Friday, May 4, 2007

Belgian-Style Seitan Stew with Dark Beer

from Vegan Planet (pg. 307) was last night's dinner. It was a fun & rewarding dish to prepare. Fun, because I swigged the balance of the St. Pauli Girl special dark beer while slicing seitan, chopping fresh English thyme from the herb barrel, and carmelizing onions. Rewarding, because of Art's reaction, "This is one of the best meals you've cooked. Next time, I'd add more beer and some mushrooms." I agree, add more beer to the recipe (...and drink less). I served ours over spinach fettuccine noodles, and it'd be fabulous on a grain as well. Next time, I'll double (or even triple!) the recipe and put it on French bread for lunch the next day. It's a versatile dish, and it has now earned a spot in our rotation.

15 comments:

scottishvegan said...

That sounds like my kind of meal. Strangely I don't like to drink beer, but I love it in a stew!

laura k said...

Sounds great! Don't know why I never cook with beer...

KleoPatra said...

Hey, that looks totally heaty and good. Lovin' the spinach noodles. More mushrooms is my mantra, btw, along with extra carmelized onions, pleez. Art knows his stuff! You'd put SIPZ outta biz, Vicki...

KleoPatra said...

I mean HEARTY. D'oh!

moi + toi PHOTOGRAPHIE said...

That looks great. I have the book too, never tried that recipe.... Im on that one! Looks so good!

urban vegan said...

Looks good to me. I do find that most of the Vegan Planet recipes need a little doctoring...but then again, I doctor almost all recipes.

Anonymous said...

I've been catching up on your posts. Everything looks so good but I love the mini meatless sandwiches and the smiley face sauce.

I'm also so jealous of your herb barrel. I'm horrible with plants and tried doing a chia herb garden. So far, I've killed two of them. I'm hoping that they decide to make a miraculous recovery (lol).

bazu said...

Hee hee- cooking and swigging- I'm so there!

Aurelie said...

I don't drink, so do you know if the alcohol cooks off?

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Hi Liliy: I'm pretty sure the alcohol cooks off. And as far as the taste goes, you really can't detect a beer flavor in the dish at all.

Thanks for commenting everybody! :o)

Teresa said...

Those spinach noodles make the meal look so fun. And I agree with Art on the mushrooms. I didn't realize people cooked with beer- I thought wine and vodka were the only alcohols used for cooking. I learn something new every day@ Glad you enjoyed your dinner!

-Teresa

Anonymous said...

This one is a masterpiece!!!

Amey said...

Oh, that looks great! I"ll make a note of it in my Vegan Planet. I love hearty seitan meals like that!

:)

Mikaela said...

What a cool plate - I like the color and shape! This was a fun post :)

Mirjam said...

Hi,
I'm Belgian, and as an omnivore, long, long ago, this used to be one of my favorite dishes. I've recently started making this dish - which is called 'stoverij' in Dutch - in a vegan way, using seitan. If I may make a useful suggestion: add some RAISINS and DRIED PLUMS to the stew, because they make it all even better than it already is. The best beer to use is brown Leffe (if you may find it abroad...). And you can serve it, as we Belgians do, with mashed potatoes or fries.