Gimme Mo’ Faux Sho

I went to the Willy Street Co-Op today to shop for jambalaya ingredients and I stumbled across three new wonderful meat substitutes!  My trip to the freezer aisle was rather productive, where ran across a new faux meat (endorsed by Orprah, for what it’s worth) called Gardein, which I heard of in a cookbook on loan at my house called “The Conscious Cook” by Tal Ronnen.  It’s basically the best chicken substitute I’ve had to date.  Just caddy corner was also a handwrapped package of tempeh made literally down the street from me by an Indonesian restaurant called Bandung.  I immediately circled back to the refrigerator section and dumped the other type of tempeh I had picked up and I chucked the faux sausage in my basket.  I wanted to buy a number of faux meats to simulate the multi-meatiness of jambalaya – usually chicken, sausage and shrimp, although ham or turkey is also used sometimes.  My idea was to buy three veg-friendly meat alternatives, and although I’m a fan of making things from scratch, I have been working a lot and the reality for me tonight – as I’m sure it is for a lot of people – was that aside for making the jambalaya from scratch, I wasn’t going to be able to squeeze in enough time or energy to say, make my own seitan.

Besides, I had been eyeballing a brand called Upton’s Naturals.  My readers, I know I have gone on the record to say that I think store bought seitan is inferior to homemade seitan, but let me say this gave me a run for my money.  It was really good – a nice firm texture that really worked well in the jambalaya to simulate a sausage-like texture.

So here’s my verdict: three cheers for Gardein, Bandung tempeh and Upton’s Naturals seitan!