Prep: 30 minutes. Cook time: 1.5 hours. Serves 6-8 people. Vegetarian, not GF or Vegan.
This stew comes together in roughly 2 hours and three parts. First, you make a simple seitan, then you make the actual stew, and then the pomme pureé.
Ingredients
Seitan:
- 2 cups vital wheat gluten
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp garlic power
Stew:
- Prepared seitan
- 5 large carrots
- 2 yellow onions
- 1.5 cups flour
- Pinot noir (1/2 bottle)
- 1 tbsp Better Than Bouillon Seasoned Vegetable Base
- 3 Bay leaves
- 1 tbsp dried rosemary
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 2 cloves garlic
- 8 tbsp butter
- 1/2 to 1 cup soy sauce
Pomme purée:
- 5 large russet potatoes
- 8 tbsp butter
- 1/2-1 cup heavy cream
- Make the seitan: Begin by preparing the seitan. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and then stir in the wet ingredients. Knead for a minute or two until you get a tough workable dough. If you have lots of dry bits stuck to the bowl, add another tablespoon or two of water. I originally got this recipe from The Ugly Vegan, but have changed some of proportions.
- Starting the Stew: Preheat the oven to 400℉. Thinly slice the onions into rounds and your carrots into 1 inch oblique cuts. In an oven-safe heavy bottomed pot (I use a dutch oven), melt the butter. Once melted, begin to cook your carrots and onions over medium-low heat. Cook until your onions are soft and golden. Then, deglaze with wine, and add in your flour. You should get a very thick, purplish paste.
- Adding Liquid and Seasoning: Fill your pot halfway up with water, and add in the herbs, vegetable base, bay leaves, a bit of salt, and lots of fresh black pepper. Crank the heat up to medium high. Then, divide your seitan dough into 4 parts. Roll each part into a roughly shaped log. It will be ugly and not perfect. Using kitchen shears, cut the logs into 2 inch long bites on the bias directly into the stew. Stir occasionally as you do this so they don’t stick together. Once all of your seitan is in the pot, cover with lid and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
- Pomme purées: While your stew is in the oven, peel and cut the potatoes into 2 inch cubes. Boil in salted water until fork tender. If you have a potato ricer, rice your potatoes. If you don’t, you can mash traditionally and then push them through a fine mesh sieve. This will take forever. As you do, yell for your partner to buy a potato ricer because you’re not fucking doing this with a sieve again. Then, while the potatoes are still hot, stir in the butter. Let it melt fully. Then, add the heavy cream until you reach your desired consistency. You could use milk but we’re two sticks of butter in, so fuck it. Then, season with salt and pepper. Set aside. You can warm these up in a pot if the timing doesn’t work out, but usually the stew heats them back up sufficiently.
- Finishing the Stew: Once done, remove your stew from the oven and taste. It probably doesn’t taste very good yet. I like to salt this with soy sauce for some additional beef-like umami and color.
- Serve: Serve each person with potatoes at the bottom of their bowl and a ladle of stew on top, making sure to get plenty of the flavorful gravy.
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