KimmyKokonut

I notice that I don’t eat very many sandwiches as an adult.  Maybe because my mom isn’t handing them to me in a paper sack to take to school.  They are the ideal lazy food: bread and filling.  I don’ t even need to cut crusts or cut it in half to enjoy it.  So I’m not sure why I don’t make and eat sammies more often than the occasional lunch to pack for a day hike, but I know that I enjoy the endless possibilities of what you can spread between two slices of bread.

Chikn Salad Sammie with Buckwheat Sprouts

This past summer, I got to try some of Joanna’s revolutionary seitan chicken recipe at a vegan potluck.  She turned it into a chicken salad and I realized it’s been too long since I’ve had anything similar to a chicken salad.  I followed her recipe to make her seitan that calls for boiling (gasp!) seitan.  My first attempts at making seitan were using the boiling method and I usually ended up with a pile of squishy brainy like mush or a dense rubber ball.  I’ve found that flavoring the boiling water doesn’t infuse too much flavor into the seitan, so I am thankful for vital wheat gluten.  Making seitan the shortcut way with vwg is great because you can mix in herbs, spices and other flavors that make the seitan so much more than a piece of rubber (although rubbery foods do have their place).  My drama with boiling seitan is that it ends up reaching an explosive, rolling boil instead of a gentle simmer.  I have found that steaming it is my ideal method and after that is braising in the oven.  I figured I would behave and follow Joanna’s recipe, at least for the first time.

I had a hard time getting the pieces thin enough, but the flavor (and aroma) were very chickeny.  It ripped apart pretty well and I froze half of the batch for another time.  I put some in a stir fry and it held up and the rest made it into a basic chicken salad: nayonaise, apple cider vinegar, celery seed, salt & pepper, chopped carrots and celery.

I threw on some of my latest sprout sensation, buckwheat sprouts.  I was excited to find these in the bulk section of Bob’s Red Mill and gave them a few hours to soak before beginning the sprouting process.  They sprouted in about 3 days and the sprout itself has a pleasant flavor and a nice crunch.  The seed covering was a little papery and rough, but that’s just more good ole fiber.  I guess you could rinse it away if it’s too much.