Savory Seitan & Mushroom Stew

You can think of this dish as the ultimate vegan beef stew but instead of beef, you’ll be using seitan instead, and trust me… it’s BOMBSKI !!

The first thing you need to do is prepare a batch of Italian style seitan sausages. If you’ve never made seitan sausages before, don’t worry! They’re actually pretty darn easy to make and you can always prepare them the night before you make the stew.

Ingredients for Italian Seitan Sausages:

1/2 cup cooked/canned white beans (great northern or navy), rinsed and drained
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon olive oil or 1 tablespoon tomato paste (tomato paste is a great fat replacement)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon granulated garlic or 2 cloves fresh garlic, finely grated
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed, crushed or 1 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Several dashes fresh black pepper

First, get your steaming apparatus ready by bringing 1-2 cups of water to a full boil. The rest of the recipe comes together very quickly.

Have four square sheets of tin foil ready before you start mixing your ingredients. In a large bowl, mash the beans thoroughly until they’re a paste-like consistency. Throw all the other ingredients together in the order listed above and mix with a fork. Divide dough into 4 equal parts (an easy way to do this: split the dough in half and then into quarters). Place one part of dough into tin foil and mold into about a 5 inch log. Wrap dough in tin foil, like a tootsie roll. Don’t worry too much about shaping it, it will snap into shape while it’s steaming because this recipe is so awesome!

Place wrapped sausages in steamer and steam for 40 minutes, and that’s it! Once they’re done, you can store them away in the refrigerator or if you’re feeling really determined, you can move onto the next step which is making the stew.

Ingredients for Seitan Mushroom Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, quartered and thickly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1 cup red wine
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel or crushed fennel seeds
Fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms (or any dried mushroom of your choice; shiitake & portobello work just fine)
3 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 pounds potatoes (any type), lazily peeled, cut in 1 1/2 inch chunks
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 seitan sausages, sliced
Chopped fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium high heat.

Sauté onions with a pinch of salt in olive oil until translucent, about 4 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for about a minute, until fragrant.

Add carrots, wine, rosemary (crushed in your fingers), thyme (crushed in your fingers), paprika, fennel, fresh black pepper and salt and bring to a boil. The liquid should reduce in about 3-5 minutes.

Add porcinis (or other dried mushroom) and vegetable broth, cover and bring to a full boil for 5 minutes or so, to quickly cook the porcinis. Now add the potatoes, lower heat and bring to a simmer (not a full boil). Let the potatoes cook just until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes.

In a measuring cup, mix the flour into the water with a fork until smooth. Slowly add the broth/flour to the pot, mixing well. Mix in the tomato paste. Let it thicken for 5 minutes or so. Add the sausages and continue to cook. In about 5 more minutes it should be perfectly thick but still smooth. Taste for salt and seasonings, add your garnish, and serve! :)