Just in time for Memorial Day, I’m bringing back my Authentic Smoked Seitan recipe. Truth be told, this stuff is just too good to languish in the early pages of my blog!

As I said originally, this comes as close to real barbecue as vegetarian food can get. It’s smoky, crispy and chewy – and perfect on a bun with a vinegary, North Carolina-style sauce. If you don’t have a smoker, you can smoke in a Weber grill.

Trust me, if you make this, people will be talking about your amazing vegetarian barbecue for months to come!

Step 1:  Make Seitan

1 ½ c. vital wheat gluten*
¼ c. nutritional yeast flakes*
1 c. + 2 T. ice water
1/3 c. low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 t. lemon zest
2 t. paprika
¼ t. cumin
1 t. freshly ground black pepper
½ t. chili powder

Liquid for simmering:

10 cups extremely cold water
1/3 c. low-sodium soy sauce or tamari

Combine gluten and nutritional yeast in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together water, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, lemon zest and spices.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine. Knead dough in the bowl for about 3 minutes until you have a spongy dough (this will look and feel like the most disgusting food ever). Excess liquid will accumulate in the bottom of the bowl, and that’s fine – just leave it in the bowl.  Let rest for a few minutes, then shape into a log about 7 or 8 inches long. Cut into 3 pieces.

Put the cold water and soy sauce in a large saucepan and gently put the pieces of dough in the liquid. Partially cover the pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for one hour, turning the pieces occasionally.  Let it cool for ten minutes, then remove the seitan. As soon as it’s cool enough to handle, squeeze out all the liquid you can, being careful not to break the hunks of seitan.  Wrap each piece in plastic wrap or place in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

* Vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast are available at any health food store or markets like Whole Foods.

Step 2:  Rub and smoke

Dry rub:

3 T. paprika
1 T. black pepper
1 T. sugar
1 T. chili powder
2 t. garlic powder
2 t. onion powder
1 t. cayenne pepper
½ t. dry mustard powder

Start a fire in your smoker.  Soak wood chips (preferably hickory) for 45 minutes or more. Coat the seitan pieces in the dry rub mixture and put it on a grill basket or right on the grate. Throw some wood chips on the hot coals and close the  cover. Smoke for 1 ½ hours, adding more soaked wood chips occasionally.   If your smoker has a thermometer, keep the temperature at about 225.

Step 3:  Sauce and eat

Barbecue sauce:

1 c. water
1 c. cider vinegar
2/3 c. ketchup
1 T. sugar
½ t. red pepper flakes
½ t. freshly ground pepper
1 t. salt

Whisk the sauce ingredients together until sugar dissolves. Let the smoked seitan cool for 5 minutes, then slice, drizzle with sauce and serve plain or on buns.  (Note: It’s best served right after you smoke it – if you reheat it in an oven later, the edges will lose the crispiness.)

Back when I was a meat eater, I thought vegetarian gumbo was a joke. And who could blame me – there are so many bland, tomato-y versions out there (real gumbo doesn’t contain tomatoes, people!). So being a serious gumbo fanatic, I just had to tackle the challenge of making one that lived up to my high standards while still being relatively heart-healthy.

My version starts with a deeply-colored roux, which of course is the heart and soul of any real gumbo. I followed Alton Brown’s easy oven method and it worked like a charm – I’ve never achieved a roux so beautifully dark on the stove. Other essentials include the “holy trinity” of onions, green peppers and celery, and herbs and spices like sage, thyme cayenne and white pepper. So far, so traditional.

But here’s where I veer off the beaten path: portobello mushrooms, vegetarian sausage and chicken-style seitan, which provide a nice variety of chewy textures for this meatless gumbo. I use Field Roast’s smoked apple sage sausages, and they are remarkably good here, albeit way too high in sodium. I’m sure there must be other good faux meat products out there somewhere, but I find most of the soy-based sausages to be sorely lacking in comparison. Next time I make this, I will try VeganDad’s homemade seitan Andouille sausages. Smoked paprika, always my friend, provides the requisite smokiness. The resulting bowl of gumbo is deliciously rich and sultry. Even though it contains no shrimp, I swear you can almost taste the bayou.

Note: During fresh okra season, definitely use a pound or so of that in place of the mushrooms. If you do that, skip the filé powder: it’s one or the other.

Serious Vegetarian Gumbo

½ cup plus 1 teaspoon organic high-oleic safflower oil
½ cup white whole wheat flour
3 medium onions, chopped (about 3 cups)
3 stalks celery, chopped (about 2 cups)
3 medium green peppers, chopped (about 3 cups)
3 portobello mushroom caps, gills scraped off, chopped (about 2 cups)
3 large cloves garlic, minced
½ cup dry sherry
4 cups chicken-style vegetable broth (recommend Imagine’s No-Chicken Broth)
1 tablespoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (use regular if you’re not a veg)
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon dried sage leaves
1 teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika, or a bit more to taste
4 vegetarian sausages, sliced (I used Field Roast smoked apple sausage)
1 16-ounce package chicken-style seitan

For serving:

Gumbo filé powder, optional
Tabasco sauce
Cooked rice

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the oil and flour in a large ovenproof dutch oven. Bake for 1¼ hours, or until the roux is very dark.

Add the onion, peppers, celery, mushrooms and garlic and cook on the stove over medium heat for about 7 minutes. Add the sherry and cook for one minute, then add the vegetable broth, Worcestershire sauce, herbs and spices.

Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. If the gumbo seems too thick, add water as you see fit (you can leave the gumbo on the thicker side if you’re not serving the filé powder on the side).

Heat the remaining teaspoon of oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced sausages and brown on both sides. Add the seitan and cook for one minute more, stirring.

