Dill Seitan

Eating veal is fairly new thing in Finland and it’s not eaten often. Hilkka Uusivirta’s book Suomalaisen perinteen keittokirja (1982) says that in late 19th century veal cooking was taught in cooking schools/courses and before that Finns didn’t eat veal. One of the dishes they taught to make on the courses was Dill Meat, which is veal in dill sauce. It was often served in hospitals, and the book says that usually sick people and children like it. On the other hand, many people hate it, because they had to eat it at school as kids. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re so young (we were at school in late 80’s and 90’s) but neither of us have eaten Dill Meat at school and as far as we remember, it did taste quite good. Veganized version of Dill Meat is of course Dill Seitan, and the recipe below is based on the one that I found from Hilkka Uusivirta’s book.

2 balls basic seitan
2-3 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp wheat flour
1 l vegetable broth (from cubes)
2 tbsp dried dill or 0,5 dl chopped  fresh dill
salt, pepper
3 tbsp oat cream
1 tbsp distilled vinegar
1 tbsp sugar

Cube the seitan. Melt the margarine in a sauce pan and stir in the flour. Gradually add broth until it starts to look like sauce. Add dill and seitan and simmer for a while (10 minutes or longer). Add the rest of the ingredients. Serve with boiled potatoes and boiled/steamed vegetables.