Baby Artichoke Hearts with Italian Seitan and Raw Baby Bok Choy (No Added Fat)

I found baby artichokes at a local supermarket a few days ago, and bought a dozen or so. I prepared them as I described in June 2006 by bringing to a boil a pan of water with a vegan bouilon cube and some fresh lemon sage (normally, one should not boil or overly cook herbs, but it works well in creating a broth), then "by pulling off the outer leaves till I got to tighter and lighter colored ones, then I cut the top third or so off as well as the bottom, and quartered the heart. I put the quarters immediately into a bowl with a little lime juice to slow down browning. When the quarters were all ready, I put them into the simmering broth, cut side down (though I later thought maybe the thicker side needing more cooking may better be cooked face down - maybe I'll try that next time). There was enough broth in my pan to not quite cover the hearts. I reduced the heat and simmered, covered, for about 20 minutes till the hearts were tender." This time, I used ample broth that more than just covered the artichokes.

I had on hand one of those packages of delicious Upton's Naturals Italian seitan that I described a few days ago. Once the artichoke was ready, I drained the pan, reserving a little liquid to use in making mashed potatoes, and crumbled in about 3/4 of the packet of seitan into the drained pan. I added a small baby bok choy cut into approximately 3/4" cubes, a little more fresh lemon sage, and a little freshly ground black pepper and a pinch or two of salt. I served with mashed potatoes, heirloom tomato, and peas. It was all good!

I describe this as a no added fat meal, in spite of having one olive added mainly for aesthetics, and the seitan. A medium olive has about a half gram of fat. The whole packet of seitan has about 12g of fat and each of our four servings of 3/4 of the packet had about 2g of fat. No oil was used for cooking.

(My daughter had a friend over who doesn't like seitan, so I served the main dish to both girls before adding the seitan. Her friend seemed to enjoy the meal, especially the heirloom tomato.)