New Year, New Meat: Vegan "Beef" Stroganoff

Normally the New Years Eve meal is fancy and fun. You go out to a nice restaurant, eat with friends or lovers and reminisce about the totally crap or totally wonderful year that has just passed you by. It usually leads to an evening of adult beverages and a serious hangover to start the New Year off in top shape. But this year, I had none of those things.

I was working, and the weather was drab so I spent the evening at home and was in bed by 9:30 and sleeping soundly shortly thereafter. Perhaps what led me to this deep, peaceful sleep was the AMAZING vegan “beef” stroganoff I had before retiring.

I know, I know. You are thinking there is no possible way to 1) imitate beef in any way or 2) duplicate a sinfully delicious cream-based sauce to drown it all in. I was skeptical too, but it is doable my friends and it was everything beef stroganoff should be: creamy, toothsome, filling, and oh so satisfying. I even went back for seconds.

I found the recipe at a wonderful website called Vegan Yum Yum and you can get the recipe here. The recipe gave me the opportunity to try two new vegan products as well, which I will give you my humble opinion on.

The first is Tofutti brand “Sour Cream”. While I don’t know if it can quite hold up to the good ol’ dollop of daisy name, it does quite well for a plant-based impersonator. It is creamy and thick and well, sour. Just like sour cream should be. It melted down nicely to create the rich sauce that housed my meaty goodness.

The other item new to the kitchen was Seitan. Seitan is a meat alternative that is made from pressed wheat gluten. I went with the Uptons brand I saw at Whole Foods because I liked the logo guy’s cool mustache (see below). The recipe called for plain seitan but I thought the ground beef variety would add a nice touch to my “beef” wonder dish. When it first came out of the package, it looked like brains and I have to say I was a little concerned about how the whole thing would end up. There was no turning back though. I cut it into pieces and into the pan he went, mustache and all. By the time the mushrooms were added and the tofu sour cream started melting, I knew everything was going to be just fine. The seitan was chewy, hearty and tasted very much like beef. Imagine that.

All in all it was the perfect comfort food dish for after a long day and perfect proof that vegan eating doesn’t have to be boring salads and beans day in and day out.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Lindsey