A good friend of mine from dinner club is from Georgia and southern through and through. Our last dinner club she was doing a juice cleanse – something I was amazed she tried. I’m pretty amazed whenever anyone does a juice cleanse. I tried one once (that gross lemon cayenne pepper one) and I only lasted 6 hours. She has some serious willpower. I figured if she could go out of her comfort zone that I could too – in an entirely different way – by trying my hand at some southern food.

Since I made scalloped sweet potatoes for the VIrtual Vegan Potluck, I thought I could use them as a side for a big southern dinner. So I sauteed up some kale for greens, added the sweet potato side and did my best to make a southern fried “chicken” – with seitan.

What you’ll need:

• 1 8 ounce package seitan strips
• vegetable oil for frying (I used coconut oil)
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup flour (I used corn because I had it on hand, but any kind would work)
• 2 TBS cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• dash cayenne
• 2 TBS vegan mayo
• 1 TBS chipotle hot sauce (I like Chalula)

Start by whisking the almond milk and cornstarch together in a bowl. Add the seitan to the bowl and let it soak a bit. Add the flour, salt, pepper and cayenne to a plastic bag. Working in batches, move the seitan into the bag, and shake until it’s coated evenly. (It’s shake and bake and I helped!)

On medium high heat, melt the coconut oil. You’ll know when the oil is ready if you drop a bit of flour in it and the flour fizzes immediately. Place the first batch of seitan into the oil, let fry for two or three minutes and flip. While the first batch is frying, add the next batch to the flour and continue the process until everything is fried. When you take the seitan out of the oil – place on a paper towel to absorb the access oil.

While you’re frying everything, multitask and sautee the kale and make the sauce. Simply whisk together the hot sauce and mayo together and you’ve got an easy slightly spicy dipping sauce.

Reheat the sweet potatoes either by microwaving or warming in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve everything together and you’re all set. R was especially happy with this meal – I think there’s something about fried food that gets to a man’s heart. I was pretty impressed myself I have to say, and I think I’ll definitely consider making it again, just on a regular basis. (I’m not a huge fan of fried foods at home – this is actually the first time I’ve fried anything). But for a comfort food dinner, this completely hit the spot.