Chili-Chocolate Mole Seitan

Hi everybody! I'm back at home, after a busy couple of weeks in Europe. I had a great time - which I guess goes without saying - visiting friends in the Netherlands and Germany. After a few days of sleeping on couches, the ultimate budget accomodation, I headed off to be a happy tourist in Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Venice, and Paris. This was my first trip to Europe, and something I've put off doing for years, so I was thrilled and so grateful to finally go.

I'm skipping the full slide show presentation for the moment (so much to say!) to get this vegan food blog deal rolling again. Today's star is a chili and chocolate mole recipe test for the upcoming Farm Sanctuary cookbook. I don't think my photo comes close to capturing how good this was - it was made with lots of home-ground spices, seeds, chilis, and nuts, with tomatoes and a heaping helping of cocoa. The flavor was deep and complex, and I'm glad I still have leftovers. I simmered the mole with seitan chunks from Veganomicon. After boiling the seitan, I cut them into chunks and pan-fry them for a few minutes, and they develop a nice golden-brown color and slightly crispy exterior. Definitely my new favorite seitan approach.

That's about all for now. I think I'm finally starting to catch up on sleep from the past couple of weeks, and once I sort through the pile of photos from the trip I'll get a couple of them up here. I have some more FS recipe tests I'm excited about trying, and hope to get going with some recipes from Europe - no lack of inspiration. In the meantime, as much as I love being out there in the world, I'm happy to be back to my own kitchen and the dogs. Look forward to catching up on everybody's blogs!