Now that I am cooking so much (and committed to becoming an amazing chef) it has become necessary to start creating more vegetarian/vegan dishes so that I can cook for my sister. I am not a vegetarian but I love vegetarian faire. For me, “meat substitutes” are not so much replacements for something I can’t do without, but a way to add rich depth to veggie cooking to create complex gourmet dishes. The far east has had this down for a long time. The following recipe is my first Seitan (Say – tahn) attempt, and it came out so good I’m not sure how I could improve it at this point except to use more fresh ingredients. If you are just looking for a recipe to use your seitan with check out these pepper cheese steak sandwiches. Otherwise read on to make your seitan.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 Cup vital wheat gluten
• 1/4 Cup nutritional yeast
• 1 Cup cold water
• 1/2 Cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp heaping,  garlic powder
• 1 tbsp heaping, onion powder
• 1 tsp lime zest (and accidental drips of lime juice)

Simmering Broth

• 10 Cups water
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp molasses

This recipe is a hybrid of the Post Punk Kitchen Seitan recipe and the Bob’s Red Mill Seitan recipe from the bag of vital wheat gluten I purchased. My first attempt hybrid recipes don’t always come out but this is blowing my mind. I wanted to make a “chicken” style and kind of thought all seitan was more chicken like, but as I added the soy sauce I was suspicious. The end result of this is extremely beefy and while I wouldn’t it clearly isn’t “beef” it is perfect for use in any recipe where beef is called for. The texture is non-beef enough to not gross out most veggies but beef enough to not freak out the meat and potato crowd. My sister isn’t a fan of “fake meat” and she really liked this. At any rate my next seitan endeavor will be a chickeny style.

NB: Also note that the original PRK recipe calls for lemon zest but I only had limes and I zested one that was already partially juiced for Moscow Mules and in the process of zesting I also dripped some lime juice in my recipe. Just sayin’

The Process

1. Mix vital wheat gluten and yeast flakes
2. In a separate bowl mix everything else
3. Slowly pour “wet bowl” into “dry bowl” and combine
4. Knead about 3 minutes
   You are making it stretchy. Dough should be spongy, elastic, and moist but not overly wet)
5. Let dough rest while you…
6. Prepare simmering broth but DO NOT HEAT yet
   1. Just mix up water, soy sauce, & molasses in a big pot
      Note that Punk Rock Kitchen suggests that the slices stay together better if you put the dough into cold water while Bob’s Red Mill just says to throw it into boiling water. Up to you.
7. Roll dough into a log 8-14 inches long
8. Cut off 2″ inch slices
   I actually stretched the “log” while I cut as I was unable to keep a 12 inch log from shrinking
9. Places the pieces in the broth.
10. Bring to boil then lower temp to simmer
11. Simmer for 1 hour flipping pieces periodically
12. Remove and drain

At this point Punk Rock Kitchen doesn’t really call this seitan. They say that you now have what is needed for recipes calling for straight up gluten. Bob’s Red Mill seems to simply call this seitan as is and you should do whatever you need for the recipe. But I followed the PRK on this one:

1. Cut “gluten” into appropriate shaped/sized pieces (as necessary)
2. “Fry” in light oil (hardly any at all – I used cast iron skillet) for up to 20 minutes

And now you have PRK seitan.

Wow! This is amazing. I was snacking on bites of this as it came out of the skillet like you would tri-tip.

Now the only question is what recipe I am going to make with this.