It’s hard to constantly think up new meals. (I’m sure this isn’t just a vegan problem since I see so many planners with meal planning stickers and such that just say “chicken” or “beef” as though that’s a meal in and of itself.) I mean, vegans have pasta (plenty of protein in that without meat), beans, grains, seitan, tofu, tempeh, various processed faux products, nuts… Lots of base ingredients.

At any rate, I was looking for steak sauce to put on a portobello, but the store was out and instead found this:

 

Terrible picture, yes. But, read the ingredients and despite the photo of what appears to be pork on the front (a lot of professional food photography is of things that look like food but aren’t actually edible), the ingredients checked out as animal-free.

Other ingredients:

• two boxes of WestSoy seitan
• Bag of whole wheat buns
• shredded coleslaw blend (Whole Foods sells this in bulk and even at $5.99 a pound, a dinner’s worth is cheaper than buying two whole cabbages and carrots — most of which will go bad before we finish eating it)
• Tablespoon or two of grapeseed or coconut oil
• Organicville non-dairy coleslaw dressing

I shredded the seitan strips in my food processor so they had more of a “shredded pork” look and so there was more surface area to soak up sauce. I browned the shreds slightly in a pan and then lowered the heat and added the sauce packet, a tad (less than a quarter cup) of water and a few sprinkles of white wine vinegar (optional, but the husband and I grew up in eastern NC where BBQ sauce is very vinegary).

In a bowl, I combined the coleslaw blend with enough dressing to make it tasty but not drippy.

Served it on buns with a side of vegetarian baked beans.