Mac and "Cheese" with Seitan and Collards

Tonight we had the mac and "cheese" again that we wrote about a couple weeks ago. We also had a little homemade seitan left from before Thanksgiving (that had been frozen in some of its cooking liquid and thawed in the fridge a few days ago) so I chopped that up and fried it in a little olive oil. To round it out we had collards.

Now every good vegan knows that collards are way good for you (lots of calcium and all that) but I'm sometimes at a loss as to what to do with them. Not too long ago we found a recipe in a back issue of Vegetarian Times from several years ago that looked pretty good and I've cooked collards this way a few times since then and they come out really good. Here's my slightly tweaked version of the recipe:

In a medium-sized pot, add 1 c. water, about 1/4 c. diced onion, 1 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp. allspice, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1 Tbs. veg. worcestershire sauce (I used Annie's brand), 1 Tbs. soy sauce, and 1 tsp. maple syrup. Bring that mixture to a boil. Meanwhile, remove thick stems from 1 bunch of collards and chop into fairly small pieces (I had about 3-4 cups chopped). Once the liquid boils for a couple of minutes, add collards, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Then remove from heat, remove bay leaf, stir in 1 Tbs. olive oil and add salt & pepper to taste.