Beefless Beef Stroganoff

As I mentioned in my recipe post of country fried steak with gravy, I only used half a can of Worthington Multigrain Cutlets for that recipe. The other half I saved in the fridge and made this recipe with a few days later. I didn't want to just coat and fry the cutlets, so I thought the seitan steaks chopped up would be good in a beefless beef stroganoff.

Again, I'm not aware of any seitan steak products like these. Most seem to be made like crumbles or pieces. For this recipe, you could easily use West Soy seitan pieces. You could make your own seitan cutlets to achieve the same results in this recipe (and you would have leftover seitan for something else). Here is my seitan cutlet recipe.

Beefless Beef Stroganoff

* Prep Time: 10 minutes
* Cook Time: 20-30 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 1/2 can (4) multigrain cutlets, drained, cut into bite size pieces
• 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
• 2 cups button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1 cup vegan sour cream*
• 1 cup non-dairy milk*
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 package (8 oz.) ribbon noodles* 

* Recipe:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add noodles and cook until slightly al dente (around 8-10 minutes).
2. In a large frying pan, heat oil and saute onions and seitan until the seitan starts to brown.
3. Add the mushrooms and sautee until soft.
4. Combine the milk and cornstarch.
5. Add half the green onions and cook until soft. Once soft, add sour cream and milk mixture.
6. Season with paprika, salt, and pepper. Reduce to low heat and allow to simmer until thick.
7. Add noodles directly from the boiling water to the stroganoff. Stir until completely coated. 
8. Garnish with the remaining green onions and serve.

* Note: For vegan sour cream, I used Tofutti. I like almond milk, but feel free to use whatever non-dairy milk you enjoy. For ribbon noodles, I used Eden Foods Organic Spinach Pasta Ribbons. Traditionally, stroganoff is made with egg noodles and these are somewhat similar.

Country Fried Steak with Gravy

As I mentioned in my review of Chicago Health Foods store, I go there somewhat frequently. Worthington brand vegetarian foods is kind of a retro company... it's been around for decades and is owned by Loma Linda Foods. A lot of their products are not vegan and you usually just don't see them in stores. Chicago Health Foods store carries a few of their canned items and several frozen items. The multigrain cutlets are vegan, so I thought I would check it out. First, these are basically seitan steaks in a can. Second, canned seitan? Yeah... I mean, I guess it could be worse! So, I thought the best way to tackle canned seitan would be by making a country fried steak and breading it. I will also be posting a recipe for beefless beef stroganoff that I made with these multi-grain cutlets too. Now, I have to say, as far as canned seitan goes, this is really good! It was awesome in both dishes I made (I used half a can per dish). So, breaded or non-breaded, I enjoyed it. I imagine it would be really good breaded sort of like katsu or pork tenderloin and put in a sandwich too. Oh, and despite in the picture on the can the cutlet is breaded, it is not. It is seitan steaks in juice. Just FYI.

As a note, I'm not sure what you could use to replace these Worthington cutlets. I'm not aware of anything quite like them that isn't something like a Gardein chick'n patty. All seitan products I know of are crumbles and pieces, not cutlets. You could do this if you make your own seitan, though! Here is my recipe of cutlet-style seitan.

Country Fried Steak with Gravy 

* Prep Time: 1 hour
* Cook Time: 20 minutes
* Ingredients (for country fried steak):

• 1/2 can (4) multigrain cutlets, drained
• 1 cup non-dairy milk*
• 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
• 1-2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-2 tsp paprika
• 1-2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 egg replacers, follow box directions*
• peanut oil, for frying*

* Ingredients (for gravy):

• 2 tbsp peanut oil, from frying cutlets
• 2-3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp soy butter*
• 3/4th cup non-dairy milk
• salt and pepper, to taste 

* Recipe (for country fried steak):

1. Prepare butter milk by combining the milk with vinegar. Let stand in the refrigerator for 5 minutes. Soak the cutlets in the butter milk for a minimum of an hour, the longer the better. 
2. Using 2 bowls, add half of the flour and spices to each. In a third bowl, mix the eggs according to box directions. Set up bowls in a line: flour, eggs, flour.  
3. Add enough oil to a frying pan to come up half an inch and bring to medium to high heat.  
4. Once oil is hot, place cutlet in first flour bowl and coat completely, shaking off excess. Then place it in the egg bowl, again coating completely and shaking excess. Place in final flour bowl, once coated, shake excess and place in oil. Repeat for each cutlet. If the egg mixture seems too thick, add a little extra water to thin it out. 
5. Cook until each cutlet is golden brown. Place on a wire rack with a paper underneath it to catch excess oil (or place on plate with paper towels to drain oil). 
6. Reserve about 2 tbsp of oil for gravy, keeping the dripping from the dredge. 

* Recipe (for gravy): 

1. In the frying pan you used to make the country fried steak, add the flour to reserved oil from frying and whisk together until slightly thick. It should be a pudding consistency. If it is too thin, add more flour a teaspoon at a time until thick.  
2. Add butter and allow to melt.  
3. Whisk in milk. Add salt and pepper. Reduce heat and allow to thicken. If too thick, add more milk, constantly whisking until the gravy is slightly thinner than desired. Do this because it will thicken as it cools. 
4. Pour over mashed potatoes and country fried steaks. Serve with greens.

* Note: For non-dairy milk, I used almond milk. Feel free to use whatever kind you wish. For egg replacer, I used Enger-G. Peanut oil has a high heat capacity and it is really great for frying things. If you have a nut allergy, you could still use regular vegetable oil. For soy butter, I used Earth Balance with olive oil.

For sides to this recipe, I made mashed potatoes and greens. I have recipes for these on Vegan Miss: mashed potatoes & greens.