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Seitan

This recipe is gently modified from the one available at Connoisseurus Veg. 

The ingredients:

  • 1 cup vital wheat gluten
  • 1/4 cup chickpea flour 
  • 1 cup water
  • 6 cups stock (veggie or otherwise)
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • spices - whatever speaks to you
The process:

Mix wheat gluten with flour and add 1 cup water.  Stir to form a dough.

Turn dough out onto counter and knead for at least 5 minutes.  (More is good, too.  You can let it rest, then come back to kneading.  Definitely give it more if, like me, you are not a super vigorous kneader.)

Let dough rest for at least 5 min, then cut into pieces (at least 4).

Combine stock, soy sauce, and whatever spices you'd like and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and add your dough pieces.  Be sure your dough pieces are fully submerged.

Simmer your seitan for an hour.  Try not to let it get to a full boil, but be sure it is a hearty simmer.

Remove from broth and cook/use as you would a store-bought seitan.

Pro Tips:

The spices you put in are going to be what gives this very basic seitan its flavor.  Do not let your broth be boring.  We added garlic, onion powder, etc.  Alternatively, this would be a good use for a flavorful homemade veggie stock.  We kept our soy sauce amount low, so as to keep the sodium low-ish.  Connoisseurus Veg has some great ideas for different flavors of stock itself, particularly if you want to replace a particular kind of meat.

If it's gummy, stick it back in the pot and cook it some more.

You can certainly also add spices to the dough itself, especially if you are hoping to have a roast/baked type seitan.  We like a pretty basic recipe because we use lots of spices in our various cooking.

I am eager to try this with a mushroom stock, because I enjoy mushroom flavor but can't get over the texture.

We saved our stock, of course.  We'll use it to cook rice or something, so as not to waste the yummy flavor.
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