Experimentation...

So my first experiment with seitan went well. Aside from snacking on the Seitan o' Greatness, we had it on pizza (which was yummy!). Mainly, though, I cubed it, cooked it in a mushroom gravy and stirred in some peas. Then we poured it over garlicky mashed potatoes, and served it alongside glazed carrots. It was good, especially for a dreary day, but I think the So'G is better in something like pizza.

In one of the library cookbooks I saw a recipe for vegan crepes. I wanted crepes for breakfast the next morning, and I know they are better when the batter sits, so I made it the night before. The recipe called for gram flour. I'd heard someone somewhere say that gram flour is just ground-up chickpeas, so I thought I would use some 'besan' chickpea flour that I just got. Well, I mixed it up, half chick-pea flour and half wholemeal spelt flour. I added a pinch of some stevia that I've dried, and then stuck my finger in to see if it was sweet enough. Sweet Baby Jesus, the taste I got in my mouth was terrible. It tasted like falafel mix before it gets cooked. The chickpea flavour was overwhelming! I was tempted to tip it out and start again with plain flour, but Andy wanted to keep it.

The next day we had cereal for breakfast, but then made the chickpea crepes for lunch. We filled them with a mixture of spinach, mushrooms, jarred spaghetti sauce and a bit of nutritional yeast. It was okay... pretty good, actually, but next time I think I'll use a lower ratio of chickpea to other flour!
One of the things I've missed since moving to Townsville is tempeh. You can buy only one brand in the shops here, and it is this terrible mushy brown lump of yuck. We ate it one time and couldn't do it again. So when I placed my order on the Organic Buyer's Network, I thought I would order a block and see if it was any better. At first glance, I could tell it was heaps better--the texture felt nutty even through the package. I combined my craving for tempeh with Andy's craving for sweet and sour with some fresh veggies and jasmine rice:

The verdict: I thought the tempeh was heaps better, but not the best I've ever had. Andy thought it was good, but didn't think it was any better than tofu. He seemed to feel the same about the seitan. I'm going to keep experimenting, though! I've just been given a recipe for chicken-style seitan by the lovely Veganista, and I have a few more recipes that I've seen on the internet to try out before we settle on a favourite!