Grilled Seitan & Mushrooms and Shaved Asparagus Salad

Standard / by / June 24, 2011 / 27 Comments

Last Sunday, late in the day, I realized that though I had done some decent food prep for the week, I had no idea what I wanted for dinner and I didn’t want to put in a lot of effort.  I took a look in the fridge and came up with this quick, simple, delicious, impromptu dinner!

I’m trying to get in touch with intuitive cooking and rely less on recipes and measuring and more on what is seasonal and what “makes sense” for me.  How does this get tricky?  Many of you read this food blog for recipes and you want measurements.  I’m not tossing measurements out the window but I realized that I don’t share some meals with you because I don’t keep track of measurements –this is a way to share a glimpse into days when my kitchen time is less structured. Let me know how you feel about this, please!

JL’s Grilled Seitan and Mushrooms (PRINTABLE RECIPE)
Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2/3 package of seitan
  • Shitaki mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • Yellow onion, sliced
  • Pinot Noir, about 1/4 cup
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Black pepper

Instructions

  • Toss all ingredients in a large bowl and let marinade for 1 – 2 hours. Grill on an indoor/outdoor (electric) grill for about 8 minutes.

Once the seitan and mushrooms were marinating I decided to pull together a quick salad.

JL’s Shaved Asparagus Salad (PRINTABLE RECIPE)
Serves as many as you like, you decide!

Ingredients

  • Asparagus, shaved (thinly slice the asparagus length-wise, see photo below)
  • Tomato, sliced
  • Fennel, shaved
  • Fresh sweet basil
  • Lime juice
  • Olive oil (cold-pressed, which is raw)

Instructions

  • Toss all ingredients, serve right away or marinate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes – 1 hour.

This salad required no salt or other seasoning. It was perfectly fresh, crisp and the natural flavors of the veggies and fresh basil came shining through.

Total prep time?  10 minutes (truly). Grill time was less than 10 minutes. I don’t know about you but on Sunday evenings I’m tired, I want a nice meal and it’s the night that I often cave and think about ordering dinner in, or eating a less healthy meal for the ease of it. This dinner reminded me that you can enjoy a quick and healthy meal so easily.

Do you have a current go-to meal that is quick, healthy and delicious?

 

Tags:

27 thoughts on “Grilled Seitan & Mushrooms and Shaved Asparagus Salad”

  1. I am the worst at following recipes unless I’m trying something new or difficult, and I just improvise most of the time and mix up ingredients and measurements, so I totally get that. My go to meal has to be what I like to call crazy salad; cos lettuce, 4 bean mix, cherry tomatoes, avocado, corn, a scoop of cranberry sauce or balsamic vinegarette and a chunky piece of bread with Tofutti cream cheese. Simple, fresh, tasty.

    1. Your crazy salad sounds crazy DELICIOUS! Love it!

      Before blogging, I rarely measured. But then realized that many people do want to know. Now I’m going to try to do a little of both.

    2. Your crazy salad sounds crazy DELICIOUS! Love it!

      Before blogging, I rarely measured. But then realized that many people do want to know. Now I’m going to try to do a little of both.

    1. I recently attended a raw food workshop and the instructor suggested that it’s not about eating 100% raw, or even staying “I am XX% raw” Instead, she suggested that we make a point to eat something raw with every meal. I think that’s a great idea. So, yes, I agree, a meal is not complete without a salad (or some raw veggie!)

    2. I recently attended a raw food workshop and the instructor suggested that it’s not about eating 100% raw, or even staying “I am XX% raw” Instead, she suggested that we make a point to eat something raw with every meal. I think that’s a great idea. So, yes, I agree, a meal is not complete without a salad (or some raw veggie!)

  3. I generally don’t measure when I’m cooking, so seeing recipes like this doesn’t bother me at all.  I really just read any recipe for flavor combo ideas anyway!  Baking is another story though! 🙂

    3. “Flavor combo ideas”. That describes my approach to recipes exactly. Love it.

  4. I rarely measure when creating my own dishes and can usually do pretty well if someone just lists the ingredients from a recipe. I tend to tinker around with measurements given in published recipes anyway. My trip to Costa Rica has really inspired me to play with Caribbean and Latin ingredients/flavors. Lately, I can totally groove on black beans and rice mixed with a chunky salsa. Roma tomatoes, red onions, jalapeno (or red pepper flakes if I don’t have a jalapeno pepper on hand), cilantro, lime juice, salt. I eat it right out of the bowl, or roll it up in tortillas or romaine. Quick, easy and delish! 

  5. have you made your own seitan before? once i made it and prepared it in a picatta dish and my kids loved it

  6. This looks wonderful! I’ve never tried seitan, not sure why. But this recipe looks like a great way to try it.

    My usual go to meals are huge salads or stir fries when I need something quick.

  7. It’s hard work getting to the “intuitive cooking” point! I usually end up with either a salad or a bunch of tasty but incongruous nibbles. Sometimes I like to know precise measurements but at the same time, I rarely stick to a recipe anyway so I think basic guidlines usually suffice. Also, with both of these dishes there is a lot of wiggle room and “to taste” going on. The asparagus salad sounds awesome, by the way.

    1. Thanks for the comment. I used to make soups and chilis by just tossing things in. Blogging really did stop me in my tracks and I started jotting things down. I think there’s room for both. I’m the same way, by the way. I want to see the measurements and then don’t really use them! LOL

  9. I hardly ever pay attention to measurements when I look at recipes anyway!  We all have different palettes, so it’s better to just follow intuition sometimes =)

    This meal looks absolutely mouth-watering!

  10. Pingback: Summer Beans, Greens & Grains (may I introduce you to the Eye of the Goat bean?)
  13. Pingback: Fourth of July: Quick and easy plant-based grilling ideas

Comments are closed.

Archives

Meta