Food Network Friday - Aarti Sequeira's Pretzel Crusted Steak with Mango Chutney Onion Gravy

It's time for a another Food Network Friday where a few of us food bloggers and food lovers take a recipe posted on the Food Network site and make an awesome vegan conversion. Check out what my other friends did by check out Tami's wrap up at Vegan Appetite! 

This week's Food Network Friday features new Food Network Star Aarti Sequeira. I have a tendency to pick chile laden and latin influenced recipes. This time I chose something that is not typical for me. Her recipe for Pretzel Crusted Steak with Mango Chutney Onion Gravy is far from typical. Am I glad we tried this one! 

The pretzel crust on this is super crunchy. I highly recommend using the unassuming pretzel for breading and frying. It adds a spectacular crunch. I did not have fenugreek leaves so I used half the amount of ground fenugreek in the flour mixture. I used soy creamer with flax seeds in place of the eggs. It is probably no surprise that I used seitan cutlets for the protein. I am working on a personal project that I needed to develop a beefy seitan recipe. I was able to have success with both. 

The onion gravy recipe called for 2 tablespoons of mango chutney. As it was my first full day back in the kitchen for a while, I was feeling particularly ambitious. Instead of using pre-jarred chutney I made Alton Brown's recipe for Mango Chutney and of course took the option of using hot curry powder. The gravy recipe called for 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture. I found this was not near enough. The gravy was far too thin for my liking. I let it reduce down quite a bit. My broth was a bit too salty, so the gravy was a bit salty. But still, it was really fantastic! I loved the hint of heat and ginger from the chutney. I chose to serve this with mildly spiced sliced sweet baked sweet potatoes, sauteed spinach and garlic and Israeli couscous with sliced almonds. I kept the side dishes simple and mildly seasoned because the gravy had so much flavor going on. It was a good call. The gravy kind of pooled on the plate and snuck into the spinach and cous cous. Oh happy mouth! It was delicious. 

This was an all day project for me; making the seitan in the morning, the chutney in the afternoon and putting it all together in the evening. You could easily sub tofu for the seitan and buy the chutney for a quick and special dinner. I recommend giving it a try as it was a big hit with my crew last night. My mom and sister are omnis and they were both in the clean plate club last night. There were not leftovers.