On today’s edition of veganizing staples of Chicagoan cuisine: The Ricobene’s breaded steak sandwich. The 26th Street classic but in this instance, breaded seitan fried and covered in red sauce with melted cheese…and giardiniera. On a French roll.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and you can tell me which non-Bridgeport location Ricobene’s closed closest to you.

The Vegan Ricobene. Maybe cancel your plans after this one.

3833C408-AB72-4928-8621-1D97E1152DB4-F4FDAFB0-5DCB-47F3-B536-85D5106B68D9.jpg — THE VEGAN RICOBENE

prep time: 45 minutes
cook time: 45 minutes

I mean you can wrap it in foil if you want and save it for later.

This recipe requires you to make seitan, then fry it. You can make your own red sauce if you want but I went store-bought for the sake of time. Add vegan mozz and giard and then unhinge your jaw and maybe unbutton your first button.

So first, you’re going to put your seitan together. This requires you to combine a wet mixture with a dry mixture. You’re also going to use a lot of seasoning to make sure the flavors all carry over. You’re also going to build the wet mixture directly in the food processor.

What you’ll need:

vital wheat gluten
flour
chickpeas
vegetable broth
liquid smoke
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder
vegan worcestershire
tomato paste
smoked paprika
fennel seeds

In your food processor, add a half a can of chickpeas. Add some of the liquid (aquafaba) from the chickpeas too. Add a tablespoon of worcestershire and a tablespoon of tomato paste. Next, add a half tablespoon of all of the aforementioned seasonings up there.

Now add a half cup of broth into the processor and pulse until smooth. If there’s room in the food processor, you can add a little extra broth just in case the dry mixture is too thick. Transfer that into a bowl with a spout on it our something so you can easily pour into your dry mixture you are about to assemble.

In a separate large bowl, add one and a 1/4 cup of vital wheat gluten and a 1/4 cup of flour. I used all-purpose but you can probably get away with your flour of choice. I also added a little bit of each of the seasonings into the dry mixture too, just to be safe.

Slowly mix the wet mixture in with the dry one and stir as you go. It will turn into a large unattractive doughy ball. If it’s too dry, add a little bit more wet mixture. If it’s too wet and goopy, add a little more of the dry mixture.

Once the big ball of dough is not dry or goopy, slap that bad boy on the counter and knead it out for two or three minutes

You want to knead this thing for a little bit and then flatten it out.

After your seitan is kneaded, separate it into two smaller chunks. Then slap some saran wrap on top and roll each one of them out nice and flat. Once they’re flattened like pictured below, slice them in half. Now you have four big schnitzel looking pieces of uncooked seitan.

The next part is a little tedious but very necessary. Get out a pot with a steamer attachment and add some water to the pot. Bring it up to a boil. You’re going to wrap each of the seitan things in foil and steam them for 30 minutes.

Next, take them out of the foil and be careful not to burn your fingers.

I had a little wet mixture leftover so once I popped the seitan out of the foil, I set the seitan in the wet mixture with more seasoning — just to ensure you don’t get a really funky wheat gluten taste.

Next, you are going to fry these things up.

What you’ll need:

oat/soy milk
just egg (optional, but it helps)
all purpose flour
salt
pepper
bread crumbs
canola oil (or whatever oil you want to fry with)
red sauce (again, you can make it yourself if you want)
french bread
olive oil
vegan mozz shreds
giardiniera

In one bowl, mix two parts just egg with one part oat/soy milk. If you don’t have just egg, use two parts oat/soy milk and one part apple cider vinegar.

In another bowl, add your all-purpose flour. It helps to sieve it. Toss a little salt and pepper in the flour.

In a third bowl, add bread crumbs. And another little bit of salt and pepper.

Heat up a small pot of canola oil to about 325°.

As you can see, I made a few extra seitans. Mind your own business.

Dredge the seitan patty thing into the flour and then shake off any excess. Dunk it in the wet mixture and shake off the excess again. Now dredge it in the bread crumbs and get it as evenly coated as possible. Shake off excess.

Repeat this until all of your seitans are coated. If you make too much like I did, you can freeze any of the extras before you coat them.

While your seitans cool off, you can get your red sauce going. Like I said, you can make your own red sauce if you want but that’s entirely up to you. In another small pot, add a splash of olive oil and red sauce. I used Rao’s marinara. Heat it up and then bring it down to a simmer.

Set your oven to 300° and get our your French bread, mozz shreds and giard. Open up some French bread and throw them onto a baking sheet. Once you sauce the seitan patties, you’re going to stick them on the French bread with mozz and then toss it in the oven for a few minutes.

Using tongs, add your seitan patties into the red sauce one at a time. Just a quick dunk to submerge them. Shake off any excess.

Add your now-sauced seitan onto the French bread. Add a fistful of vegan mozz shreds onto each sandwich. You’re going to stick these in the oven for five minutes to crisp up the bread a little and melt the cheese. Keep an eye on them so the bread doesn’t turn rock hard. You can also microwave them a little if you want to melt the cheese but the bread may get a little too soft too.

Into the oven you go! ….or the microwave I guess.

Once five minutes of oven time has gone by, take out the sandwiches and then toss some giardiniera on them. Maybe grab a towel because it’s not a neat meal. Using a knife or something, fold the sandwich so the seitan creates a V shape and experience the gooey melty goodness.