It took me a few months to get used to cooking for one person, and after a week at my internship, it’s pretty clear I need work on learning to cook for one very busy, rarely-home person. I hate wasting food, but I had to throw a few things away last week. True, it was only some leftover brown rice and roasted veggies, but I hate wasting food.
Something I’ve been playing around with recently is halving recipes. Saturday’s muffins turned out pretty well, and on Sunday, I made a mini version of a seitan log.
Yes, this is basically the ugliest thing ever (and dirty hippie food at that), but it’s tasty, nutritious, and easy to throw into salads, pasta dishes, sandwiches, and more. As I’ve mentioned before, though I’m not a vegetarian (or a dirty hippie—I totally wash behind my ears now), I really do love certain vegetarian foods, and seitan is on that list of weird-but-good.
It was much prettier when chopped up and thrown together with some veggies, marinara sauce and spaghetti squash… 
Here’s the recipe…
Ingredients:
- 3/4 c vital wheat gluten
- 1/8 c nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp paprika (optional but delicious)
- ground pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp red miso paste ( I’m sure white would be good too)
- 1 tbsp olive or canola oil
- 1/3 c cold water
- 2-3 drops liquid smoke (optional)
Rolled up and ready to go in the oven
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk dry ingredients together. In another, smaller bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.
- Add wet to dry and mix. Knead for a few minutes and roll dough into log, about 3-4 inches.
- Wrap log in foil and bake about 70-90 minutes or until outside begins to crisp slightly.
- Allow to cool completely before wrapping in new sheet of foil. Will keep in the fridge 4-5 days.
Do you have any favorite “dirty hippie” foods?