Most of us find it difficult to imagine pilaf without meat. But many, having given up on the use of animal protein for certain reasons, try to compensate for it, for example, with chickpeas. The essence of this substitution is minimal, especially since in some pilaf recipes, chickpeas are one of the ingredients at the same time as meat.
In fact, replacing the meat product in this dish, however, as in many others, is quite possible. This terrific alternative is seitan (in other words, vegetable protein or, more simply, vegetable meat) - a product that characterized by a high content of almost completely digestible protein and having some resemblance to animal meat origin.
Indeed, pilaf cooked with seitan is very similar in taste and aroma to the one cooked with the addition of meat (in its usual sense). This dish can diversify any daily diet, not just vegetarian, vegan or lean, and even bring some benefits to it.
Ingredients:
For pilaf:
Seitan - 250 g
Carrots - 300 g
Onions - 400 g
Rice - 450 g
Zira - 1 tsp l.
Garlic - 3 heads
Ground black pepper - 0.5 tsp l.
Ground coriander - 0.5 tsp l.
Sumy - 1 tbsp. l.
Salt to taste
Olive oil - 3 tbsp. l.
For seitan:
Wheat flour - 480 g
Water - 250 ml
Black tea - 2 packages
Seasoning for meat - 2 tbsp. l.
Onion peel - 1 handful
Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
Salt - 1 tbsp l.
How to cook:
Step 1: Prepare the ingredients for pilaf. The weight of the vegetables is indicated already peeled. It is better to cook seitan at home, especially since there is nothing complicated about it, and not everywhere it can be found on sale. It is only necessary to prepare it in advance, about 1-2 days before the planned preparation of pilaf.
Step 2: Seitan needs only two ingredients: drinking water and wheat flour. The product turns out to be neutral in taste, but what colors it will "sparkle" in the end depends solely on the selection of spices and herbs.
Step 3: From pre-sifted wheat flour and drinking water, knead an elastic dough, not too tight, which does not stick either to your hands or to dishes. Tighten with plastic wrap or place in a bag and leave for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Now this kolobok needs to be “washed” in the bowl like linen, changing the water, or under a cold running stream. Continue "washing" with water change until the water stops cloudy and becomes transparent. The dough should remain soft, like a rubber sponge. This process takes no more than 10 minutes. The resulting workpiece must be boiled in broth.
Step 5: Rinse the onion husk, add drinking water (2 l), bring to a boil. Dip black tea bags, bay leaf, meat seasoning, salt. Boil for 20 minutes. Remove tea bags and bay leaves from the broth, lower the seitan blank, only it is important to check that it does not stick to the bottom. Cook under a closed lid with a gentle boil for 40 minutes, turning occasionally to cook evenly. After boiling, leave the "meat" in the broth and cool at room temperature.
Step 6: Transfer the finished seitan into a container of sufficient volume and pour over the strained broth. Insist in this form for at least 12 hours in the refrigerator. It is better to leave it like this for one or two days.
Step 7: When seitan is infused, you can proceed to cooking pilaf. Rinse the rice until the water is clear, pour fresh and leave for 1 hour.
Step 8: Peel the onion, rinse and cut into large half rings. In a cauldron, heat olive oil or, whatever is at hand, vegetable oil and put the prepared onion, lightly fry it.
Step 9: Peel the carrots, rinse and cut into not very thick cubes about 3–4 cm long. Add it to the cauldron to the onion and fry the vegetables together for a while, not forgetting to stir.
Step 10: Remove the seitan from the broth and cut into bars 3-4 cm long and 1 cm thick. Add prepared vegetable meat to onions and carrots, stirring occasionally, continue browning until vegetables are blushed.
Step 11: Add spices (cumin, sumac, ground black pepper and coriander), salt to taste, mix thoroughly, pour a small amount of hot, pre-boiled water so that the vegetables do not burn. Place the heads of garlic on the surface of the zirvak, which must be cleaned from the top layer in advance, carefully cutting off the remnants of the root part from them, be sure to rinse.
Step 12: Put rice on top in an even layer, from which to drain all the water, for convenience using a sieve. Pour in the required amount of hot water so that it is above the level of the cereal by the thickness of a finger. Close the cauldron with a lid and cook pilaf with seitan for 30-40 minutes. Let the finished dish brew under the lid for another 20 minutes, mix gently and can be served.
Step 13: Fragrant pilaf without meat of animal origin is ready.
Bon Appetit! And delicious pilaf!
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