seitan marengo

Napoleon fought many battles, but the one at Marengo produced this dish. The original dish was made using whatever was around the countryside at the time, according to legend. There was chicken, crayfish, tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs and olive oil.

I've seen many modern renditions of Chicken Marengo, utilizing mushrooms, peppers, olives and/or wine, but the one thing that still remains the same is that the chicken is cooked in a tomato sauce.

Here is my version, keeping it simple and replacing the chicken with seitan cutlets and the crayfish with mushrooms. If you can or want to get oyster or lobster mushrooms, the better. Of course, if you are not a fan of mushrooms, replace it with a vegetable. I added another twist: instead of using vegetable broth, I used plant milk to make the tomato sauce a bit creamy.

This one is relatively simple, but give it about 15-20 minutes to simmer. Tomato sauces always taste better if they simmer a bit to cook away some of the tomato's bitterness.

I served this with ... mashed potatoes, not just because it is traditional, but because it is Cat's birthday week and I still have 2 bags of potatoes to cook for her. It was outstanding.
 Really.

Cost Breakdown

seitan:

tomato, paste: $2.50

mushroom: $1

onion, garlic, herbs: $2

potatoes, plant milk: $4

Total to make 6 servings:

$9.50

Seitan Marengo Recipe

fried vegan omelet with roasted radish

Fried Vegan Omelet is one of Cat's favorite dishes. Since I've already blogged about this, here, I wanted to make it a little differently. Earlier in the week I asked readers what they would do with a radish and the overwhelming responses were: Roast Them!

So, roast them I did. The Fried Omelet is made with tofu, nutritional yeast, turmeric, and black salt, among other ingredients like flour and plant milk. The omelet is then spread thin on a griddle and "fried" until crisp. This is totally delicious and you should go and make it right now.

Cat likes these with just ketchup, Mikel prefers them on toast with veganaise and vegan cheese (I used Teese today), and Kate likes them with slices of tomatoes and slivers of onions. 

I, on the other hand, made them really snazzy by topping them with roasted radish and tomato slices. Both of those brilliant folks (Tami and Erin) who recommended that radishes be roasted, have it right. Excellent preparation.

Cost Breakdown

bread: $1.50

tomato, radish: $1.25

tofu: $2

spices, flour, nutritional yeast, plant milk: $1.25

Total to make 5 sandwiches:

 $6.00