Last month I wrote about Linden Tree Foods Seitan Crumbles. They are absolutely delicious. But I haven’t been able to get my hands on any lately so I had an idea. When cooking with the seitian crumbles you rehydrate them in hot water – like TVP – so, one must assume they were dehydrated, right? I had plenty of homemade seitan on hand, so I thawed two cutlets (approximately 6 ounces) and got to it.

It was pretty basic: I ground up the seitan in the food processor, spread the crumbles into a thin layer on the dehydrator trays and then dehydrated for six hours on 120F.

I ended up with about 2 1/2 cups of dry seitan crumbles.

I suppose an obvious question is why? Why not just crumble the fresh seitan and use it? First, I just wanted to see if I could make seitan crumbles, since I’ve enjoyed the purchased variety. Second, and more practically, it’s about shelf life. Rather than storing the seitan in cooking broth in the refrigerator, I simply keep the dry crumbles in a jar in the fridge with no worries of the broth turning. I tend to make big batches of seitan and suspect I will now freeze cutlets and dehydrate crumbles, which will really stretch out my cooking options, making the investment of cooking time even more worth it!

Last night we tried the crumbles for the first time. I wanted to make a dish that called for ground beef and couldn’t help but think of the macaroni goulash mom used to make. I asked my sisters about the recipe and it was pretty basic – sautéed onion and ground beef with our homemade canned stewed tomatoes, macaroni, salt and pepper and our homemade canned tomato juice, if needed. Well, I obviously didn’t have the canned tomatoes from mom and dad’s garden but I had enough to go on to riff on the family recipe.

Seitan & Macaroni Goulash by JL Fields @ JL goes Vegan Ingredients 1 cup dehydrated seitan crumbles

3/4 cup water

1 tablespoon avocado or extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green pepper, chopped

1/4 cup red wine

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 (28 oz) can stewed tomatoes

1 1/2 cup whole wheat elbow macaroni, uncooked

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 – 1 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

Vegan parmesan cheese Instructions Boil water and add to the dry seitan crumbles in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside to rehydrate for about 10 minutes. In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat oil on medium-high. Saute garlic and onion for about 3 minutes. Add green pepper and wine and saute for another 3 minutes. Add the rehydrated seitan, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, macaroni, chili powder and salt. Mix well. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until macaroni is tender. Serve with a vegan parmesan cheese. Powered by Recipage

YIELD: SERVES 4

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Oh, I love eating something that reminds me of my childhood! I was thrilled with how this came out – and with how well the seitan crumbles performed in this dish. But I was most pleased that this dish is officially omnivore-approved by Dave!

I love recreating family favorites, turning them into delicious vegan dishes!