Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Caesar Chavez Wrap

The Caesar Chavez Wrap, page 271
(romaine lettuce, sauteed seitan, black olives, and Caesar Chavez dressing in a whole-grain wrap)


SweetPea has had her eye on the Caesar Chavez Wrap for a while, now. She adores seitan, and she loves the Caesar Chavez Dressing just as much as I do, and who doesn't love good things wrapped up in a neat whole-grain package?

I made the Surefire Seitan (page 262) earlier in the day. The flavor was excellent, but I've had better texture results from other recipes. I want to say it came out a bit "spongy," but not like it does when the broth boils too rapidly... it was different than that. It seemed like the dough was just a bit too wet before simmering in the broth. Next time, I might try reducing the liquid a little and see if that works better.

The Caesar Chavez Dressing is probably my favorite salad dressing from this book, so far. Again, I found myself practically licking the blender clean - it's that good. I made a double batch this time, so I can have some extra on hand for my lunch salads during the remainder of the week. There is just something magical about this combination of shallots, miso, tahini, cashews, lemon, and capers. It's magic, I tell you.

Thumbs-up of approval all around the dinner table tonight. These wraps will show up again, I predict. I'm thinking they would make perfect pack-ahead picnic food.

Have you tried any of the sandwich or wrap suggestions from AFR? How about the Surefire Seitan?

Lettuce, seitan, olives, and dressing - ready to roll

7 comments:

Leslie Richman said...

That looks and sounds great. My copy of the cookbook is in the mail as we speak!

foodfeud said...

This does sound totally great. I was sold on the dressing itself but everything is tastier in a wrap.

Julie Ann said...

Leslie, thanks! Come back soon once you've tried a recipe or two so we can compare notes! :-)

foodfeud - does this mean you've tried the dressing, or it just sounds good to you? I adore it. I'm eating it on my lunch salad RIGHT NOW. :-)

Dave said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave said...

Have you tried steamed seitan? I use Julie Hasson's method from everydaydish.tv, adding a little soy or garbanzo flour to make the dough easier to work with, making shapes (sausages or whatever) out of 1/3-cup portions, wrapping each in foil, steaming for about 45 minutes. It's a firmer texture, but not tough.

Julie Ann said...

Dave - yes, I have tried the steamed sausages. I agree, the wrapping and steaming does result in a nice texture! I wonder - is it possible to steam larger portions? Have you tried that? I'm thinking it would be nice to be able to slice larger pieces for, say, sandwiches or wraps.

Jennidy said...

I use the Vegan Dad recipe:
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2008/03/seitan-marsala.html
I steam between two plates, and I definitely add a tablespoon or two of garbanzo/chickpea flour.