Spicy Seitan, Potato, and Cabbage Stew

It seems like every week this winter, I am making soup.  This week is no exception.  Today, I decided to make a soup that contained cabbage, since I have a head of cabbage to use.  I searched for cabbage on VegWeb.com and came across Spicy Seitan, Potato, and Cabbage Stew.  Luckily, I had everything at home including homemade seitan.  

I still had about 5 Vegan Filet Mignon in my freezer.  I thought one would be perfect for this stew.

I made my sons some pasta in my rice cooker and as that was cooking, I began chopping the onion, shallot, garlic, and carrots for the stew.  I stayed pretty close to the recipe.  I did add about 1/2 teaspoon of dried jalapeno pepper flakes. They really aren't very hot, so I thought they would add to the flavor of the stew.  Also, I didn't have any "hot" green chilies, so I added a 4 ounce can of fire roasted green chilies.  I also put a squeeze of Sriracha sauce in the stew.  I'd say it was only a teaspoon or two.  That concerned me seeing as I scorched my mouth on that sauce not so long ago.  Sheesh!  Sriracha is H-O-T.

The only other substitution I made was I used No-Chicken Broth.  I thought I had plenty of quarts of veggie broth here, but evidently I've made more soups than I thought, so I was down to only No-Chicken Broth or Mushroom Broth.  

I still have half of a head of cabbage left.  I've already decided what I'll be making.  I found a recipe for Brussels Sprout Heaven.  This is a combination of Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and grape tomatoes roasted at 425º for about a half hour.  I may add some yellow onion wedges to this.  I totally LOVE Brussels sprouts and just bought a pound at Whole Foods on Tuesday.  This will definitely be my dinner tomorrow night.  One of the comments on the recipe page stated the person served it over quinoa.  I have some quinoa, but I have never tried it.  I think it's time to break it out.

I liked this stew.  Mine turned out with a bit of a bite.  If you don't like spicy foods, I'd make sure to use mild green chilies and omit the Sriracha sauce all together.  One thing I'll do the next time I make this is shred the cabbage versus leaving it in 1" ribbons. The seitan added a nice flavor to the stew, but this would be equally as tasty without it or substituting some sliced Italian Tofurky sausage.  I also think that some white beans (navy or great northern) would be great in place of the seitan.  Overall, this is a great stew for January in Chicago.