Thursday, March 15, 2007

Autumn Harvest Stew (a tasty, easy vegan meal)


Autumn Harvest Stew (or Winter Harvest Stew these days)

This slow-cooker/crockpot recipe was adapted from a Publix Greenwise recipe from last fall. I added a couple of bitter vegetables because using only sweet ones made a very sweet meal the same day, and it made leftovers that were nearly unbearably sweet. Depending on how mild or spiced you like your meals, you may want to slighty decrease or increase the spices. There's no heat in these spices, though--I don't mean to imply that there is.

2 chopped sweet potatoes
2 medium chopped, peeled parsnips
2 medium chopped, peeled carrots
2 small chopped, peeled apples
1 chopped, peeled turnip
1 chopped, peeled rutabaga
1 chopped onion
2 pckgs. regular seitan (28 oz.? or so--it's strange how similar to meat this stuff can seem; just look at the photo!)
1 tsp. crushed, dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tsp. salt
few grinds of salt
1 1/2-2 c. veggie broth
1 c. organic apple juice

In a 3.5-4 q. slow cooker place your veggies and seitan. Sprinkle with the seasonings. (You can also use ~three times as much fresh seasonings, tie them together with twine, and tuck them in the food. That's how I originally made this dish.)

Pour broth and apple juice over all.

Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or on high heat for 3.5-4 hours. (I've always used low heat.)

I serve the stew over couscous. As you can see in the photo, I like to serve it with sauteed, tender-crisp garlicky green beans as a foil to the sweetness of the stew.

8 comments:

Chris H said...

Ok, for us down in New Zealand... what is rutabaga and seitan ??? Looks edible, for something without meat !

Sally JPA said...

If you put your cursor over the word seitan, you can click on it to see what it is.

Here's a link to what a rutabaga is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga Might you know it by the name "swede"? Or "yellow turnip"? I didn't know them at all until I started eating locally this year and tried them out.

~~Midnight Raider~~ said...

Looks yummy! I am not a big fan of seitan.... but I might try the recipe and substitute tempeh for seitan.

PearShapedGirl said...

The stew looks good, but the green beans are what stood out to me! I love green beans, especially straight from the garden (after they're washed of course, haha). I hope your husband does well on his test. 8 hours is a long time, but from what you've written, it sounds like he's well prepared. I look forward to reading what you have to say about money & weight issues... should be interesting and I'm sure it'll strike a chord for a lot of us...

Take care and have a great weekend!
-PSG

Sally JPA said...

Midnight, I bet it would work well with tempeh. The only tempeh I've seen at our local store has seeds mixed in, and I am supposed to avoid eating seeds because of colon irritation.

Pear, my best friend and I love what we call "squeaky green beans"--green beans that are still crisp enough to squeak a bit when you bite them. Yum. Please share your favorite green bean preparation(s) at some point!

SuMarie said...

Oh. Yuummmeee! Might have to try that one for sure.

Marathon Someday said...

That looks delicious!!! I have a bag of green beans and a bunch of sweet potatoes sitting in my kitchen, waiting to be cooked up. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

And WAY TO GO on your Week 2 of C25K!!!!!!

thrilled said...

That sounds yummy. I eat mostly veggie, but I've never tried seitan. Maybe this is my chance!