Belgian-Style Stew

I've been trying different seitan recipes to find one that I really like better than all the others. So far, they've all been pretty similar. How do they do it in restaurants? It always seems perfect.

I've never made it in a crockpot before, so I gave that method a whirl. The recipe was in Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Here are all the ingredients in the slow cooker before.


And after.
It didn't puff up as much as with the stovetop method, but then it didn't deflate after cooling either. This one was pretty dense. Again, I hadn't found the texture I was looking for.

I decided to use some of this batch in a recipe I found on Robin Robertson's site called Belgian-Style Seitan Stew With Dark Beer.



I had some Guinness, because what self-respecting Irish girl doesn't have a Guinness or two in her fridge? (Seriously, I wasn't drunk when I took this picture. I hadn't even opened the can yet. It's just me being my lopsided self.)

Then, I HAD some Guinness. Like wine, it helps the cooking process.

...

.

.

This recipe was very simple and easy to make. The sauce was thick and slightly sweet.

I served it over noodles like the recipe suggested and also had some garlic roasted beets and an oven roasted broccoli, cauliflower, pepper mix.

The setain was tasty enough, but quite chewy and a tad tough it seemed to me. The flavour was fine, so I may try this again, but use the simmer method.
.

The beets were really good, as always. I make these fairly often. I posted the recipe a couple of months ago.

This vegetable medley was very simple to make. I tossed broccoli, cauliflower and peppers with a splash of olive oil, sea salt and some pepper; spread it out on a cookie sheet and threw it in the oven. After about 10 minutes, I gave it a stir, let bake for about 5 more minutes. When I took it out of the oven, I transferred it to a bowl, drizzled balsamic viniegar on it and tossed. That was it & it was so tasty.

Washed it down with a bit more Guinness and we had a very filling meal indeed!