We’ve had a rather…unusual holiday season this year.
A combination of issues caused problems with our septic field becoming saturated with rain and ground water, so as we’ve attempted different strategies (pumpings, ditches, French drains, more pumpings) to solve the issue, we’ve had to live without draining any water out of the house.
Fortunately, we have both a composting toilet and an outdoor bathtub, so we’ve managed, but things like laundry and dish-washing have become a bit complicated.
As a result all of this upheaval, we also had to cancel Emily’s Christmas visit and Eunice’s January birthday visit (with her two lovely children!). We couldn’t even do our usual Christmas Eve feast. It was all quite disappointing.
Anyway, I’ve been sticking to simple meals that don’t use too many appliances and pots and pans.
I realized, however, that it’s the perfect time to try something I’ve been dying to try for ages–bread machine seitan–because it involves only ONE appliance, minimal clean up, and just ten minutes preparation!
To be honest, I was NOT holding out much hope for the resulting seitan, but it was delicious, and we’re now on our second seitan roast in a week!
I used Lazy Dave’s Bread Machine Seitan recipe as a guide, but made several adjustments. I added apple cider vinegar, BTB, and black beans. I also subbed Maggi sauce for vegan Worcestershire sauce and MSG for salt.
Bread Machine Seitan Roast
First, add to bread machine bowl:
- 4 tsp Maggi sauce
- 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
- 1 TBS Better Than Bouillon vegetable base
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1.5 cups water
- 1/4 cup cooked black beans (optional–if you choose to include them, blend them with 1/2 cup of the water in the Magic Bullet)
Next, add:
- 240 grams vital wheat gluten
- 60 grams garbanzo flour
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 4 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp sage
- 2 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp MSG (or sea salt)
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
Set your machine for a whole wheat loaf, 1.5 lbs., medium dark. Check that the loaf is baked throughout–if it seems a bit undercooked in the middle, you can add another half hour baking time with the “bake only” feature on your machine.
This cycle takes just over four hours, so is probably much longer than necessary since the seitan doesn’t need to proof or rise. The advantage is that YOUR time investment is only ten minutes and then you can walk away and four hours later– boom–you have seitan!
Here’s a great idea for the manufacturers of bread machines: create a machine with a “Seitan” setting that simply mixes, rests for 15 minutes, kneads, then bakes.
UPDATE!
So I tried using the “ultra fast” function at 1.5 lbs. and dark crust, and it worked perfectly. This cut two hours off the time! The total time was 2:03 as opposed to over four hours!
The resulting roast is about a little over a pound and a half and should be enough for about ten meals. Like meat, seitan is quite filling–about 70 grams per person per meal is more than enough!
The first night, we had slices of the roast with this excellent vegan gravy (because it uses only one pan and one whisk)! I also air-fried some yams, potatoes, and Brussels sprouts.
James thought the seitan resembled roast beef more than turkey (which is what the original recipe intended), so I made roast “beef” sandwiches for lunch for a couple of days, with horse radish, vegan boursin, pickles, and onions. James was in heaven because he used to love roast beef sandwiches in his carnivore days.
Finally, I made Guiness Stew, which we had for dinner two evenings. I had enough left for one more dinner for the two of us, so I froze that for another evening.
I am so impressed with this seitan roast because of how little work it takes! If you have a bread machine, I can’t recommend this enough!
And our song of the day is the very appropriate “If We Make It Through December”:
As Phoebe Bridgers sings, “If we make it through December/Everything’s gonna be alright, I know…”
Sideways Cottage... 