Seitan Ribz and Plantains

A lot of vegetarian food doesn't photograph well, but every once in a while you get to take a picture of a really amazing center of the plate.

When we were talking about talking about what we wanted to have for dinner on Thursday, I was looking for something to put next to some plantains I was planning to roast.



I decided to make the seitan ribz from FatFree Vegan Kitchen, a recipe I originally discovered on everydaydish.tv.



I like this recipe because I make a lot of simmered seitan cutlets, but the combination of baking and grilling makes an amazing, meaty entrée.



To the easily intimidated, it may seem like there are many steps, but one you get comfortable working with vital wheat gluten, it's a pretty straightforward application. Throw your gluten flour in a bowl with some seasonings, mix up your wet ingredients, knead for six seconds, stick it in the oven, when it's firmed up, slather (yes, slather) with barbecue sauce and sear it on a hot grill.



I didn't have any liquid smoke, but I added a couple teaspoons of smoked salt to the liquid ingredients. I used a pizza cutter to score the seitan, which seemed to work really well.

The plantains were peeled, cut into chunks and tossed with canola oil, salt and pepper. They went into the oven with the seitan and just continued to roast when the ribz came out to be grilled.



I brushed the ribz with Annie's Naturals Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce, and turned them about four times each on a hot grill pan.



I plated up a handful of plantains with some ribz and some steamed green beans. Yes! Crusty, chewy, caramelized goodness.