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Today’s Healthy Monday Tip comes from Kerry Trueman of Eating Liberally.

Today’s tip: “Veggie hack” St. Paddy’s Day!

If toasting the Emerald Isle with a pint of green beer is not your style, why not celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this Tuesday with a green corned beef and cabbage instead? That’s green as in photosynthesis; in other words, creating a plant-based version of a classic meat-centric dish.

With a bit of googling, I found a recipe from chef Brian McCarthy, author of The Vegan Family Cookbook, for seitan corned beef. Better still, there’s a video of Brian showing exactly how he does it, in case you’re intimidated by the prospect of making homemade seitan. Don’t be–it’s easier than you may think, and the end result is as good or better than anything you’ll find at the store. I started making my own seitan a couple of months ago and have been consistently pleased with the results.

I tinkered with McCarthy’s recipe a bit and borrowed a trick from a Joy of Cooking recipe for candied corned beef by coating the seitan with a brown sugar/soy sauce/mustard glaze and baking it to give it a sweet, cripsy crust. This faux corned beef may be more of a tribute to St. Francis than St. Patrick, but either way, it’s pretty divine.

Seitan Corned Beef
(adapted from The Vegan Family Cookbook by Brian McCarthy)

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tbs. paprika
1 Tbs. whole fennel seed (coarsely ground)
2 Tbs. whole caraway seed (coarsely ground)
2 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. thyme
1 Tbs. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup finely minced onion
2 Tbs. maple syrup
1 Tbs. vinegar
Cheese cloth (one double thick 24-inch by 16-inch piece)
2 – 6-inch pieces of string

To simmer seitan:

2 cups beer
2 cups water
bay leaf
10 peppercorns
4 whole cloves
2 tsp. salt

For the glaze:

3 Tbs. brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Instructions:

1. In a large pot, bring the beer, water, bay leaf, peppercorns, cloves and salt to a simmer.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten, nutritional yeast, paprika, fennel, caraway, allspice, cloves, thyme, salt, and black pepper.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vegetable broth, onion, maple syrup, and vinegar.

4. Combine wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

5. Form into a 5-inch by 8-inch corned beef-like loaf that will be about 1 1/2 inches thick.

6. Place corned beef loaf on cheesecloth and roll-up like a big flat rectangular tootsie roll (not too tight). Tie each end with a piece of string.

7. Place in simmering water, cover, and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

8. Take roast out of liquid and remove cheese cloth.

9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

10. Place seitan in a baking dish and coat with brown sugar, soy sauce, and mustard.

11. Bake for 15 minutes.

Slice thin, and serve with cabbage and potatoes.