Sweet n' Sour Seitanic Stir Fry

The name is a bit of wishful thinking right now as I was too lazy to make seitan, which is REALLY lazy of me considering it's a) ridiculously easy and b) I have to wait forever for the brown rice to cook in the third-best-kitchen-appliance.  Eh... oh well... Next time I'll make seitan.  I've had a long day--again!  And I was hungry... and had some receipts to log... and now to blog... so time hasn't been wasted!  There's a great recipe for seitan in all-hail-Isa's book 'Appetite for Reduction'.  She's had great recipes in 'Vegan with Vengeance' and in 'The Veganomicon' but the one in AfR has been perfected towards simplicity and far less sodium than the other two end up with.  Next time I make this (which shall happen soon) I'll make the seitan recipe from all-hail-Isa... (maybe you can see the recipe here: http://books.google.com/books?id=2bB_cc54DQYC&pg=PT259&dq=appetite+for+reduction+seitan&hl=en&ei=0dscTryUH8Tz0gGi7cCuBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false ) She's not joking, store-bought seitan is a stupid purchase when you can make it at home for pennies on the pound. OK, don't know if that's accurate, but it IS much cheaper and it was fun to say/type.

Sweet n' Sour [Seitanic] Stir Fry
4 servings, 135 calories per serving with no seitan.  Add 150 calories for 1/4 of all-hail-Isa's seitan recipe from the link above).  It makes a lot of seitan, so you could use an 1/8 of the recipe per serving and refrigerate the rest for other delicious concoctions.

NOTE: If using seitan, make that ahead, it takes an hour in total.  Again, considering the rice takes over an hour to cook I TOTALLY could have made it.  Lazy-arse am I...

CONTENTS

• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 4 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce
• 3 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 2 Tbs. cornstarch
• 1 Tbs. coconut oil
• 1 cup cashews
• 2 medium-large carrots, sliced in 1/4 in rounds
• 1 cup canned pineapple chunks (that's all I had, use more if you want! I would have if I could have!)
• 1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into long, thin strips
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger or 1 tsp ginger powder (I used powder)

FASCIST DIRECTIONS

1. Combine pineapple juice, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and cornstarch, and mix well. Heat in small saucepan until slightly thick, and set aside.  Stir it frequently at first, then you can leave it alone.  It will continue thickening some after the heat's off, but it will also coagulate in areas.  Don't be grossed out, just stir it up.


2. Heat oil in large wok over medium and, when hot, add cashews, and stir-fry for 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside. Add carrot rounds and stir fry about 5 minutes, stirring often but not OCD-like.  They won't soften, but they'll cook up.  Next, add the pineapple cubes and snow peas, and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add red bell pepper, garlic and ginger if using fresh (if powder, wait til after adding sauce), and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add sweet-and-sour sauce, stirring to mix well, and stir-fry for 2 minutes more.  Add ginger powder now if using that instead of fresh.


2.5 Add prepared seitan--slice it or cube it, whatever you want.  I recommend sliced...


3. Remove from heat, garnish with cashews, if using-ha! USE!, and serve alone or over rice or noodles.  I'm going with brown basmati rice.  Yum.