Summertime & the Livin' is Easy: BBQ Seitan Sandwich with Crispy Cole Slaw & Lemon Cheesecake with Fresh Berries

My friend Antoinne is a barbecue purist. He gives me a lot of grief when I call something "barbecue" that isn't 1) meat, 2) rubbed/basted with some homemade barbecue seasoning/sauce, 3) slow-smoked over some organic mesquite wood chips, or something like that. Whatever it is that he does. I don't actually know the rules of barbecue, and although he will kill me for it, anything grilled and doused with that tangy, smoky, tomato-y sauce means BBQ to me! (You know I love you, Antoinne!)

I say all this as a preface to this post about a BBQ Seitan sandwich I made recently from the Veganomicon cookbook. Summertime being officially here, I had a craving for something tasty and cookout-worthy. I have no doubt that this would tempt even the meatiest of meat-eaters and the staunchest of any BBQ purist. (Well, maybe.) The seitan - you can make homemade from their recipe, but I simply used store-bought - is grilled, then tossed in the BBQ sauce, then grilled again. There's also a recipe for their homemade Backyard BBQ sauce, or you can use your own favorite prepared brand.

The recipe for the Crispy Cole Slaw was also super easy to make, and very tasty. The combo of the spicy, meaty BBQ'd seitan and the cool, crisp, creamy cole slaw is definitely a winner. It will have you lickin' your fingers for sure. With some fresh corn on the cob and a side of maple baked beans, you can just close your eyes and feel the grass under your bare feet, even if you live in Brooklyn and have no yard.

And what's the perfect summer dessert to go with some BBQ? A vegan lemon cheesecake with fresh berries of course! This lemon cheesecake was the first recipe I got to try from my new copy of Vegan Diner, and if this is any indication of how good the other recipes will be, I can't wait to test out some more. This cheesecake was everything you want in a cheesecake: smooth, creamy, dense but not heavy, and had a delicious, zingy, lemony tang to it. Summertime is so sweet!