Turkey Style Seitan w/ Roasted Heirloom Potatoes in Tempeh Bacon Cream.

Posted on November 11, 2011 by thejollyfox

Thanksgiving, or Thanksliving is approaching so quickly. I am starting to plan out the dishes I am going to make to bring to this year’s meal. When eating at my wonderful cousin’s house, there are typically always some vegan dishes that she prepares to ensure that I have something. I can’t say how much I appreciate the fact that she does that. She is truly awesome, what can I say. But nonetheless, I always try to prepare as much as humanly possible. I spend all day Wednesday, from morning until evening cooking. This year I am planning:

Cranberry Sauce w/ Hard Cider & Mustard (recipe from VT) I bring the cranberry sauce every year. I usually do my own recipe, but this recipe sounded tasty and interesting, plus I got some delish organic hard cider a few weeks back for my Halloween costume which was…..

I’m also planning:

Apple Butter Peas

Marble Rye Stuffing w/ Bluefoot Mushrooms

Green Bean Casserole

Dinner Rolls w/ Apples & Thyme

Black Cumin Spiced Pumpkin Cheezecake

Rosemary Apple Pie

Hopefully I’ll be able to get it all done. Going to make the cheezecake on Tues as well as the pie dough. Everything else will be done on Wed.

I may also try to whip up some mashed potatoes or buy some of the vegan stuff from Whole Foods. I like to make everything myself and from scratch, but I feel like I need to accept the fact that it’s Thanksgiving and it’s okay to buy some ready-made mashed potatoes.

Anyhow, in preparation for the big day, I was cooking up some various Thanksgiving themed dishes. I decided to loosely adapt a dish from Sunset Magazine:

Turkey w/ Rosemary & Pancetta. While I have a recipe for vegan pancetta, I decided to use tempeh bacon instead. I used this recipe for turkey style seitan and sauteed it with the tempeh bacon and about 2 tbsp rosemary. Some veggies would have been nice in this as well, but I was also making a huge side of potatoes.

DSCN5014 — Turkey Seitan w/ Rosemary & Tempeh Bacon

The potatoes were an adaption of the Makah Ozette Potatoes with Bacon Cream–I didn’t have access to this particular type of potato, so I used local heirloom fingerling potatoes. Here is my version of the recipe:

Roasted Heirloom Potatoes in Tempeh Bacon Cream

Ingredients:

4lbs heirloom fingerling potatoes

12 oz red pearl onions, blanched & peeled

2 tbsp Earth Balance

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 c vegan creme fraiche (lalalalaaa hohohhohoo–fraiche!)– I used a Spork sister’s recipe I had learned in a class I took with them. It is primarily vegan sour cream and cream cheese, so experiment and see what you can come up with. Jenn Shaggy also has a vegan creme fraiche recipe in her book, Veganize This! You could probably also just use some vegan sour cream like Follow Your Heart or Tofutti.

1 bunch chives, chopped

4 oz tempeh bacon

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place the potatoes in a big pot of salted water and bring to a boil, then simmer until they are tender, about 10 to 15 min. Drain and place in a big bowl. Then blanch and peel your pearl onions if you haven’t done so already. Next, add onions, Earth Balance, salt and pepper. Spread the potatoes out on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a silpat. Stick them in the oven and bake, stirring them around once or twice for about 25 min.

Saute your tempeh bacon with a drop of oil. Add your tempeh bacon and chopped chives to your creme fraiche (lalalalaaa hohohhohoo–fraiche!) substitute. Add some salt and pepper to taste to the creme and then start to combine it with the potatoes. It should melt and bit and coat them, but not heavily.