A Chilly and Rainy Sunday Means Bean Soup and Homemade Seitan Sausage

Our Sunday started like most with an early morning trip to the farmers’ market. When we left it was raining fairly hard so I was nice and damp before we got to the car. It was one of those mornings where you consider turning around and going back into your nice dry house. However since we still have weeks left on our CSA we trudged through the rain to the market.

Like usual when we get to the market Rudy (one of our favorite organic farmers) wasn’t completely set up. We helped him empty the truck and get things ready. This has become a Sunday morning ritual apparently. Neither Dan nor I mind and we like helping Rudy out. Today he gave us a couple of acorn squash for our trouble which I thought was very kind. We didn’t expect anything for helping but it was sweet of him to reciprocate.

Today at the farmers’ market we came home with the following organic produce: 1 pound of shitakes, ½ pound ginger, 2 bunches kale, 1 bunch collards, 1 quart green beans 6 cucumbers, 3 bell peppers, 1 quart new potatoes, 1 quart poblano peppers, 1 box tomatoes, 2 acorn squash, 3 huge beets, 1 butternut squash and 1 watermelon. Oddly this is a little less than we normally buy but we still had a bit of produce left from last week so I wanted to go through that first.

When we got home Dan thought a nice hot bowl of oatmeal sounded better than a smoothie. I made him his usual wild blueberry, cinnamon, ginger and walnut oats. However I was craving something green so I had a smoothie which contained: 2 cups kale, 1 frozen banana, 2 tablespoons walnuts, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger.

After we had our breakfast we decided to make a pot of roasted barley tea. With the cold and damp weather today we wanted something coffee-like and this tea works nicely. If you are trying to give up caffeine it is a reasonably good substitute for coffee. We get ours at our local Asian grocery store.

Given that the temperatures were not predicted to exceed 72 today I felt like bean soup was a great lunch idea for my parents. When I started the beans soaking I had no idea what I was going to make exactly. Initially I only knew I wanted white beans and tomatoes the rest of the dish developed later. Dan thought some seitan sausage would be good in the soup and I had to agree with him. I don’t make seitan as often as I used to but Dan likes is, as do my parents, so it sounded like a good idea. I opted to make a simple sweet Italian seitan sausage since I can always use those leftover sausages which I immediately stored in the freezer. The seitan sausage dictated the direction for the soup. Here is the soup I made:

Southern Italian Flavored White Bean and Seitan Sausage Soup
Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 cups dried white beans, cooked until soft (cooking liquid retained to give body to the soup)
1 red onion, peeled and finely diced (allow to stand 10 minutes after chopping and before heating)
8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced (allow to stand 10 minutes after chopping and before heating)
4 cups peeled diced tomatoes (I pureed half and left the other half in chunks)
2 carrots, diced
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoons hot crushed peppers (wet hots), add more if you like heat
4 cups diced zucchini and or yellow squash (I used half green and half yellow zucchini)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 black olives, pitted and minced (yes I added this for little salty pops)
2 sweet Italian seitan sausage cut into bite sized pieces (recipe in this post)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Once the beans have been cooked add the onions, garlic, tomato puree, diced tomatoes, carrot, fennel seeds and hot crushed peppers and cook for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to marry. Now add the zucchini, red wine vinegar and olives and cook until the squash is soft. Add the seitan sausage 15 minutes before you are ready to serve. Taste the stew and add black pepper to taste.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 331.6
Calories From Fat (6%) - 18.54

Total Fat - 2.2g
Saturated Fat - 0.39g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 94.41mg
Potassium - 1505.61mg
Total Carbohydrates - 58.45g
Fiber - 17.5g
Sugar - 7.52g
Protein - 23.39g

Comments:

If you like Southern Italian food I think you will enjoy this. It has nice flavor and little hint of the background heat. I have to tone down the heat when I am feeding my mother who thinks black pepper is spicy. *rolls eyes* If I were making this for just Dan and me it would have been hotter. Also for my parents I added a little drizzle (about ½ teaspoon) of extra virgin olive oil to the top of the soup. That gives the fatty mouth feel they are accustomed too without making the dish too unhealthy.

If you want to add extra nutrition to this soup you could add some shredded kale, collard or spinach. It would also be good with fresh minced parsley or basil. I would also like it with a dollop of cashew crème fraiche. It would also be good served over a grain (quinoa, millet, brown rice, etc.). There are many ways to modify this.

