For both myself and my wife, chicken pieces cooked in a can of cream of mushroom soup and served with white rice was a staple. It then continued to be through most of our marriage - until I stopped eating chicken! We still have it though, just mostly with the addition of a load more mushrooms.
This works quite well, but there are, of course, some "fake" meats that could be used. One of my favourites is also one of the oldest meat substitutes - wheat gluten.
Now obviously not great for those with gluten sensitivity nor coeliacs, but for the rest of us wheat gluten is an excellent source of protein. It is basically about 75% protein! And the protein is almost complete too, just short on the lysine - which is luckily found in rice, oats and mushrooms, all ingredients in this recipe!
In this recipe I am going to make the cream of mushroom soup from scratch, which is vegan, but you could just use a tin of soup instead!
If you can't get the gluten in your local supermarket or health food store, it is readily available online.
This is for 2 people.
Ingredients
250ml veggie stock
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
150g mushrooms, chopped
Dash of white wine
Portion of Oat Cream
Make up the oat cream ahead of everything else.
Combine the gluten with up to half of the stock and knead lightly. Rip into small nugget size pieces and put into an oiled non-stick pan over a medium heat. Fry for about 10 minutes, turning regularly. Once browned nicely on both sides, carefully add the remaining stock to the pan, turn down the heat a little and put on a lid. After about 20ish minutes, when most of the stock has been absorbed, put the nuggets into a bowl with any remaining liquid.
Turn the heat up and add some oil and the onion into the pan. After it has fried for a few minutes, add the mushrooms and continue to fry, stirring occasionally. When the mushrooms have given up most of their water, add in the garlic. Let the garlic cook for another minute or so and then pour in a good dash of white wine. Let the alcohol boil off for a couple of minutes and then carefully pour in the oat cream. Once this has come up to temperature, add in the reserved gluten pieces.
Meanwhile, make some rice to your liking. While it is cooking, continue to stir the sauce as it thickens. Add some water if it seems too thick.
I would always serve this in warmed bowls.