Seitan Roulade

When I started blogging again, I was pretty overwhelmed by the feedback. Not to mention that people actually invite me for coffee now. I would never have dreamed that. But one feedback stuck in my mind in particular. Olaf wrote to me that he missed a lot of German recipes that he was allowed to try when he was still stationed in Germany. For me it was just absolutely impressive how much food can trigger memories in us. That's why this recipe is for you Olaf.

Duration: 4 hours (plus one night's rest)

Difficulty: medium

Makes 6 roulades

Ingredients:

Seitan

400g can of kidney beans

100g red wine

30g soy sauce

4g apple cider vinegar

60g rapeseed oil

10g salt

15g nutritional yeast /Nooch

4g onion granules

1g garlic granules

2g sweet peppers

1g white pepper

10g mustard

5g tomato paste

5g baking cocoa

optional some MSG & red food coloring

250g gluten powder / seitan fix

3 pickled gherkins

1 (red) onion

optional ham, bacon or some smoked tofu

Mustard

Some oil

Sauce

375g carrots (weighed unpeeled)

325g celery (weighed unpeeled)

350g onions (weighed unpeeled)

4 cloves of garlic

1000g vegetable broth

300g red wine

50g soy sauce

30g flour

25g tomato paste

30g oil

400g broth

4g baking cocoa

10g mustard

Pepper to taste

Preparation:

I can only recommend that you prepare the recipe the day before and let the seitan rest overnight. The rest period gives the seitan texture plenty of time to develop. So we bought the seitan. Weigh all the ingredients for the seitan, including the gluten powder, in your food processor or blender and mix them until you get a nice, smooth, silky liquid. The 400g cans are really relatively relevant here, as at least in my experience they have the best ratio of liquid to beans.

Now put the liquid together with the gluten powder in your food processor and mix the whole thing on the highest possible level for 3-4 minutes. If you have the feeling that your machine is not able to do this, knead the dough roughly with your hand and then put it into the machine in several passes.

Then take the seitan out of the machine, divide it into 6 equal parts and let it rest and relax for 10 minutes. During this time, the onion can be peeled and cut into strips. I would quarter the pickles and then use two sticks per roulade.

Then pull them in the shape of a long rectangle. Try to pull it evenly thick and not to tear holes in it.

The roulade is then coated with mustard from one side and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. Then place your ham substitute on the roulade. If you can't find one to buy, you can simply fry some smoked tofu and put it at one end, together with the pickle sticks and the onion. Then fold the sides of the roulade lightly and then roll it up.

Now the roulades have to be seared once on all sides. I recommend using a well-coated pan for this so that the seitan does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Then put them aside for now.

The sauce in which the roulades will cook out later is now prepared in a large saucepan. To do this, the vegetables are peeled, roughly chopped and then fried in a little oil. When the vegetables start to turn brown, rub them off with a little red wine and the soy sauce. Then let it boil off almost completely over high heat and add the rest of the red wine. When this is almost overcooked, you can add the liter of vegetable stock and bring everything back to the boil.

Now fix the roulades either with a few wooden skewers or with some kitchen twine. You didn’t wind up with me in the test either, but you want to be on the safe side. The roulades are then added to the boiling vegetable stock, the heat is reduced so that they only simmer and then the roulades are allowed to simmer for 2 hours. When the time is up, take it out of the sauce and pour it out through a sieve. Both roulades and the sauce can now spend one night in the refrigerator.

The next day, everything is actually relatively easy. The sauce from the previous day serves as the basis for the finished sauce. But so that the consistency is really nice, a roux is made. For this purpose, the flour is stirred into the 30g of oil and then heated. The flour is then allowed to turn brown in the oil. Be careful, above a certain temperature the whole thing goes pretty quickly, so stir regularly and don't let anything burn. When the flour has turned a nice brown tone, add the tomato paste and stir it in well. You can also fry it briefly so that it loses a little of the red color. Then extinguish the flour with 400g of vegetable stock and stir everything in well so that there are no lumps. Then the sauce base from the day before can be added and everything can be properly boiled. I like to add some baking cocoa for a more intense color and some mustard.

When the sauce has boiled up, season it with some pepper, salt or a bit more broth to your liking. You can also add a slurry of starch and water if you prefer your sauce a little bit thicker and then, all you have to do is add the roulades and warm them up.

Then you can serve the roulades with your favorite side dishes, such as apple and red cabbage and mashed potatoes.

Guten Appetit!

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