Southwestern Chile-Rubbed Seitan Sandwich

Photo

www.weeklyveganmenu.blogspot.com

adapted from The Candle Cafe Cookbook

Ingredients:

4 dried Guajillo or 2 dried chipotle peppers

1 t salt

1 T apple cider vinegar

1 t cumin, ground

1 garlic, minced

pinch thyme

pinch oregano

1 pound seitan, cut into ½ inch thick

1 t olive oil

1 ½ c onions, thinly sliced

salt

¼ c olive oil

3 slices tomato

Chipotle Mayo (see instructions)

6 slices of bread

Heat a saute pan. Heat the peppers in the pan until they become soft and pliable. Seed and chop them up as best as you can.

Now you can use a food processor or a mortal and pestle to make the paste. Grind the peppers, salt, vinegar, cumin, garlic, thyme and oregano together until it forms a paste. Rub this paste all over the seitan slices and let it is for at least an hour. Overnight is great, too.

In the meantime, make the caramelized onions. Heat a saute pan on medium, add the oil and onions and a bit of salt. Cook for a few minutes on medium until the onions begin to get soft. Turn the heat to low and cook the onions until they are dark brown. Stir often. It takes about 20 minutes to do this.

Once the seitan has marinated, heat a large saute pan. If you can sear half your seitan in the pan, add a quarter of the oil. Cook the seitan on one side for about 3-5 minutes. Add more oil and flip them and cook the other side the same way. Repeat with all of the seitan.

To make the chipotle mayo, mix 1 c vegan mayo with ¼ t paprika and 1 t chipotle powder OR blend, with a Magic Bullet or a hand blender, 1 c mayo, ¼ t paprika with ¼ piece to a whole piece chipotle in adobo (depending on how spicy you want it).

To assemble the sandwich layer ⅓ of the seitan and caramelized onion on a slice of bread. Add a slice of tomato. Spread some chipotle mayo on the other bread and top the sandwich.