Salvadorian Seitan and Bean Sandwiches

November 10, 2013

We keep meaning to revisit Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day. Our first two attempts were complete successes, but the book's downside is its complicated and time-consuming recipes - you really need to set aside an afternoon to churn out these bad boys.

Luckily, I had a Sunday afternoon free while Cindy was out and about and decided to have a shot at these seitan and bean sandwiches. Step 1 involves making your own seitan, which takes a bit more than three hours. The book has a beefy seitan version, loaded up with spices and cooked in stock for hours and hours. We went down that road, but any seitan will do the trick.

The key to the sandwich is the marinade though - it'll turn whatever meaty substitute you're using into citrussy, boozy deliciousness. Pairing marinated seitan with beans makes these sandwiches a hefty, hearty treat - to be honest I think they'd benefit from a layer of greens or something else fresh and crispy to cut through all the rest. Still - this marinated seitan is likely to be the basis of many of our future sandwiches.

Salvadorian Seitan and Bean Sandwiches

(based on a recipe from Celine Steen & Tamasin Noyes' Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day)

Marinated Seitan

400g seitan cut into sandwich slices

3 tablespoons of rum

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons orange juice

2 teaspoons tamari

1 tablespoon tomato sauce

10g finely chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

1 teaspoon oil

Bean mix

1 can (410g) black beans 

1 small onion, sliced finely

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 tablespoons reserved seitan marinade

salt and pepper to taste

Sandwich bits

Crusty bread

Vegan mayo

Mix up all the marinade ingredients and lay out the seitan strips in it - marinade for about an hour, flipping everything over halfway through.

Heat the oil in a decent sized frying pan and fry the seitan for a couple of minutes. Pour over the marinade and fry it up for a few minutes and then flip the seitan and cook for another three minutes or so until the marinade is basically cooked off.

In the meantime, get cracking on the beans. Heat the oil in another pan and throw in the onion, garlic and cumin. Stir it all together and cook for a few minutes. Throw in the beans and the reserved marinade - cook on high heat for three minutes, stirring regularly. 

Mash the beans up into a rough beany mush. Taste and then add salt and pepper necessarily. 

Assemble the sandwiches: bread, mayo, a thick smear of beans, a few slices of seitan, more mayo and more bread. Done.