Not Your Mama's Pot Roast

I used a combination of Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker and Table for Two. Well, just the seitan and gravy recipe from Table for Two and the method from the Slow Cooker book.



Ingredients
Seitan
1 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
chipotle powder
cumin
salt
black pepper
chili powder
red pepper flakes
1 cup water
2 T soy sauce
2 T olive oil

Rest of the pot roast
onion
carrots
potatoes
~3/4 cup water/broth
thyme

Gravy
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T flour
3/4 cup water/broth (cooking liquid from the roast)
1 T olive oil
chopped mushrooms
roasted garlic (you can wrap a head of garlic in foil and place in the crock pot when you put in everything else and it should be roasted by the end of cooking time)
black pepper
salt

Method
Seitan
Mix the dry ingredients in medium bowl until mixed. Add the liquid ingredients and knead until gluten strings develop, about 3 minutes. Place in the slow cooker.

Rest of the pot roast
Chop the vegetables and place on top of the gluten roast. Add the water until the seitan is covered. Top with thyme to taste.

Cook on low for about 8 hours or until the roast is cooked through. Slice the roast and serve with the vegetables and a gravy made from the cooking liquid.

Gravy
In a small saucepan, over medium heat, toast the yeast and flour for a few minutes until warm and yummy smelling. Whisk in the liquid ingredients, stirring constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Add the mushrooms and roasted garlic (mash into a paste before adding) and any seasonings and warm until everything is cooked through. Serve over everything else.

Notes
I really enjoyed this. My husband thought the seitan was a bit rubbery. I can't seem to get my seitan to not be rubbery if I boil or steam seitan. I have had good luck with baking it and having a good texture, but I don't want to bake it every time.

The gravy was super awesome. And I could eat roasted vegetables for every meal for the rest of my days and not get tired of them. When I was little, we would have pot roast from the slow cooker every Sunday for lunch after church and the meat was soooo dry. I would mostly eat the vegetables and not the meat. Maybe that is where my love of the roasted vegetables comes from.