Garonne River daydreaming… flavors drift lazily into my mind.. a tender chicken fillet under a blanket of chard and creamy mushroom sauce… my eyes close, the aroma teases when I inhale, the taste becomes real on my lips… roasted potatoes with an herbal essence….
Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Serves: 4
There is a long and a short version to this dish. Both are wonderful but when time allows, the extra effort definitely pays off. If you are up for it, see the extended process in “Extras and Tips”. Click to see our recipe for perfect All-Purpose Seitan
Seitan in sauce
- 8 slices Seitan – ½ in thick
- 1 cup White Mushrooms – fresh, finely sliced
- 2 cups Rainbow Chard – fresh
- 2 cloves Garlic – fresh, pressed then minced
- ½ cup Basil – fresh, chopped
- 1 cup Oat Milk – full fat, (I use “Oatly”)
- ⅔ cup Sour Cream – vegan, (I use “Tofutti”)
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Salt
Potatoes
- 1½ lbs Potatoes – 1 lb golden yukon, ½ lb purple, cubed
- 1 cup White Mushrooms – fresh, quartered
- 3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 tbsp Herb de Province
- 1 tbsp Rosemary
- 1 tbsp Sage
- 1½ tsp Sea Salt – coarse, camargue
Let’s start with the potatoes
Preheat oven to 420°F.
After cleaning and chopping the potatoes and mushrooms, put them in a large mixing bowl. Add oil and mix until pieces are evenly coated. Add salt and herbs, mix again. Spread evenly across a baking pan.
Roast on middle rack for 35 to 40 minutes.
And now for the main dish
Heat up the oil in a medium-large skillet. Add the garlic and brown on high heat for about 2 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute until golden-brown and the water they release evaporates.
Place the sliced seitan in the pan and sear on both sides, roughly 3 to 4 minutes per side. Now, add the chard, lower the heat and place the lid on the skillet. As soon as the chard is wilted, add the salt, milk, sour cream, and lastly the basil. Place the lid back on top and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. You want to obtain a creamy sauce, so feel free to adjust the consistency by adding more milk, one tablespoon at a time, if necessary.
Extras and Tips
Ever since I mastered the perfect seitan consistency, Chris refuses to eat the store-bought version. I do still buy it at our local market from time to time, when my schedule gets too hectic. I realized however, that I can actually make the seitan from scratch, in bulk (for a fraction of the cost) to then freeze what I don’t use the same day. If you want to give it a go, see my recipe to make your own homemade seitan. It may take you a few tries to get the consistency right, so patience and persistence are paramount, as they are for many other dishes that may be foreign to us initially.
If time allows it, I like to season my potatoes ahead of time and let them sit in the fridge for about 2 to 3 hours. You will find that they have absorbed part of the oil and herbs, so they are extra flavorful when baked. They actually cook faster, too, and develop a lovely golden-brown skin (oh, I forgot to mention that I typically don’t peel them) on the outside, while remaining moist on the inside.
If your chard is not as tender as you’d like, remove the majority of the stem, because hard stems may be stringy.
To get the most flavor out of your garlic cloves, crush them with the peel first, then remove the peel and mince them. This will make it so more oils are released, resulting in a more potent flavor.
