I'm baaaaack....with a Slow Cooker Seitan Roast.

Hello there, after a month long break I'm back in full swing. Several things happened on the way to blogging. One is that it's summer and there's so much to do, including having friends visit from out of state, non stop gardening, grandchildren, birthday's and on and on and on. Anyway, I'm feeling refreshed and ready to buckle down again. Just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't been trying new food recipes, taking photos and the like. So I'll be sharing those in the next weeks. Later today I'll be posting my new favorite dessert. The original recipe was in Southern Living Magazine, I took it upon myself to veganize it, and my oh my is it delicious. A Red Velvet Berry Cobbler. Just sounds delicious right? Like I said, I'll post that one later.

This morning I decided to throw a seitan roast into the slow cooker for dinner tonight. It's really the easiest thing ever and tastes so great at the end of the day. The recipe is a combination of several I've found in vegan cookbooks plus what I used to use in my pre vegan days.

Ingredients:

1 lg vidalia onion sliced
3 lg carrots chopped into large chunks
2 lg or several small red potatoes, washed and cut into chunks
2 stalks celery cut into chunks

Broth:
1 1/2 cups broth, I make mine with Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base
1/4 cup red wine, I use a burgundy
1 worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp rhyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

For the Seitan:

1 cup vital wheat gluten
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 cup broth, I make mine with Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base
1 tbs tamari
1 tbs tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbs Kitchen Bouquet

1. Lightly oil slow cooker and set to high. Arrange onions, carrots, potatoes and celery on bottom of slow cooker.
2. Combine all sauce ingredients and pour over vegetables.
3. In bowl combine vital wheat gluten, onion powder, garlic powder, rosemary and oregano. In small bowl combine broth, tamari, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce and kitchen bouquet. Mix broth mixture into dry ingredients and mix well. Knead until smooth. Shape seitan onto a piece of cheesecloth. Loosely fold cheesecloth over seitan and secure ends. Place seitan on top of vegetables and cover slow cooker with lid.
4. I am using a small slow cooker that cooks quite hot, I start it at high until the broth is simmering and then lower the temperature to low and cook for 4 hours. In the last 1 1/2 hours I spooned the cooking broth over the seitan to add that flavor.
5. When done, remove the seitan and vegetables from cooker. I like to make the sauce into a thicker gravy so I put the broth into a small saucepan to thicken. In a small covered container add 1/2 cup water or broth and 2 tbs flour, shake until well combined. Bring broth in saucepan to a low boil and slowly add flour mixture in, it will begin to thicken, allow to boil for 1 minute and then serve over slice seitan.

Here is a picture of the seitan and veg in the slow cooker getting ready to cook. I'll post one of the finished product later today.

Well, that's all folks for this morning's post. See you later.

Here is the finished roast, it's a smaller roast, enough for 2-3, we had it for dinner with a bit of seitan left over for sandwiches. Seriously delicious. Below the roast is a picture of the dinner rolls we had with it. I'll give the recipe in an upcoming post.