new and improved fried(but baked) vegan chicken recipe
cheated a bit with this recipe and used a pre made coating mix for my seitan, ill be working on that recipe another time. The pre made coating mix consisted of flour and seasonings like celery salt and cayenne. I only dipped the seitan in coating quite lightly. my husband says that the internal texture is more chicken nuggety rather than fried chicken, they have a very light texture
For the seitan:
wet ingredients:
1 ½ cups pinto beans
2 tablespoons of olive oil (optional)
1 veg stock cube (or equivalent of bouillon)
1 heaped teaspoon garlic powder
2 heaped teaspoons onion powder
1 heaped teaspoon paprika
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 cup cold water
¼ cup boiling water
dry ingredients:
1 cup vital wheat gluten
¼ cup nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons dried easy blend yeast (the yeast that does NOT need to be mixed with warm water)
shop bought or home-made fried chicken coating
low fat cooking spray
sieve the vital wheat gluten to rid of any lumps, mix remainder of dry ingredients together.
in a food processor blend the wet ingredients together until no lumps remain.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry mix well and knead for 5 mins. This should result in a very moist sticky dough.
Leave dough to rise for 2hrs, it will get quite a bit larger.
Preheat oven to gas mark 7
pull off chunks of dough and dip in shop bought fried chicken coating, and place on a mesh chip tray or a pizza tray with holes in sprayed with low fat cooking spray. spray the seitan chunks with low fat cooking spray.
Place the coated chicken on the baking tray and bake for approximately 25- 30mins turning halfway until the seitan is firm and golden.
Can be frozen and reheated.
vegan fried “chickn” (baked not fried and oil free)
I took inspiration from this you tube instructional
i dont have a deep fat fryer and i am on a diet.
the first batch i made of this vegan chicken came out tooo spicy for my tastes, the second batch came out perfect. this is a good base recipe to add different flavours to.
you are going to need a mesh or perforated tray to get the Chickn crispy like one of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B001TKTK0G/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=11052681&s=kitchen
preheat oven gas mark 7
in a large mixing bowl seive
1 cup of vital wheat gluten
add 1 heaped teaspoon fast acting yeast
2 heaped tsps of garlic powder
2 heaped tsps of onion powder
1 heaped tsp taco seasoning
1/2 tsp (or to taste) red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp boullion or 1 veg stock cube
1 tablespoon sage
2 tsps thymme
mix all dry ingredients togther until well combined, slowly add warm water to combine into a slightly sticky dough (not too sticky or it will stick to baking sheet and fall through the mesh)
leave in warm place for about 2 hours
pull off chunks of dough and stretch out a little, placing on baking mesh, spray with fry light. bake for 20 minutes and flip pieces half way through
voila, freezes very well too
recipe for helping constipated babies
my little one is a bit bunged up at the moment, this usually due to starting solids, so im cutting back the amount of solids ive been giving her and increasing breast milk and water.
she had a breakfast of 3 prunes soaked in apple juice then mashed a bit in the food processor mixed with some pureed pear. I also gave her diluted apple juice with filtered water, hopefully that will help her get things moving. I will be giving her dinner tonight but no lunch and an extra breast milk feed here and there.
My babys food diary:
the focus for good food has shifted from me to my daughter as we have begun weaning.
We started at 5 months as she was waking in the night very hungry. We used month 5 to play with different foods.
We started her off on baby rice mixed with expressed breast milk to the consistency of single cream, we gave her this for about 3 days once a day with no pressure. She gobbled it up. We usually gave her this in the evening
We then tried her with carrot mixed with milk and baby rice to the consistency of single cream for about 3 days again once a day.
We steamed the veg and then blended it with a little water til smooth and then froze it in a ice cube tray. Once frozen we transferred the cubes of veg into labelled freezer bags.
Then we did the same with swede, broccoli, apple, pear. After about 3 weeks we started thickening the consistency to be like thin mash potato. Then we introduced combinations.
We would pick two different cubes of veg and reheat with a little expressed milk and baby rice to achieve desired consistency.
In that first month she tried the following:
banana
apple
mango
brocoli
avocado
swede
carrott
potato
beetroot
pasrnip
aubergine
pears
peas
spring greens
sweet potato
butternut squash
she was a bit hesitant about broccoli on its own but when mixed with other things she loved it.
Once she was good on combinations I introduced a breakfast. I started with breakfast of fruit and baby rice. I would also still give her veg in the evening before bath and evening breastfeed.
Now she is just 6 months we are beginning to do partial baby led weaning.
She has ready brek made with expressed milk and fruit for breakfast usually. I try and feed this to her but she likes to do it herself, so I load the spoon up and let her get on with it. Its messy but its good learning for her.
Lunch is a combination of vegetable purees and baby rice
and dinner is a mix of veg purees plus potato and lots of steamed sticks of brocoli, carrott swede anything that she can pick up herself and put to her mouth and eat.
We give her plenty of water with her solids to help prevent constipation. She did become a little constipated so we gave her a little apple juice mixed with water and some chopped soaked prunes in with her ready brek. This week we will be trying pasta. watch this space !
