Crispy Seitan Bites Over a Green Salad

I needed to make dinner tonight much earlier than I had planned. Salads are always a great option when you are in a hurry for a meal.

This salad is filling due to the amount of protein it contains. The crunchy exterior on the seitan is a nice counterpoint to the tenderness of the interior of the “wheat meat”. I did not add fat to the dressing on this salad due to the amount that was contained in the seitan. The resulting salad was a great combination of hot crunchy seitan on cold lettuce and tomato with a little acidity from the sherry vinegar.

Crispy Seitan Bites Over a Green Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 pressure cooked seitan cutlets – mild flavor
2 tablespoons of hot sauce
3 tablespoons of white corn meal, stone ground
½ tablespoon of canola oil
2 heads of leaf lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
5 Roma tomatoes cut into bite size pieces
½ tablespoon of sherry vinegar
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Slather the seitan cutlets with the hot sauce. Dredge the cutlets in the white corn meal. Allow the cutlets to sit for 5 minutes so the coating will adhere better.

Meanwhile heat a heavy bottomed skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium high heat with the canola oil inside. You want the pan to reach approximately 350 degrees before you add the cutlets so that they don’t absorb as much oil. Cook the seitan until it has browned on the first side (approximately 4 minutes). Then gently flip the cutlet and cook the other side until it is browned (approximately 3 minutes). If you aren’t serving dinner right away you can hold the crisped seitan in the 200-degree oven for at least 30 minutes without hurting the exterior crispiness.

Place the lettuce in your salad bowl. Top with the tomatoes. Sprinkle each salad with a little of the sherry vinegar.

Cut the seitan into bite size pieces and top the salad. Salt and pepper the salad as desired. Serve immediately so the seitan is hot and the salad is cold.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 310.49
Calories From Fat (20%) - 61.78

Total Fat - 7.03g
Saturated Fat - 0.59g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 811.69mg
Potassium - 995.79mg
Total Carbohydrates - 29.57g
Fiber - 4.62g
Sugar - 5.08g
Protein - 34.1g

Comments:

My husband thought the tender seitan interior was perfect on top the salad. I am always surprised when something that was unplanned turns out better than anticipated. I don’t know that I would have used this type of seitan on a salad if my husband hadn’t come home earlier than usual but now I am glad I did.

If you like your food spicy I would suggest adding more hot sauce, or increasing the heat by adding cayenne or chili powder to the cornmeal. The cornmeal added a nice crunchy texture that both my husband and I liked with the salad. If you always dredge your food in flour give cornmeal a try, it adds much more texture to the food.

Overall the salad was good, filling and had reasonable nutritional statistics and it tasted good.