Recipes: Seitan Skewers with Peanut Satay Sauce

When I was eating this, did I care that I was getting the sticky peanut sauce all over my cheeks and chin? Did I balls! (If I dare say that - oooops).

I defy anyone, vegan or omnivore, to get their teeth into this and not think it is the most satisfying and incredibly toothsome plate of deliciousness that there is (except of course, if you have a peanut or gluten-allergy. Then don't try it). 

I made it as part of fancy pants Asian-inspired dinner that I cooked for my other half as a special treat, but I thought the recipe deserved a little place of its own on my blog too.

I also made a Japanese-style cucumber salad to go with it - and prepared that first to give the cucumber a little time to soak in the rice vinegar (better to use mirin though - rice vinegar was all I had in at the time! You can see what I did for the salad on the post this recipe comes from).

I had prepared the seitan earlier myself, although you can buy it ready made from Chinese supermarkets. Otherwise, to make it, try using the recipe on PPK for home-made seitan.

Once you have the seitan ready,  you can make the peanut sauce.

Peanut Satay Sauce:

½ red chilli

2 gloves minced garlic

1 inch cube of minced fresh ginger (or ¼ tsp ginger powder)

¼ tsp all-spice

1 ½ tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp soy sauce (or gluten free alternative)

½ tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp sugar

½ tbsp cornflour

5 tbsp water

1. In a small saucepan, heat the sesame oil on a low-medium heat and fry the chilli, garlic and ginger (if fresh) for 1-2 minutes.

2. Add the other dry spices, stir in quickly, then add the soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar, and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves.

3. Now combine the peanut butter into the sauce, and stir until melted in (keep the sauce only simmering up until this point).

4. In a small teacup or bowl, mix the cornflour (cornstarch) with the water, then take the saucepan off the heat just to add, stirring in constantly.

5. Put the saucepan back on the heat and turn up until slightly boiling, so it thickens. Keep on a high simmer for a few minutes. If the sauce needs to be a little thicker, add some additional cornflour (try a half tablespoon) by following the step above.

The sauce needs to be a consistency that will allow it to stick to the seitan for the satay skewers.

Then you will need to prepare the seitan for the skewers:

For two people serving this as an appetiser, you will need approximately half of the seitan recipe that I have linked to above.

I took three pieces, and ended up dividing and cutting into 12 small chunks. The seutan chuncks then needed to be lightly fried with some olive oil in a heavy frying pan until browned.

Push three pieces of seitan onto each skewer, and then place on the serving plate. Pour the peanut satay sauce over the skewers, and then assemble some cucumber salad, if you made it, at the side.

Or just use a few bean sprouts sprinkled with sesame seeds as an even easier garnish.

Enjoy! I promise that you will finish eating this wanting more.