Seitan Pepperoni 5/5 Spoons (How sexy is my Twin Peaks background?)

My world changed when my lovely friend Kris Anne introduced me to the magical world of making my own seitan. She made a "fried chicken" recipe from La Dolce Vegan! and I was hooked. I think the next day I went to the natural foods section of my then local grocery store and stocked up on a few boxes of vital wheat gluten. I love Arrowhead Mills because it is affordable and always works right for me but it's a tad harder to find. I always stock up when I head back home to Wisconsin. It's strange, I live in Chicago but I stock up on my wheat gluten back home. It's kind of cute.

(Photos courtesy of Food Doodles)

So since I regularly use "wheat meat" to substitute some of my old favorite meaty meals like chicken I figured I would try pepperoni! Although I would liken this pepperoni to summer sausage. Do you remember that stuff? I loved it when I was younger. I sliced up this "pepperoni" and put it on a sandwich and it seriously tasted like sausage to me! I was blown away. And here are my notes (because I had to work with what I had at the time!):

-- I definitely added quite a bit more red pepper flakes and it was awesomely spicy. I would dare say about 1 1/2 t. were added in.
-- Instead of tomato sauce, I thawed out some tomato paste and used that. I took 1/4 c. of the paste (equivalent to 4 T.) and added 1/4 c. of water to it and mixed it until smooth. You still add the 2/3 c. of water too. I like the tomato paste because I think it added a very deep flavor that might not have been there with just the sauce.
-- I had no liquid smoke! No worries, I got some the other day at Whole Foods, so I can't wait to add it in next time around. I just used some low-sodium soy sauce instead.

I followed the directions perfectly and the thing came out looking amazing. I didn't even wait until it was cool to try it. I still have about half a log left (after snacking and eating it in sandwiches) and will put it on some homemade pizza soon. My favorite thing about this seitan is its versatility. It tastes great anywhere I put it. I imagine pan frying it and adding it to some baked mac and cheese would be amazing. Or cutting it up and adding it to a salad. Or just pulling it out of the fridge and dunking it in mustard. It's all good.

REMEMBER! I am having a giveaway that you can find right below this post or at this link, so enter and you may win! It closes Tuesday at noon and then I will announce the winner. See you soon!