Roasted Seitan Fajitas & Chimichurri Tofu

June 30, 2009 at 9:34 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged fajitas, my recipes, peaches, roasting, salsa, seitan, tofu, vegan

That CSA delivery that I posted about last time and said I didn’t remember what I did with it?  I remember now, at least what I did with some of it.  Gosh, I’m so organized these days!

I had a bunch of little bell peppers on my hands, so I thought that I ought to make fajitas.  Fajitas are, after all, delicious as well as being a fantastic use of peppers. Fajitas, however, are not my friend in the way that I always put too much stuff in the saute pan and it ends up all crowded and hard to stir and doesn’t saute as much as cook down and get soft.  Also, you have to keep stirring the stuff around.  So I thought to myself that I could try sticking them in the oven to see if the oven would do all the work for me.  Work it did, indeed.

I also had a bunch of peaches and even though I love peaches the most just as they are, I decided I would try to make a peach salsa.  I looked at a few recipes online and decided in the end to just put what I thought would taste good in a bowl and see what happened.

The fajita filling turned out fantastic.  The veggies were cooked but still firm, the seitan a bit crispy on the edges, and the oil and mushroom juices were just enough to keep the whole thing moist but not dripping.  I show you a picture of just the filling because…

I didn’t really make fajitas.  I only had larger tortillas, so I went for a fajita burrito.  Just as good, and possibly less messy.  In the front we’ve got cucumber and jicama slices, Amy’s refried black beans in the back, chunky guacamole and peach salsa on the burrito.  The jicama was really awful and almost inedible.  Maybe it’s not jicama season?  Apart from the jicama, this was a really tasty meal.  The peach salsa was fantastic, if I do say so myself.  I didn’t even miss the tomatoes, although there were tomatoes in the guac just incase.

Roasted Seitan Fajitas

2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp dried oregano
dash each of onion powder, garlic powder & cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp sugar
1 lb seitan, sliced into strips
1 large or 2 small bell peppers (red or green), sliced into strips
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced
1/2 lb mushrooms, halved or quartered
2 Tbs olive or canola oil
small tortillas

toppings
lettuce
salsa (regular or peach salsa, recipe below)
guacamole
vegan sour cream
shredded vegan cheese
fresh cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Combine all spices (chili powder through sugar) in a small bowl and mix well.
3. Place the seitan, peppers, onion and mushrooms in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle the oil over and stir to coat. Sprinkle on the seasoning mixture and stir well, making sure ingredients are well combined and coated.
4. Line a baking pan with foil. Transfer seitan mixture to the baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring once after 15 minutes.
5. Spoon filling into tortillas and top with your choice of toppings.

Serves 3-4.

(I used the basic seitan recipe from Veganomicon, doubling it and freezing the rest for later use.)

Peach Salsa

4 small or 2 large ripe peaches, cut into small dice
juice of 1 lime
2 Tbs minced red onion
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 tsp salt
heaping Tbs chopped fresh cilantro

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Refrigerate and allow flavors to combine.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

I also had a big bunch of parsley that needed using, and while I love parsley pesto, I was in the mood for something different.  I had heard of chimichurri sauce but never tried it, so I decided that was the way to go.  I had also seen pictures of a baked chimichurri tofu floating around on some blogs, a tester for the forthcoming Vegan Latina cookbook, so I at least knew it would work on tofu.  Upon Googling, I found that there are about a bajillion ways to make chimichurri, and they all claim to be authentic.  I also came across this recipe for Grilled Tofu with Chimichurri Sauce, which looked perfect enough to make just as is.

I was intrigued by trying the dry rub technique on tofu and worried that it wouldn’t work, but it actually worked really well.  This is not a recipe for tofu haters – aside from the dry rub and the chimichurri sauce, it’s really just a slab of grilled tofu.  That’s fine by me though, I love me some tofu.

I forwent the garlic bread called for in the recipe and stuck with toasted, thick-sliced whole wheat bread.  In the end the recipe was easy to make, relatively healthy (didn’t need all the oil called for), and downright delicious.  I am now a fan of chimichurri.  Also, I don’t know why I felt the need to include two green veggies with my green-sauced meal, but that’s steamed spinach and roasted brussels sprouts up there.

That’s it for tonight, folks.  I’ve got planned posts to catch us up on laptop lunches, as well as a massive one to document the last four weekends, which were packed with food and fun.

On a personal note, I just acquired the entire NKOTB discography and will be listening like mad before I see them in concert next week.  I never got to see them when I was younger, so I’m pretty excited!  Don’t judge me.  I also finally sent in my application to a certain school that I really want to attend this Fall, and should hear back within a few weeks!

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