Seitan Pot Pie

1 chopped carrot
1-2 chopped celery stalks
1 chopped onion
1 package seitan w/broth
1 package Imagine No-Chicken Broth
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen spinach
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh sage
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 tsp fresh or dried oregano
1 T fresh basil
1-2 cloves garlic

Tonight's dinner was made in the slow cooker. I sauteed the onion, celery, and carrot in a skillet. I added these to the slow cooker along with the bay leaf, seitan (Whitewave Chicken-Style), the broth from the seitan and the box of Imagine No-Chicken Broth. Cooked on low for 6-8 hours, then 1 hour before serving, add the rest of the herbs, garlic, frozen peas, and spinach. Remove the bayleaf, rosemary and sage, and serve with a nice crusty bread. For a special occasion, cook in a dutch oven or casserole, top with biscuits and finish in the oven according to biscuit recipe.

This is one of Paul's favorite meals. It's usually the first thing that comes out of his mouth when I ask for menu suggestions. It's a great meal that we can agree on. I love soups and stews and Paul loves the texture of seitan. I remember hearing about seitan as a teenager and looking up a recipe for it on the internet, so the first time I ever had seitan was actually completely home-made by using bread flour and kneading the dough while rinsing away the starches. Today, most recipes for seitan skip the rinsing step altogether by starting with the dry gluten available from companies like Hodgson Mill. I still think that first time was far better than anything I've come up with since, but far more labor intensive. A far simpler solution is to buy pre-made seitan from a company like Whitewave. I can get my local health food store to order it for me by the case and it freezes beautifully in the sealed packaging without changing texture like tofu.