You know these people who don't have much appetite when the weather is hot and they say they could live on watermelon and berries? Every time they talk about it, I can only think about devouring my next veggie burger. Very often, my cravings are out of sync with the seasons. When it's winter, I'm munching on fresh tomatoes (bland and expensive!) and in summer, I often want something hearty. The bonus of vegan dishes is that even after a really big meal, I usually feel pretty light. This grilled seitan burger is a perfect summer treat. Only some preparations inside and then you can take the party to the outside, where you can heat up a grill. Or if you are not feeling it, then pan-fried seitan steaks are good on their own.
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| Grilled seitan. After pan-frying. |
This heavenly potato and carrot cheese sauce goes so well with crispy, juicy and smoky seitan steaks. If you want, you can cut the sauce recipe in half. It will be just enough for these burgers. Or make a full amount and enjoy the leftover sauce with good old mac and cheese or as a dipping sauce.
To make the burger even more epic, you can add marinated and grilled veggies like zucchini and eggplant. I strongly recommend these wonderful summery marinades. And why not to grill some sweet potato? Just peel the sweet potato, cut it into thicker rounds, boil them until almost soft, sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper and grill. So good!
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| Grilled sweet potato |
For me, it was super fun to make these burgers. And to eat them? Even better! Slightly charred burger buns are filled with crispy, juicy and smoky seitan steaks, pan-fried onions, grilled veggies and luscious cheese sauce. Heaven indeed!
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| Pan-fried seitan steaks with onions. Before grilling. |
Preparation time: about an hour (+ possible marinating and grilling time)
Serves: 4 or 8 large burgers (depends on if you cut the seitan into 4 or 8 pieces)
- seitan steaks
- cheese sauce
- burger buns
- (marinated and grilled veggies, pan-fried onions, sliced pickles and onions and lettuce, if you want)
Directions:
Make the seitan steaks. After pan-frying the steaks, you can add some sliced onions onto the same pan along with some salt and pepper. Then you will have delicious pan-fried onions to serve with the burger. Make the cheese sauce too.
If you want, you can slightly grill the burger buns. Now spread some cheese sauce on the burger bun (the bottom one), add a pan-fried (and grilled, optional) seitan steak, sliced pickles and onions, grilled veggies, pan-fried onions and more cheese sauce. If you want a double burger, add another steak. Now add some lettuce and the top of the bun. Enjoy!