In order to make the stew today I needed to whip up a batch of seitan sausages. It is extremely easily to make seitan sausages. If you haven’t tried them yet you should they are much healthier than the commercial versions the majority of which contain soy protein isolates. I had intended to change the base formula but I ran out of the time to experiment today so I fell back on the breadcrumb version I have made for a while. Having homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs in the freezer was another factor in my decision. Here is how I made the seitan sausage today:

Sweet Italian Seitan Sausages
Makes 8 large sausages

Ingredients:

2 cups 100% whole wheat bread crumbs
8 cloves garlic, peeled
2 cups water
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 ½ cups vital wheat gluten

Directions:

Place the bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In your blender combine the garlic, water, vinegar and paprika and process until the garlic doesn’t have any chunks. Pour this liquid over the breadcrumbs. Add the fennel seed to the bread crumb mixture and allow this mixture to stand for at least 10 minutes. You want the breadcrumbs to absorb all the flavor also you don’t want any large bits of breadcrumbs. Now taste the breadcrumb mixture and adjust the flavor to your palate. This mixture is about 50% stronger in flavor than the finished sausage. I added black pepper to taste; you may want to add salt.

Place the vital wheat gluten into the bowl with the breadcrumbs and use your hands to knead the wet and dry together. Knead until you no longer have any dry pockets remaining. Place the seitan dough on a cutting bowl and divide into 1/8th. I do this by repetitively cutting the mixture in half until I have 8 balls.

Take 8 sheets of aluminum foil and place on 1/8th of the seitan on the sheet. Form the seitan into a rough sausage shape. Roll the seitan in the foil making certain that the foil goes around the seitan at least three full times. Twist the ends closed so you have what looks like an aluminum covered tootsie roll.

Steam the seitan in your pressure cooker on high for 20 minutes. Allow the seitan to cool for at least 15 minutes before unrolling so that you don’t burn yourself. If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can steam the seitan in a covered pot for 40 – 45 minutes.

I wrap these individually in waxed paper and freeze them in a zip top. Freezing the sausages does not harm the texture or flavor. I find seitan sausages are great to have on hand in the freezer for those times when you need something “meaty”.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 172.53
Calories From Fat (7%) - 12.09

Total Fat - 1.4g
Saturated Fat - 0.11g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 34.36mg
Potassium - 105.81mg
Total Carbohydrates - 20.12g
Fiber  -3.5g
Sugar - 0.71g
Protein - 21.32g

Comments:

I use these in any recipe that calls for Italian sausage. I add breadcrumbs to make a softer texture to the sausage without adding oil. Sometimes when you make seitan it is too firm and chewy and that is what the breadcrumb prevents from happening.

The same base formula can be used to make many different flavors of seitan sausage. I will be working on a new base formula soon using something other than bread crumb. Once I perfect that I will post it.

To accompany the stew I made four small side salads which consisted of: 1 head of romaine, 6 Roma tomatoes, and 1 cucumber. I dressed this balsamic vinegar and raw sunflower seeds for us and balsamic and extra virgin olive oil for my parents. They can’t imagine why anyone would give up olive oil so I indulge them.

Because we weren’t going out in the weather this evening we decided to have another movie night. I let Dan select again with the only parameter being a comedy. Given the whole 9/11 funk I wanted something to make me laugh. Dan selected the Wedding Crashers, and it wasn’t bad. If you have teens in the house it was a little crass but otherwise it had some funny moments and cute lines.

Yes we had more air popped popcorn with the movie (sorry no picture). I wasn’t kidding when I said movie night at our house needs to include popcorn that is somewhat of a family tradition.

Between the soup for lunch and popcorn with the movie I wasn’t certain we were going to be hungry for dinner. Of course we somehow managed to find room for salad. For dinner tonight Dan and I split a salad that consisted of: 2 heads of shredded romaine, 5 Roma tomatoes, 1 cucumber, ½ cup salsa, 1 cup marinated mushrooms and approximately 2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds. This is one of our standard salad combinations that we eat often but tonight in the new bowls Dan picked up yesterday. The picture doesn't accurately reflect the size of the bowls since they are fairly deep.  Two of the bowls held the entire batch of salad I make tonight with room to spare.

It is getting a little late and I still need to tidy up the kitchen and get some things ready for the morning since we will be back to the daily grind. I will talk to you all tomorrow. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.