Ready for man food with

Hegan Thursday Seitan Kebobs

So, you’re probably wondering what “Hegan Thursday” is.  Well, for the first time today, I was exposed to the term “hegan,” which is a man who has adopted the vegan lifestyle for health reasons.  Mrs. WellDone doesn’t care for the term, but I think it’s brilliant since there are far fewer male vegans than female.

Plus, I like hegan since it evokes all sorts of manliness and grunting and all that good stuff.  As far as I am concerned, if you’re going to go vegan, intense manliness is just a good a reason as any!!  (Second only to perhaps health benefits.)

Anyway, since I’m always devilishly trendy (or not, depending on your definition of trendy), I’m going to do my best to support all the hegans out there with man food done meatless.  Like today’s kebobs.

Seitan Kebobs Recipe

(Quick note: seitan is a highly glutinous dough made from vital wheat gluten and other whole grain wheats.  It’s delicious and a great replacer for meat.)

With this recipe, my first thought was to give a brief tutorial on how to make your own seitan, how to flavor it so that it tastes perfect for this recipe, etc., etc.  Then I realized that hegans don’t have time to make their own.  They’re too busy watching sports and grunting.  (In all seriousness, it takes about 2 hours to make it.)

Instead, this recipe will use store bought, which has about the prefect texture for kebobs.  On the other hand, we’ll need to get some flavor into it since most store bought seitan is a flavor sponge and has little flavor on its own.

You will need:

• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 2 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 packages store bought seitan (look for lumps, not strips)
• 5 ablespoons olive oil (divided)
• 1 onion, cut into 1/2 inch squares
• 1 green pepper cut into 1/2 inch squares
• 1 red pepper cut into 1/2 inch squares
• 4-6 whole button mushrooms

You will also need bamboo skewers.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet over high heat, bring the broth to a boil.  Add the garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, and 2 teaspoons of salt and then add the seitan.  Lower the heat to medium-high.

Cook the seitan for about 10 minutes or until the broth has evaporated.

Remove the seitan from the skillet and discard any unused broth.  Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet and let it get hot.  Add the seitan back to the skillet and cook long enough to brown both sides of the seitan, about 3 minutes per side.

Construct the kebobs by alternating seitan, onion, peppers, and mushrooms.  Drizzle the kebobs with the  olive oil and then sprinkle with the remaining salt and pepper.

Bake the kebobs in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the peppers and mushrooms are cooked through.

Serve over rice.  Enjoy!

Thanks to Martin LaBar for the picture.