Food Network Friday: Spicy Seitan with Yellow Rice with Garlic

Spicy Seitan with Yellow Rice with Garlic

"The smell of the garlic combined with the salty-ness of the capers and olives. Then it's got the wonderful heat of the chili - fried seitan coming up under it all. It makes you just want to dive into this dish."

Can you guess who's recipe this is for Food Network Friday? That's my lame attempt to do a Giada impersonation. Trust me, it's probably better it writing than it is outloud. And I don't have her cleavage, either. But I do have this great recipe from her.

Spicy Seitan

2 chicken seitan cutlets
pepper
1 Tbsp chili oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
3/4 tsp capers
1/3 cup white wine

Sprinkle the seitan cutlets with pepper. Heat a small frying pan (big enough to hold all the ingredients at once though) over medium high heat. Add the chili oil then panfry the seitan cutlets until nicely browned. Remove and set aside. Turn the burner down.

Remove the skillet from the heat so your garlic doesn't scorch when you add it...then add it. Also add the olives, parsley and capers. Add the wine, and return the pan to heat over medium. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Put the cutlets back in and spoon olive mixture on top. Simmer about 5-1 0 minutes until almost all of the liquid is absorbed.

Notes on this recipe:

Not only is this one amazingly easy, it's also fantastic. If you've got a couple of cutlets in your freezer, you can have this on the table in less than a half hour.

The original recipe includes a recipe for chili oil. Instead I just used some premade stuff that I got at the grocery store that I always keep around for Asian cooking or any time I want to add some heat. It's great in soups, by the way. But the concept of panfrying with it is absolutely brilliant. I'll bet it would be awesome with tofu, too. It's just a great technique. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that idea.

With all those olives and capers, the dish could tend toward the salty side. The original called for salting and peppering the cutlet, but I think just the pepper is enough. Then again, I tend to make slightly salty seitan, so do what you think is best. Know your own seitan!

Would I make this again?
Absolutely. It's a total keeper.

Now let me tell you about that rice! It's a tester for Vegan Latina, the new book by Terry Hope Romero. You just know that one's going to be all kinds of incredible and then some. The rice is Yellow Rice with Garlic and it goes with anything. It's going to become a staple in our home and I'll bet it will in yours, too. Along with the seitan cutlet and the roasted cauliflower, this meal was a breeze to prepare.

Up next? Your guess is as good as mine. I do plan to get some more testing in so we'll see. Yay! It's the weekend!