Vegan Philly Cheesesteaks: Recipe Review

I went to college in Philly for a bit, and I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty dang excited about these Vegan Cheesesteaks even though I'm not the biggest fan of vegan cheese. This was a Pinterest find that lead me to Lunch Box Brunch and the recipe here. We've never used/cooked with seitan strips, so that was new and we had never heard of Teese Vegan Cheese - but Oh.My.Yum.

The original recipe says that it serves two, but we followed it and made six sandwiches. If you need more than that, just double the red pepper and onion and you should be good to go. We did NOT use any of the hot chilies because of the littles, but we didn't seem to miss them. We added jarred, sliced jalapenos to our completed subs. We also added vegan mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato to ours.

Here's right from the recipe:

What you need:

2 vegan hoagie rolls, split down the center (optional: "scoop" the center of the roll)

spicy saute:
1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced into strips (use red an/or green peppers)
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
1/4 tsp black pepper
a few dashes chipotle or cayenne powder for heat
salt to taste (I used Penzey's seasoned chili salt 4/s)
1-2 tsp oil (EVOO, safflower or other to saute)
optional: 1 small Anaheim chili, sliced (or any spicy chili - jalapeno works too)
2 Tbsp hatch chilies, diced (canned)

cheese: 2-5 Tbsp Teese vegan cheddar cheese

seitan: 3/4-1 cup seitan strips (WestSoy brand was used)

garnish: fresh cilantro, chopped, fresh tomato, sliced fresh chilies or jalapeno

What you do:

1. Prep your rolls and warm in the oven to toast. Tip: brush inside and/or outside of bread with olive oil if you'd like.
2. Prep your veggies.
3. Add oil to skillet and heat over high heat.
4. Add peppers, onions and optional chilies. Cook until the edges begin to blacken and the onions begin to caramelize. Add in the spices, pepper and salt during cooking process.
5. When veggies are just about done, add in the cheese and watch it melt over top the veggies. Transfer this veggie / cheese mixture carefully to a sheet of foil or plate.
6. While pan is still hot, add another small splash of oil and add the seitan strips. Saute until the edges blacken. If your seitan is already seasoned (As mine was) you can just add in some extra spices to taste if desired. Pepper, spicy cayenne, nutritional yeast - whatever you'd like.
7. Add the veggies + cheese back to the hot skillet and toss with the cooked seitan. Remove from heat.

8. Add the filling to the rolls. Garnish with the fresh cilantro, tomato and green chilies. Pepper too. Serve hot!



What we thought: 
They were good, but what made them good was the sauteed vegetables. We could have gone with out the seitan strips. They didn't seem to add much flavor, especially not a 'meat' flavor (and are super high in sodium anyway). The Teese was a lot like Velveeta. Be careful when you add it to the pan, because it will melt and burn quickly. Like I said, I'm not a fan of vegan cheese - but this worked (melted... don't eat it solid... that is NOT good). We'll probably keep in mind some sort of sub-sandwich for future meal plans, but not necessarily a 'Cheeesesteak'. Onions, Peppers, and Teese would have been just as yummy.