Add the sausage and seitan to the pot and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves. Serve over brown rice, and pass the file powder (if using) and Tabasco.

Gumbospotting

Yes, there are a few other vegetarian gumbo recipes out there that are worth their Tabasco:

Wednesday Food Blogging’s vegetarian gumbo with smoked tofu

Vegan Dad’s gumbo with homemade seitan andouille sausage

Chow.com’s Gumbo Z’herbs

Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

In a former life I was a barbecue fanatic.  I dragged my vegetarian husband to shacks in the middle of nowhere – from North Carolina to Mississippi – just to eat barbecue.  He happily picked at his plate of fries while I quite literally pigged out.  (No wonder I married him.)

When health concerns led me to stop eating meat, I assumed that my barbecue days were over. But with my Authentic Smoked Seitan, I’ve finally found a reason to fire up my smoker.

I can hear you skeptics now.  Smoked wheat gluten?  Believe it, people. This stuff looks and tastes like Texas brisket – or as close as a vegetarian version can come, anyway.  With a nice crusty exterior, it’s even got the “burnt ends” of authentic barbecue. At a 4th of July party, the guests – including meat eaters – were practically clawing at each other to eat the seitan, even before it hit the table.

I used a dry rub, leaving out the salt because the seitan itself is quite salty.  For the sauce, I chose a traditional Lexington, NC vinegar sauce.  A South Carolina mustard-based sauce also works well here.  The recipe looks long and involved, but it’s actually quite simple.  And if you don’t have a real smoker, you can smoke right in a Weber grill.

Step 1:  Make Seitan

1 ½ cups vital wheat gluten*
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes*
1 cup + 2 tablespoons. ice water
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons paprika
¼ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon chili powder

Liquid for simmering:

10 cups extremely cold water
1/3 cups low-sodium soy sauce or tamari

Combine gluten and nutritional yeast in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together water, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, lemon zest and spices.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine. Knead dough in the bowl for about 3 minutes until you have a spongy dough (this will look and feel like the most disgusting food ever). Excess liquid will accumulate in the bottom of the bowl, and that’s fine – just leave it in the bowl.  Let rest for a few minutes, then shape into a log about 7 or 8 inches long. Cut into 3 pieces.

Put the cold water and soy sauce in a large saucepan and gently put the pieces of dough in the liquid. Partially cover the pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for one hour, turning the pieces occasionally.  Let it cool for ten minutes, then remove the seitan. As soon as it’s cool enough to handle, squeeze out all the liquid you can, being careful not to break the hunks of seitan.  Wrap each piece in plastic wrap or place in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

* Vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast are available at any health food store or markets like Whole Foods.

Step 2:  Rub and smoke

Dry rub:

3 T. paprika
1 T. black pepper
1 T. sugar
1 T. chili powder
2 t. garlic powder
2 t. onion powder
1 t. cayenne pepper
½ t. dry mustard powder

Start a fire in your smoker.  Soak wood chips (preferably hickory) for 45 minutes or more. Coat the seitan pieces in the dry rub mixture and put it on a grill basket or right on the grate. Throw some wood chips on the hot coals and close the  cover. Smoke for 1 ½ hours, adding more soaked wood chips occasionally.   If your smoker has a thermometer, keep the temperature at about 225.

Step 3:  Sauce and eat

Barbecue sauce:

1 c. water
1 c. cider vinegar
2/3 c. ketchup
1 T. sugar
½ t. red pepper flakes
½ t. freshly ground pepper
1 t. salt

Whisk the sauce ingredients together until sugar dissolves. Let the smoked seitan cool for 5 minutes, then slice, drizzle with sauce and serve plain or on buns.  (Note: It’s best served right after you smoke it – if you reheat it in an oven later, the edges will lose the crispiness.)

I was uncharacteristically spontaneous today. I had planned to make a simple dish of curried beans and sweet potatoes, but had a sudden craving for something

spicy, and switched my plan entirely.  I spied  a package of seitan in the fridge, so I made up a spur-of-the-moment seitan vindaloo.  (I used the beans and sweet potatoes for a delicious salad – stay tuned for that in the next day or two.)

Vindaloo is an Indian dish from the Goa region, and is known for being fiery hot.  It’s usually made with chicken or lamb, but seitan makes a great stand-in and really absorbs the flavors of the vindaloo paste. My vegan version is heart healthy, with only a tablespoon of oil in the whole pot. The vinegar and lemon juice give it a major tang factor.  I used green peppers and carrots, but next time I may add potatoes, which are ubiquitous in restaurant versions of vindaloo.  By the way, did you know that vindaloo was originally brought to Goa by the Portugese?  Neither did I (thanks, Wikipedia!)

Seitan Vindaloo

1 small onion
3 fresh hot peppers (preferably serrano), halved and seeded
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup vinegar (cider or white wine)
2 dried hot red chiles, soaked in water for 15 minutes (omit if you don’t like spicy food)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1-inch piece cinnamon stick
5 cardamom pods
1 large or 2 medium carrots, chopped (about 2/3 c.)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 8-ounce package seitan, drained and cut into bite-size pieces
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

To make the vindaloo paste, put the first 11 ingredients (through the cayenne pepper) in a food processor and process until smooth.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or dutch oven. Add the mustard seeds, cinnamon and cardamom pods and cook for 1 minute or until the mustard seeds pop. Add carrots, green peppers and seitan, and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add your vindaloo paste and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, 1/2 c. water. lemon juice, sugar and salt. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until carrots are tender. (Add another 1/4 c. water if the mixture gets too dry.)

Note: if you happen to see any of the cardamom seeds in the finished dish, take them out.  It’s kind of a drag to bite into them.

Serves 3 as a main dish, or 6 as a side