Vegan Recipe: Vegetables & Tofu Stew

Seitan variant

    Today I'm sharing an easy but quite mouthwatering vegan recipe!

    People who tasted this dish were really happy and striken by the result, even if much depends if you like tofu or seitan.

    The very simple idea behind this is to create something similar to a peperonate, adding tofu and/or seitan and keeping the cooking time a bit shorter. You can experiment by using other vegetables, as the cooking procedure is always the same. For example, I use peas or beans, sometimes.

    It requires about 40 minutes to serve, including the preparation of ingredients and the cooking phase.

Vegetables and Tofu* Stew

Ingredients (for 2-3 people, according to appetite!)

    1x zucchini
    1x Small eggplant (or 1/2 of a large one)
    1x carrot
    1x Pepperoni (red, yellow or green, as you prefer)
    1/2x red onion
    3x cloves of garlic
    1/2 jar of mushrooms
    1/2 bottle of tomato juice
    200g of tofu*
    Oil
    Salt
    Chilli
    Oregano and/or basilic
    Flour

Variant with tofu and peas, but no pepperoni

Preparation

    1. Cut zucchini, eggplant, carrot, pepperoni, garlic and tofu into cubes (around 1cm is ok; garlic should be smaller); cut the onion into half moons.

    2. Fill the bottom of a high pot with a layer of oil (a bit less of 1cm is ok), put garlic and onion inside and brown them at slow fire.

    3. Add zucchini, eggplant, carrot and pepperoni, and simmer them for about 5 minutes, until the base made of oil is well absorbed. Add spices (salt and chilli) during this stage, in order for them to be absorbed by the vegetables.

    4. Add tomato juice. Cook everything for about 10-15 minutes (use the carrots as a hint: when they become soft, it's time to go to the next point!), keeping the pot covered and stirring occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom.

    5. Add mushrooms and tofu*. Cook the whole for another 5-10 minutes, always at low fire, stirring frequently. Around the end of this stage, add a tablespoon of flour to create a bit of creaminess (the level of creaminess depends alot upon what kind of tomato juice you used).

    6. Add oregano or basilic just one minute before removing the dish from fire.

    7. Serve with bread and beer!

*= Tofu can be replaced with seitan, but in this case, you should cook it a bit longer after you added it to the mixture (point 5). Still, seitan is pure gluten, so tofu is a healthier choice.