Meatless Monday - Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalaya

Monday, June 1, 2009

And now for something completely different...

This one is straight out of one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks of all time, Veganomicon. I had to make a few adaptations based on what I had on hand, so we'll see what happens! Full disclosure, part 1: I'm making this at 10:30 at night and don't plan to eat it until tomorrow. Part 2? I've never made this recipe before! I'll post a follow up to let you know how it is.

Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalaya



Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp. olive oil
• 16 oz. Seitan (I used store bought) Note 1
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 1 large yellow onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 2 stalks celery, cut into small dice Note 2
• 4 cloves garlic, minced Note 3
• 3 heaping tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup cooking sherry or vegetable broth Note 4
  
• 2 cups long-grain rice, brown or white (I used brown)
• 1 (28-oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15-oz) can white kidney (cannelini) beans Note 5
  
• 1 (15-oz) can red kidney beans
• 1 bay leaf
• 4-6 sprigs fresh thyme (optional but really great here... but I didn't have any)
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried marjoram (yeah, um, I didn't have this either. I threw in a dash of Tarragon instead)
• 1 tsp. dried paprika
• 1/2 tsp. celery seed (err... I didn't have this either, so I substituted celery salt for the regular salt listed below)
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne, or to taste
• 4 cups vegetable broth
  
• 1 tsp salt
• several pinches of freshly ground black pepper
• chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley for garnish (that's probably not going to happen)

Note 1: I only had 8 oz. of seitan
Note 2: I was flat too lazy to go for "small dice" so I made do with slicing down the center of the stalk and chopping. Deal with it.
Note 3: I cheat and use the jar of diced garlic every time. So much easier! Purists, ignore this note. In fact, better yet, you probably ought to stop reading now.
Note 4: I used vegetable broth, but threw in a splash of apple cider vinegar to try to go for that sharp edge you get with the sherry. We'll see.
Note 5: I didn't have the white kidney beans, so I used butter beans. Come to find out, butter beans are really BIG! Who knew?!

Oh, and un-noted Note 6: The book didn't say whether to drain and rinse the beans. I assumed yes.

Instructions below somewhat paraphrased and adapted from the original, but the key information remains the same:

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Preheat a large oven-to-table dutch oven (if you have one) over medium heat, or just get out your biggest pot and figure the rest out later. Saute the seitan in 2 tbsp olive oil for 4-6 minutes until lightly browned (don't you think it looks like chicken?! And now, somehow, I'm afraid that may not be politically correct). Remove the seitan from the pot and set aside.




Add the remaining olive oil and the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic. Saute for 12-14 minutes, until the veggies are sorta mushy.


Stir in the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, for another 4 minutes.

Stir in the cooking sherry to deglaze the vegetables, cook for 30 seconds, then add the rice. Stir the rice for about 4 minutes.

Then stir in the diced tomatoes, seitan, beans, bay leaf, all of the herbs, and the salt & pepper. Bring to a simmer, pour in the vegetable broth and return to a simmer. Taste the broth and adjust the salt & pepper to taste.


If you are using a dutch oven, cover and put it in the oven for 30-35 minutes (for brown rice, 40-45 minutes). If using a pot, transfer to a deep casserole dish (or two*), cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake. Remove from the oven, stir the jambalaya, then cover and allow to sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

* If you wind up with two, be sure to check that the rice is done before turning off the oven. I cooked mine 45 minutes and when I checked the rice was still a bit "toothy" so I added some broth and put it back in.

Garnish with chopped parsley if desired.

So there you go! This one was pretty laborious to prep, but straightforward. We'll see what the results taste like tomorrow - check back then!!

12:37 add-on note: I added some McCormick chipotle pepper seasoning to the finished product, and it is soooo tasty! Y.U.M.! It's delicious.