Seitan Casserole with Pumpkin & Salsa Verde Cornbread Topping

Confession: I’m still obsessed with pumpkin right now. I know I should be moving on to Christmas goodies by now but I’m still stuck in fall. I’ve been so busy eating pumpkin that I haven’t had time to post! Ok, no, that’s not true, I’ve just been busy.

Pumpkin shouldn’t just be limited to sweets either – I enjoy it in savory dishes as well. The original recipe for this comes from the A Veggie Venture blog. My veganized version is below. This is darn good stuff, BTW.  You can use another salsa if you don’t like salsa verde, but the salsa should be pretty smooth (not chunky).

And yes, I know I have like five different fonts on this post but I am having computer issues and if I spend one more minute trying to fix it something is going to break - either my sanity or my laptop. So, please forgive the bad formatting and enjoy the recipe!

Seitan Casserole with Pumpkin & Salsa Verde Cornbread Topping 

Adapted from A Veggie Venture

Seitan Layer
1 tbls olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound seitan

15-ounces canned fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 cup salsa verde
1 cup frozen corn
15 ounces canned pinto or black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup canned pumpkin purée
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large deep skillet, saute in oil the onion and seitan until onions are soft and seitan is browned. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Transfer to a low casserole dish. I used a 2 ½ qt dish.

CORNBREAD LAYER
1 flax egg (1 tbls ground flax + 3 tbls water)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin purée
3 tbls canola oil
1/2 cup salsa verde

2 cups flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, whisk together the flax egg, brown sugar, pumpkin, oil and salsa. Separately, whisk together the dry ingredients, then stir into the wet mixture. Using two spoons (or a cookie dough scoop) place small dollops of the cornbread batter atop the Seitan Layer. Bake for about 40 minutes or until Seitan Layer is bubbly and the Cornbread Layer is fully cooked. Cover and let cool for about 10 minutes.