On a glass table, a blue-rimmed plate, with a pair of chopsticks laid to the left. On the plate, a mound of fluffy white rice, half-covered with wrinkled green beans and slices of dark brown pan-crisped seitan, all dressed lightly in a brown sauce and flecked with black, beige, and red-brown bits of seasoning.

Green beans and seitan in black bean sauce

September 16, 2016by Mike @ Optional Kitchen Leave a comment

Salty, spicy green beans, just a little oily. Pan-fried seitan soaking up the sauce. A bed of rice, and a plateful of heaven.

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In a close-up, a chunk of street-cart seitan sits with a bite of bright-yellow on a fork, the whole bite dappled with white garlic sauce and vibrant red chile paste. In the background, more seitan nd rice, and the edge of some leaves of salad.

Street-cart seitan with garlic sauce

March 17, 2016by Mike @ Optional Kitchen 2 Comments

Inspired by memories of some amazing chicken from a food truck in Midtown Manhattan, this street-cart seitan is quick and easy, reheats beautifully, and is a complete vegetarian meal, especially if you throw some salad and bread at it.

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Asado de seitan (Seitan in a mild chile sauce)

January 27, 2015by Mike @ Optional Kitchen Leave a comment

Okay: let’s say you’ve made some Basic Seitan (or you decided that it sounded interesting, but weren’t totally convinced, and so you bought some — no judgment here!). But now you […]

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Basic seitan

January 21, 2015by Mike @ Optional Kitchen 2 Comments

I mentioned in the very first post of this blog that I often bring vegetarian/vegan dishes to potlucks so that more people can enjoy it. But it’s not just potlucks; […]

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