Sometimes I’m in the mood for a big ol’ slab of protein… seitan, that is!

A couple of days ago, I made Matt’s recipe for Chickeny seitan cutlets. I tweaked the spices slightly (I omitted the bay leaf and instead added celery seed and freshly ground pepper); used regular tofu instead of silken; and made half a recipe.

I like this recipe because it involves cooking the seitan cutlets in broth in the oven. This is easier than cooking them in a pot on the hob, where inattention can mean the difference between seitan cutlets and seitan brains. I checked them after about an hour, and they still seemed a long way from cooked, so I increased the temperature to 180C (350F). That did the trick and they were perfectly cooked in a total of just over 1-1/2 hours.

I then dusted the cutlets with flour and panfried them.

We served them with Mr Thrifty’s special mash, creamy mushroom gravy and a red cabbage salad from Epicurious.

The cutlets were delicious, tender and tasty, and the gravy was a perfect accompaniment. As for Mr Thrifty’s mash… well let’s just say, this is the mash that turned me into a mashed potato lover. The salad, I have to admit, was not my favourite; the flavours just didn’t seem to work together very well.

The best thing about the cutlets is that there were four left over. Yesterday I thinly sliced two of them to use as chickeny strips in Buddha bowls, and they were excellent in that role as well.

So when you have a few minutes, go and check out Matt’s blog My Veggie Kitchen, he’s got a lot of great vegan recipes.

Creamy mushroom gravy

1. Reserve two tablespoons of the bouillon and heat the rest in a small pot over medium heat. As it is heating, add the nutritional yeast, soy sauce, thyme, and salt & pepper to taste.

2. Meanwhile, mix the cornflour (cornstarch) into the reserved bouillon and set aside.

3. When the bouillon in the pot comes to a simmer, give the cornflour/bouillon mixture a stir and add it to the pot, whisking continuously, and bring again to a simmer, whisking all the while. The mixture will thicken as the cornflour cooks.

4. Whisk in the optional cream cheese until incorporated.

5. Add sliced mushrooms and stir. Cover, turn heat to low, and cook at a gentle simmer until mushrooms are cooked, about five minutes.

I wasn’t going to blog about this, because I made it partly from a pre-packaged kit, which I don’t usually buy.

But it was so delicious that I just had to share it with the blogosphere. Next time I’m going to use more homemade ingredients to make it, instead of the kit.

This dish layers tortillas with a mildly spicy tomato/veggie mince filling… kind of like a Mexican lasagne.

The kit, made by Discovery, was packaged as an Enchilada Kit, and contained eight corn/wheat tortillas, a couple of packets of enchilada sauce, and a sachet of taco seasoning mix.

When I finally pulled it out of the cupboard to use it, I realised it was eight months out of date. I thought for sure the tortillas would have gone off, but they looked and smelled fine (albeit a little dry). Must be some industrial-strength preservative in those puppies! The seasoning mix was likewise fine. However, the enchilada sauce was a write-off. It was packaged in plastic pouches, and smelled very strongly of plastic.

But I was able to use the tortillas and seasoning mix, along with a package of veggie mince and some salsa, to make a scrumptious tortilla bake that had both Mr Thrifty and I smacking our lips.

To make the filling, I first sauteed a large onion and a sweet bell pepper in a bit of vegetable oil until soft, then added a minced clove of garlic and cooked for an additional minute or two. Then I added a 300g (10 oz) package of veggie mince (I prefer Redwood veggie mince) and the sachet of seasoning and mixed well. Next I added a 400g (14 oz) tin of tomatoes and half a tin of water, then cooked the mixture for about 10-15 minutes.

I cut four of the tortillas in half, and the other four into quarters. I then put a bit of the filling into the bottom of a greased lasagne pan (mine measures 24cm (9-1/2″) square and 6cm (2-1/2″) deep). Next I put a layer of tortillas (two halves and two quarters), then a quarter of the remaining filling, and repeated three more times until all the filling was used. (When layered like this, there will be two quarter tortilla pieces extra; I used one of these extra pieces on the second last layer of tortillas, and one on the last layer.) Then I moistened both sides of the last tortilla halves and quarters with a bit of salsa and laid them on top. And lastly, I topped it with a bit of Mozzarella Cheezly. I baked it at 200C (400F) for about 40 minutes.

The tomatillo sauce was made from tomatillos that we grew at our allotment. I will definitely be growing a lot more tomatillos next year, as they are fast-growing, very hardy and don’t get blight in wet summers the way tomatoes do. Best of all, they make a delicious tangy salsa. I used a variation of this recipe, omitted the chiles and fresh coriander (cilantro), grilled the onion, reduced the salt and, after pureeing, added some chunks of ripe avocado.

Next time, I will make this dish with homemade tortillas (probably using this recipe), homemade taco seasoning mix, and possibly with homemade nacho cheeze sauce instead of Cheezly.

Enjoy!