Vegan Valentine's Day Menu

While I hate the commercialism of Valentine's Day, I've come to embrace that for many it is an excuse to take time out of your busy schedule to devote yourself to the person you love. A little reminder, if you will, that date night is important. Over the past three Valentine's Days with my wonderful boyfriend, we have always celebrated at home with a romantic meal that I prepared for him with love and simple creativity.  This year is the first time that we've decided we would go out for dinner (although he did get his romantic home cooked meal in advance).  On Tuesday, we are looking forward to enjoying a six course tasting by Chef Eric LeChasseur at his new restaurant, Seed Bistro.

If you're planning to prepare a special meal at home,  here is a recipe with my proposed menu:

Seitan Piccata

Ingredients

1 pound seitan (homemade or store bought)

1/3 C flour

olive oil

3 shallots, thinly sliced 

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 C dry white wine

2 C vegetable broth

¼ tsp salt

several pinches ground black pepper

small pinch dried thyme

¼ C capers with a little brine

Juice of 1 lemon (2-3 tablespoons)

3 T finely chopped parsley

Directions 

1. Heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Cut the seitan into long, thin pieces, slicing off any rounded ends so that they will lay flat. Ideally, the slices should be a little over ¼ inch thick, 3 inches long, and 2 inches across.

3. Coat the bottom of the skillet with oil and let it get hot. Dredge half the seitan slices in flour to coat. Add to the pan and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Proceed to coat the other slices and repeat. Place the cooked seitan slices on a tray or plate, covered, to keep warm. Do not rinse out the skillet or turn off the heat; you’re going to use it to make the sauce.

4. If needed, add more oil to the pan. Sauté the shallots and garlic for about 5 minutes, stirring often so they don’t burn.

5. Add white wine and raise heat to bring to a rolling boil. Add vegetable broth, salt, black pepper and thyme. Again bring to a rolling boil and let the sauce reduce by half; this should take about 7 to 10 minutes.

6. Add the capers to heat through, about 3 minutes. Add parsley and lemon to the sauce and turn off heat.  Plate seitan with desired sides and ladle with sauce.

Serve this with Roasted Root Veggies of your choice and a side of Braised Kale.

And my usual V-Day dessert recommendation, Chocolate Avocado Mousse.  Find the recipe here.

The best thing is that you'll make enough seitan to have leftovers for another day! Yum.  I'm not quite sure the actual source of this recipe since I pooled a couple different recipes that I found (Mostly from Veganomicon and Conscious Cook).  If you aren't a fan of capers or don't have any, the sauce is still delicious without - just not worthy of the name piccata.