Red Cabbage Salad with Curried Seitan

Vegetarian Times (October 2013)

Seitan.

If you cook vegetarian dishes long enough, eventually you'll wind up cooking seitan. It's a "high-protein wheat gluten product" that's a staple of meatless meals.

Frankly we've always found it a little, well, gross-looking. (And yes, it's pronounced like the devil.)

But, hey, we're always up for trying something new.

So we decided to try this Red Cabbage Salad with Curried Satan -- sorry, Seitan.

Step 1 was easy and pleasantly familiar: Mix some peanut butter and jelly in a bowl to make a salad dressing. (Okay, mango chutney. But c'mon. It's jelly.)

Then you essentially just sauté the seitan, coating it with curry powder, and then toss everything together. It's very simple.

How'd it taste?

Well for starters, the peanut butter and jelly chutney dressing is lip-smacking delicious. How could it not be? We were dubious that this dressing would be good with cabbage and cucumber, but believe it or not, it actually works.

What about the seitan? We liked it!  Maybe even a lot. Imagine our surprise! Sautéing it in the curry powder gives it a nice, toasty crunch. We'd never say that seitan could pass for meat. But it was a nice addition that gave this salad some heft.

Are we going to switch to an all-seitan diet? Not likely. But we would definitely make this again. And we might even cook with seitan more in the future.

 

 

Red Cabbage Salad with Curried Seitan
Vegetarian Times (October 2013)
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INGREDIENTS

Dressing

• ⅓ cup prepared mango chutney
• ⅓ cup creamy natural peanut butter

Salad

• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 8-oz. pkg. seitan, cut into bite-size strips
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
• ¾ tsp. mild curry powder
• 6 cups shredded red cabbage (½ small head)
• 1 small cucumber, sliced into thin half moons (¾ cup)
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced (½ cup)

 

DIRECTIONS

To make Dressing: Blend chutney, peanut butter, and 1/3 cup water in blender until smooth. Set aside.

To make Salad: Heat 2 tsp. oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add seitan, and season with salt, if desired. Sauté 5 to 7 minutes, or until browned. Add garlic and remaining 1 tsp. oil, and sauté 30 seconds. Sprinkle with curry powder, and sauté 2 minutes more. Remove from heat, and keep warm.

Toss cabbage and cucumber with Dressing in large bowl. Top with warm seitan and green onions.