Seitan & Dumplings

The kids are home sick from school today, and that fits in perfectly with my plan to make seitan and dumplings for dinner. I swear I didn't get them sick on purpose, though! It just so happens that I was craving this awesome meal that reminds me so much of my Meemaw.

I remember the first time I watched Meemaw make these (of course, she was using real chicken and real butter/eggs...) I was so surprised that you could MAKE chicken & dumplings. I had only had the kind from a can, which I thought was so delicious. But that didn't even compare to her homemade dumplings and rich broth!

Last year I called her to get the recipe and it's been a favorite in our house since then.

For seitan, I use my super simple lazy seitan chicken recipe:

Dry Mixture:
1 1/2 cups wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp "chicken" broth powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Mixture:
1 cup water
2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Mix the dry and the wet. Then grab a chunk and squash it until it's kinda flat. Put it on an oiled or parchment papered baking sheet and bake 20 minutes. Flip over and bake another 15-20 minutes.

And the dumplings:

Mix 1/2 cup of Earth Balance, softened, with 2-3 cups of flour until pea-sized bits form. (Like making pie dough or biscuits). Then stir in 1 tsp salt, 2 egg replacer eggs, and enough water to form a dough. I've never measured this, but just add a little at a time until the dough will hold together. You can also add roasted garlic, herbs, or black pepper to the dumplings and it's awesome!

Just roll out the dough until about 1/4 inch thick. Use a pizza cutter to slice it up into big fat noodles/dumplings. Let the dough rest for about an hour. (I've cheated and only waited 1/2 hour and it didn't ruin anything. But Meemaw says you should wait an hour, so you probably should.)
Bring about 8 cups of water (I didn't measure, but it was a really big pot of water) with veg. bouillon cubes or broth to boil. Throw in some garlic, diced carrots or celery if you'd like. Then add about 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast, 1 tsp poultry seasoning, 3 Tbsp. lemon juice, and tons of salt and pepper to taste. This should make a really rich, "chickeny" broth.

Then drop in the seitan (chopped into big cubes) and the dumplings a couple at a time so they don't stick together. Boil for about 10 minutes.
If it needs more seasoning, adjust salt, pepper, lemon juice, etc. to taste. It comes out different every time!

This is basically the only soup that the boys will eat!