I Had to Use a Steak Knife ...

Who would have thought I would ever say that again? 

Chickpea Cutlets: I know these have been blogged about and posted to death, but last night was my first foray into the vital wheat gluten world and I was both pumped and sceptical.

I had been reading about these for ages on numerous blogs and in my trusty, messy and well used copy of Veganomicon and seeing that there was a massive lack of food in my once crazy stocked freezer I stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home, grabbed me some Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten and headed home in the cold and snow (yes, we here in Vancouver are having a massive snowfall. It’s so pretty and makes me want to curl up on the couch with my flannel pants on and a warm blanket, a hot cup of tea and a good book, but I digress …)

Once home I got to work. I thought that these babies were going to take me ages to make, like my first attempt at Whole Wheat French Bread ended up being, but this recipe was fast and darn easy.

The recipe says you can get 8 pieces out of a doubled batch, but I ended up with at least 12 good sized cutlets.

I also opted to not float my cutlets in a sea of oil to cook, and since I was too damn lazy to get the oven going I simply brushed each cutlet with some canola oil before popping them into the pan, and again when I flipped them and they came out nicely browned and crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

In a word: Delish.

Over all they ended up being far superior to what I had imagined and will for sure be a new addition to my manic Sunday cooking sprees.

Since I had so many, I chose to freeze most of them and keep only a few in the fridge for the next few days.

In closing, there are a few things that I wanted to note about cooking adventure:

1. ·         Waiting for the cutlets to cool, not only avoids the mouth burning issues, but also makes them a bit chewier and tougher which really gives them a ”meaty” texture.
2. ·         While I was making them I kind of got a bit grossed out. Why? Because when the gluten strands started coming together it reminded me of chicken and I only then realized just how OFF meat and dairy I really am. Even the “fake” stuff makes me queasy now. Interesting …

Chickpea Cutlet w Tiny's BIG Salad