Braised Cabbage with Seitan

I like cabbage and I like seitan, so this Braised Cabbage with Seitan recipe from Appetite for Reduction seemed like a great fall dish.

First I made the Surefire Seitan also from Appetite for Reduction. I've made it before and loved it, but this time it didn't turn out! My dough never became elastic like it should. I used a different type of vital wheat gluten, so maybe that's why. It tasted good but wasn't as firm and chewy as it should have been.

The Braised Cabbage recipe is pretty basic. I started by sauteing sliced seitan in olive oil...but I hesitated when it called for adding two teaspoons of thyme to the seitan. I'm not a huge thyme fan so added only a half teaspoon and then some red pepper flakes. Then it was just a matter of adding vegetable broth and sliced cabbage and simmering until the cabbage was tender.

The final dish was pretty bland. All I really tasted was the thyme (damn that thyme!). I loaded my bowl up with salt and pepper, but it wasn't much better. Unfortunately, this recipe was a waste of seitan...and because my seitan was a flop, a waste of eight cups of vegetable broth!

Lasagna with Roasted Cauliflower Ricotta & Spinach

I've had my eye on this tantalizing recipe from Appetite for Reduction since I first got the book. But because it's one of the most time intensive recipes, I didn't try it until this weekend.

There's a lot of prep. First (obviously) you roast the cauliflower. Then you mash it with a mixture of tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and pepper.Next you make the sauce, which is really just adding fresh thyme, minced garlic, and salt to a can of crushed tomatoes.Then you chop up some spinach and start building the lasagna layers.I topped it with thinly sliced tomatoes and baked it for 40 minutes.
And...it sucked. Really. It figures that the most time intensive recipe I've made from AFR so far was so bad. I made myself eat two of the six slices before I threw the rest out. For me, wasting food is an ultimate sin, so you know this was pretty bad.

The description said it had "so much flavor your head might burst." Instead, my head deflated with the lack of flavor. I love all the ingredients, especially roasted cauliflower, but to me it tasted really bland. The only thing I could taste really strongly was the fresh thyme in the sauce.

How disappointing...especially after I gave AFR such a glowing review! Oh well...I'll overlook a few flubs in an otherwise great cookbook.

Has anyone else made this? Is it something I did wrong???