Stroganoff

As a kid I remember my mom making stroganoff. Coming home and smelling the simmering food…thinking how amazing it smelled, and wondering what she was making…then an hour later sitting at the table and seeing and smelling the final result, and being wholly disappointed. As a teen I changed my mind and wrote off my childhood ignorance.

I haven’t had stroganoff for years. I love it. I need it. I have a new challenge…I am trying to be soy free. It’s fucking hard. Soy is good.

As a side note, I never really liked anyone’s stroganoff other than my mom’s. Even my grandmother’s version is not the same. It is really simple to make, and I would assume most people would have a majority of these ingredients on hand…so that is nice.

 It is a brown goopy sauce...and it looks brown and goopy...but it tastes amazing.

½ a brick of HOMEMADE SEITAN, or one package.

                Chop the seitan in longer thin strips.

1 Cup Sliced Mushrooms

¼ Large Red Onion, Chopped

2 Cloves Garlic, Minced

¾ Cup Ketchup

1 Cup Boiling Water + 1 Cube Chick’n Bullion

Extra Boiling Water

Salt and Pepper

½ cup Cashew Sour Cream (One Recipe)

Squashed Cauliflower

Heat a large skillet over medium

Spray with oil

Add onion and mushrooms to the pan. Stir around until they are aromatic. Add seitan. Stir it around until the seitan starts to brown up a bit. If you find that things are sticking to the bottom add a tablespoon or two of water to deglaze.

Add the ketchup, you can measure it…I just squirt it directly in the pan…because I am a renegade.

Add the bullion/water mix. Mix and bring to a simmer. Make sure you take a super blurry photo.

Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. This is the part where it smells amazing!

Stir it around…And then add the Cashew Sour Cream. At this point the sauce may become too thick. That may be preferable, but I like the sauce, as I typically put it over something. So I add additional boiling water (or near boiling) and stir and simmer a bit until I reach my desired consistency.

If I had to guess I would say I add about an extra cup of water.

Let it simmer to combine for 5 minutes or so.

Serve over rice or noodles. I am in the middle of a pretty ‘restrictive’ diet right now, so I squashed and seasoned some cauliflower.

Enjoy!