Latin Shredded Seitan Taco with Salvadoran Slaw and Yellow Garlic Rice

Friday, February 7

Latin Shredded Seitan Taco with Salvadoran Slaw and Yellow Garlic Rice

Rating: 4.5

You know how you see a recipe and it sounds really good, and then you start making it and get kind of panicked because it seems really weird? Well, that’s what happened here. Everything in this dinner was from Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero, which is one of my favorite books. (Seriously, if you like Latin food at all, get this book. It’s amazing and has recipes for everything you can imagine.)  First I made the steamed red seitan, which I’ve made several times before, and it came out great. I was really excited to try it out in the Latin Shredded Seitan recipe, which is pretty versatile and can be flavored differently depending on the style you want – Cuban, Venezuelan, Mexican – I just went with the base recipe. I got worried once I had all the ingredients in the skillet, because it seemed to get a bit mushy. When I tasted it from the pan – same thing. Kinda mushy. Flavorful and good, but soft. There was really no turning back at this point, so I just plowed valiantly onward. I had already made the slaw while the seitan was steaming, so it had plenty of time to press in the fridge. It’s kind of a neat recipe – very easy to make and then just put it all in a big bag and put some weight on top to soften the cabbage and help it absorb the vinegar. I used a mix of purple and green cabbage, which is why it all turned lavender. Weird looking, but tasty. The rice is also really easy, using annatto infused oil, which I always have on hand. I like to put extra garlic in our rice too, because, well, garlic. Once the rice and seitan were done, I heated up the tortillas and loaded them up with the seitan and a little bit of slaw. I needn’t have worried about the seitan. Once it was in the tacos with the slaw, it was perfect. So good. I got enough out of the recipe to make about 9 tacos, which was more than enough since we had the rice and slaw on the side. Leftovers will make perfect lunches for the weekend.