Friday, August 30 Paninis and Salad; Rating: 4.5

The other day, Seth commented that it had been a while since we’d had paninis, and when I thought about it, I realized it had been a really long time. We first started making them shortly after we went vegan, inspired by a recipe in The Vegan Table, which includes pesto. Most of the ones we’ve made have been in that vein, although we use seitan in addition to the veggies. This time, I decided to mix it up a little and went with Mexican themed sandwiches instead of Italian. First, I made a batch of Steamed Red Seitan from Viva Vegan and a marinade from the same book, which used chipotles in adobo and beer – always good with us. The seitan recipe is one of our favorites and we love to use it for grilling, so I thought it would be perfect for paninis. I also put some sliced zucchini in the marinade so it could soak up all the yummy goodness. Once the seitan and zucchini had marinated for a little while, I browned them in a skillet with a little olive oil. After they were done, I sautéed some spinach and sliced red onion, tomato and avocado. Now, avocados are not my favorite thing, but I’m learning to like them since they’re so good for you. I try to sneak them in to places I won’t notice them as much, like Paninis, for example. I meant to add some Daiya pepperjack to these, but completely blanked and forgot to do it. Oh well – they were really tasty without it. All the veggies and the seitan went together perfectly. I used sourdough because that was what I could find in the proper size for bread. For a side, I just made a simple salad and topped it with a citrus vinaigrette dressing (also from Viva Vegan).