Hoisin garlic seitan with garden scallions and broccoli crowns

The story:

The story behind this one is that I love my seitan recipe adaptation and I am big fan of Chinese. Combine that with the first veg from the garden coming in and you have a terrific meal. This dish pairs especially with sesame and chili pepper jasmine rice.

Seitan:

1 box of vital wheat gluten
1 cup of well cooked lentils
2/3 cup of water
1/3 tsp cumin
1/3 curry powder
3-4 cloves of fresh minced garlic
1/3 tsp papprika
1/3 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp of low sodium soy sauce

Sauce:
1/2 cup of hoisin sauce
3 TBS of sweet chili sauce
2 tsp of sirracha
1 packet of concentrated veg stock
1/2 cup of water
2 TBS of olive oil

Veg:
4-5 scallion stalks
1-2 large brocoli crowns
1/3 cup of shredded carrot
1/3 cup of snow pea pods

If you are using dried lentils, you will need to boil them for at least 45 minutes to have the correct texture for this recipe. You can also buy precooked lentils which will also work well. As this will take the most time, make sure your lentils are ready before you start making the seitan. Take the wheat gluten and place in a large mixing bowl. Add all of the dry ingredients to the flour. Lightly stir the dry ingredients while mixing in the lentils. Add the water and the soy sauce to the bowl. Now comes the somewhat icky part. You need to hand mash all of it together. You need to squish up the lentils until they completely mix with the wheat gluten. The more you squish it up with your hands the better mixed it will be. After about 2-3 minutes of really working at it, it should be ready. It might be necessary to add a little extra wheat gluten to get rid of some excess moisture. Once done, roll out the dough on a nonstick cooking pan. Try to roll it out as thin as you can, it'll fight you to ball back up, but just keep working at it. Now is the best time to choose the shape of your finished product and score the dough for that shape. This will make it much easier to cut up before you fry or grill it. Bake in a 375 degree oven for roughly 20 minutes. You don't want to cook it to much or it gets very tough. When you take it out it should be a little crispy on the bottom and slightly pliant on the top. Cut the seitan into the desired shape.

The sauce is easy to put together. Just add all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir well. Put the sauce aside and get a fairly deep frying pan on medium high heat with 1 TBS of olive oil. Spread the oil in the pan and place all of the seitan in the pan. Let it fry for a few minutes and then add the sauce. The seitan will absorb just about all of the sauce so toss the seitan till its evenly coated and let it sit, stirring only occationally. When the seitan is both sticky and crispy and the sauce is nearly all absorbed it should be done.

The vegetables can be fried in a wok lightly or simply steamed, either way works just fine. Just serve on a bed of rice and vegetables, and you have a delicious meal!