Seitan Fajitas

Fajitas are a food that I like to keep as simple as possible, in order to enjoy each of the prominent flavors. I used mainly just water, gluten flour and spices to make this version of seitan because I wanted a firmer texture for this meal. I believe you'll like the combination of spices and veggies that I put in, but whatever veggies you choose to use, I recommend to use just a couple. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

The finished fajita, opened up for you.

The seitan before it's steamed.

The seitan after steaming: see how much it expands. The foil will stretch to accommodate it, but you need to be sure you've wrapped it around at least twice, in order to ensure that it won't leak out of a seam. This makes a lot of seitan, so you can have leftovers!

Seitan Fajitas

Ingredients:

3 cups of gluten flour
1 Tbs. paprika
1/2 Tbs. oregano
1 Tbs. onion powder
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 and 1/3 cups of water
Canola oil

Homemade or store bought flour tortillas
1 bunch or several asparagus, trimmed and blanched
2 tomatoes, halved and sliced
Hot sauce

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten flour with all the spices. Add the water and stir well. Knead for a minute or two to completely combine everything - you want no wet or dry spots. Shape into a ball or loaf, and wrap securely in aluminum foil. Steam in a large pot with a steamer basket and a couple of inches of water on the bottom over medium heat for one hour. Carefully unwrap, so you don't get steam burns. Let cool long enough so you can handle it to slice it in three-inch strips. (You can save some of the seitan for a later dish: unless you are serving a large dinner party, you probably won't need this whole loaf at one time. However, feel free to cut the whole thing into strips and saute and freeze what you want.) Heat a large skillet with about a tablespoon of oil over medium heat. When hot, add several of the strips and cook for about one minute on each side, until browned. If you are cooking a large amount of the loaf, or the whole loaf, add more oil as necessary. Make sure the asparagus and tomatoes are prepared. To blanch asparagus, heat a large pot of salted water to boiling. Add the asparagus and boil for three minutes. Drain under cold, running water for just a moment to stop the cooking process. You're not interested in getting it completely cold. Fill a flour tortilla with seitan, asparagus and tomatoes, and douse it liberally with your favorite Mexican-style hot sauce. Fold over like a taco. Bite. Yum. Feeds five hungry vegans.