corned seitan and cabbage

Growing up, my mom made corned beef and cabbage every year for St. Patrick's Day. Corned beef is one of the few meats that I miss since becoming a vegetarian. Well, at least I can still celebrate St. Patrick's Day with some corned seitan and cabbage!

Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:
1/2 "corned beef" seitan from Everyday Dish, sliced
1/2 cabbage head, wedged or sliced in long strips
3 red potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, julienned
1/2 yellow onion, wedged
1 can of beer
remaining seitan cooking liquid
1 bay leaf
salt to taste

I followed the recipe on Everyday Dish for no-knead "corned beef" seitan. To achieve a tougher, less spongy seitan, Everyday Dish has you wrap the seitan in cheesecloth so that during the boiling process it cannot expand much. Overall, I was pleased with the results of their recipe.

As you finish with the Everyday Dish recipe, remove the seitan from the cooking liquid. Reserve the cooking liquid. Slice the seitan into strips 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick and 1 - 1.5 inches wide. If you want, you can make the seitan the day before and keep it in the fridge overnight.

In a large pot or crock, alternately layer pieces of cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and onion, adding salt to each layer. Add in a bay leaf and a can of beer, any kind. Add some or all of the reserved seitan cooking liquid. Bring the veggies to a boil and simmer for about an hour, until the cabbage and potatoes are soft. Drain the extra cooking liquid. It can be frozen and used later to make more seitan, or for a soup base. Add the seitan strips to the veggies, mix up, and serve.

Cooking the seitan separately like this prevents it from expanding and getting more spongy. Next time I might try cooking the veggies while simmering the seitan in the cheesecloth.

Side Note:
The "corn" in "corned beef" refers to large grains of salt used to cure the beef. More info straight from Wikipedia: corned beef was never consumed in Ireland, but was picked up as a substitute for bacon by Irish immigrants in New York City from their Jewish neighbors. [source]