Just Another Meatless Monday

The Hub and I have decided to ramp our veggie intake while reducing our protein, so at least 2 nights a week we will be having vegan fare.  To be honest as much as I love cheese, if we replace a traditional protein with it we might as well eat steak because of all the fats in cheese, so it's vegetable fare those 2 nights.  Several days ago I found a package of seitan while we were shopping at Earthfare.   Seitan is also called "wheat meat" and is a very chewy beef textured product made from  wheat gluten.  If you are industrious and feel up to making your own it is time consuming but certainly something that can be done in a home kitchen.  Just Google homemade seitan recipe.  I will pay the 5 bucks happily instead of spending time making it.  Now the only problem was deciding what to do with it.  I found a recipe for a fake Irish stew but that wasn't what our taste buds were screaming for.  We wanted something simple and easy to eat. Bingo!

Seitan Fajitas

1 pack prepared seitan  ( or 1 recipe of homemade seitan)
1 green bell pepper cut in thin slices
1/2 red sweet pepper cut in thin slices
1/2 yellow sweet pepper cut in thin slices
1 onion cut in thin slices
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon hot chili powder*
salt and pepper to taste
juice of 1/2 lime
olive oil for sautéing
2 large whole wheat flour tortillas, warmed

Cut or separate the seitan into bite size pieces.  Put about 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a saute pan and cook the seitan until it is lightly browned.  Remove from heat.  Spray another saute pan with pam and add an additional teaspoon of olive oil.  Saute the vegetables  starting with the onions, then the peppers and ending with the garlic.  When all of the vegetables are mostly wilted yet still have a tad of crispness add the seasonings and stir them through.  Put the seitan in the vegetable pan and stir until hot.  Right before serving squeeze 1/2 of a fresh lime over the mixture.  Serve in a warmed whole wheat tortilla with a slice of lime.
Add a side salad and call it a meal.

This is good enough to serve to all the carnivores out there.  The mouth feel of the seitan is pretty much the same as skirt steak traditionally used in fajitas.  I am going to add this to our monthly rotation because it had a delicious taste and it felt like we were eating the real thing.  Score!!!  The only thing I might do differently is to add some grated zucchini and carrots to the veggies just to up the vegetable content of  the dish. Might add a little cilantro too, because we really like it.

 Try this and you just might find yourself in a Bangles frame of mind singing "Just another meatless Monday whoaa-aa-oo"

* If you don't have hot chili powder use 1/2 teaspoon of regular chili powder and a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes.  If you don't keep red pepper flakes on hand request them the next time you go out for pizza.  One of those little packs would be more than enough.