu & Eggplant

Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Seitan
Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

Next time I think I'd put less maple syrup in the peanut sauce. Isa thinks the temperature of the ingredients is really important (warm seitan, cold noodles & vegetables, room temperature sauce) but personally I'd just eat the whole thing either hot or cold. Either way it'll be good. I chopped the vegetables and put together the plate as suggested but next time I'll chop all the vegetables up rather than into strips, and just mix everything together in a pot (so this is how I've written the recipe). I much prefer a plate of food that's easy to eat! And mixed together so I can get a bite of everything rather than one long piece of red pepper or something.

For the peanut sauce:
2 tsp peanut oil
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp minced ginger
1 cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp ground coriander
2/3 cup smooth all natural peanut butter
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp Asian chile sauce or hot sauce

For the seitan:
1 pound seitan (2 cups) sliced into thin (1/4 inch) strips (Recipe below)
2 tsp peanut oil
1 clove garlic
2 tsp soy sauce

To serve:
10 ounces udon noodles
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 long english cucumber, diced
2 cups mung bean sprouts
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup green onions, chopped

Make the peanut sauce:
In a small saucepan, saute the garlic and ginger in peanut oil over low-medium heat. Add the water, soy sauce, and coriander and bring to a boil. Add the peanut butter and turn the heat to low. Whisk well until the peanut butter and oil are combined. Mix in the maple syrup, vinegar and chile sauce. Remove from heat. If you want to eat the noodles cold then let the sauce cool, otherwise you can warm the sauce back up later.

For the noodles:
Meanwhile, prepare your udon noodles according to the package directions. Drain them and if you want to eat this dish cold, rinse them with cold water. Let them rest in the colander and prepare the seitan.

Saute the seitan slices in the peanut oil for 5 minutes on each side or until the seitan is browned and yummy. Then saute with the garlic for a minute, sprinkle with the soy sauce, and saute again for 30 seconds or so.

To serve:
Mix the vegetables, noodles, sauce, sesame seeds and seitan together.

Simple Seitan
Adapted from Veganomicon

Makes 1 pound

1 cup vital wheat gluten flour
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 cup cold vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated on a microplane grater

Broth
8 cups cold water plus 3 vegetable bouillon cubes, or 4 cups broth plus 4 cups water

Mix together the gluten flour and yeast in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together the veggie broth, soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic. Pour the wet into the dry and stir with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has been absorbed and the wet ingredients are partially clumped up with the dry ingredients. Use your hands to knead the mixture for about 3 minutes, until the dough is elastic. Divide with a knife into 3 equal pieces and then knead those pieces in your hand just to stretch them out a bit.

Prepare the broth
Fill a stockpot with the water and broth (or bouillon cubes), and add the wheat gluten pieces. Cover and bring to a boil but watch carefully; you don't want it to boil for very long or the outside of the seitan will be spongy. Try to catch it as soon as it boils and then lower the heat as low as it will go so that it's at a low simmer.

Partially cover the pot so that the steam can escape and let simmer for an hour, turning the seitan occasionally. Turn off the heat and take the lid off; let sit for 15 minutes.

Remove from the broth and place in a strainer until it is cool enough to handle. It is now ready to be sliced up and used. If you have extra seitan, store in the cooking liquid in a tightly covered container.

Baked Seitan

Surprisingly, though I've been a vegetarian for about 6 years, I've never eaten or made seitan (or tempeh for that matter). Tempeh and seitan are not often found in grocery stores around here, and while I have now found tempeh (and will try it soon) I still haven't seen seitan. I think I found it at an Asian grocery store but it was reeeeally spongey and honestly I was a bit scared. But now that I have this recipe for baked seitan, I don't care about finding it in grocery stores. I am totally in love with it - it's truly awesome, and easy to make. It's just like really good homemade veggie sausages, and the texture is wonderfully chewy. It does have a strong flavour though so if you add it to another dish it will effect the flavour (versus plain regular seitan).

How can I resist this fluffiness??

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Chickpea Cutlets with Mustard Sauce
Lemon Miso Tofu and Eggplant
Matthew's Delicious Tofu
Asian Beet and Tofu Salad
Spaghetti and Beanballs with Onion & Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce

Baked Seitan
Adapted from here

My only modifications were to use less cayenne and less oil, and to use steak sauce instead of vegan Worcestershire sauce.

1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp allspice
2 tsp garlic powder

3/4 cups water
4 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp steak sauce

Preheat oven to 325F.

In a large mixing bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix the rest of the ingredients (liquid ingredients) in a smaller mixing bowl. Whisk well until mixed.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well, then knead for a minute or two.. it doesn't need long.

Form into a log (6-8" long), wrap tightly in foil, twisting ends. Bake for 90 minutes. When done baking, unwrap and leave out to cool all the way. Then wrap it foil or plastic and refrigerate. Slice to use as desired.