Cumin Un-Lamb

Short background story: I was craving cold noodles one hot, balmy day in July. I yelped up a place in Chinatown that served cold hand pulled noodles and famous lamb burgers (shown on Anthony Bourdain’s food show once). Both turned out to be amazing and the place quickly became a favorite for me and my boyfriend. My boyfriend, not living in New York at the time, wanted to produce the lamb burgers at home, but couldn’t use meat as he would be making them for him and his father, a vegan. His attempt turned out rather bland, so I thought I’d bring the vegan party up here and try to make them myself. My attempt, as follows, turned out rather well, if you ask me.

1. Chop up the seitan so that it’s pretty small and then mix with all of the remaining ingredients except for the butter and the serving options. Let the mixture marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.
2. Melt the butter in a skillet at medium heat (I realize that butter is not vegan, but I thought the mixture needed a little fat and, well, I’m not vegan, so why not?).
3. Pour the marinating mixture into the skillet and cook until the seitan is slightly brown — don’t over cook!
4. Take out of skillet, top with cilantro, cucumber, and put on top of bread/rolls/rice/noodles.

Aside: The real Xi’an lamb burgers are served on a roll similar to an arepa, which I lack the cooking skills to try to reproduce on my own. I mixed my seitan mixture in with some rice noodles.