Ingredient Sun Mar 29 2009

Upton's: Locally Made Seitan

By Chris Brunn

I thought it'd be fun to shed a little light on a local food manufacturer that's been breaking new ground. Whole Foods stores throughout the Midwest region are, as of a few weeks ago, carrying a vegan pizza featuring Upton's Naturals Italian sausage-style seitan and Teese vegan mozzarella cheese, according to an email from Upton's Naturals. Both Upton's Naturals and Teese are local Chicago area products, and stand-outs in the vegan community.



If you've tasted the nachos, vegan breakfast burrito, or vegan diablos at Handlebar, you've tasted Upton's chorizo flavored seitan. If you've had Handlebar's biscuits and gravy, you've had Upton's Italian flavored seitan. The same for the chicken in the salad and wrap: Upton's. Handlebar makes their own seitan for their BBQ sandwich, but you can see that Upton's is quite a staple. Their products are used in several other Chicago restaurants, and in my kitchen. Local grocers carry packages of the seitan: Green Grocer, Olivia's, W-Crossings, New Leaf Natural Grocery, Stanley's, Natural Direct home delivery, Ethical Planet, Hungarian Kosher and Kramer's - and all Whole Foods locations in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Upton's Naturals now has grab and go items exclusive to the Whole Foods in the South Loop on Roosevelt:

• Calzone with Italian sausage-style seitan, tomato & soy cheese with side of marinara sauce
• Empanada with chorizo-style seitan, potato & raisin with side of chipotle aeoli
• Orzo salad with chorizo-style seitan, black bean, corn and cilantro
• Rotini pasta salad with Italian sausage-style seitan & artichoke hearts
• Seitan sloppy joe
• Chicken-style seitan chipotle wrap with romaine & red pepper

The grab and go items are packaged in the refrigerated section across from the pizza counter, and sit next to other vegan items from the venerated Soul Vegetarian restaurant, and smores and vegan/vegetarian (gelatin-free) marshmallows by Sweet & Sara. Back to the right of the pizza counter, you'll find local vegan desserts from Chicago Diner in Lake View and frosted vegan cupcakes from Swirlz in Lincoln Park.

I got a slice pizza, checked out, and went to eat in the store's sit down area at the front. The slice came loaded with chopped bits of red, green and yellow, with garlic, mushrooms and spinach, as well as seitan and a sprinkling of vegan cheese. The red sauce was thick and nicely a bit tangy. The crust at the end was thick with a nice chew, while the rest of it was floppy. I took to rolling it up a bit to eat it, just like some might argue you should eat a slice of pizza. Then I went to work on an empanada. The potato added a nice thickness to the seitan, which hinted at the composition of the Handlebar's vegan breakfast burrito with potato and seitan. The raisins added a nice chew, the bread was soft, and the side of vegan chipotle aeoli was quite thick and spicy.

I'm a big fan of this seitan. I've used it many times and find it quite well seasoned. Here are some Upton's from my previous recipe posts:

• Rosemary White Wine Sauté
• Creamy Uncreamy Red Sauce
• Savory Vegan Crepes