Have you ever tried seitan?
I did this past week in a veggie wrap at my local, vegan, all-organic restaurant. I was surprised that I loved it enough to experiment with making my own at home.
I thought of purchasing the pre-packaged seitan at Whole Foods, but figured it is probably pumped with salt and all sorts of preservatives. I may be wrong, but that’s just my opinion.
I scoured the internet looking for recipes and basically ended up with the following recipe, though I did change it up slightly:
Ingredients
Seitan:
- 1 cup of vital wheat gluten
- 3 tbsp of nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp of garlic powder
- 1/4 of coconut amisos or tamari
- 1/2 water or vegetable broth
Optional: you could really add any dry herb you like into the mix. I’m sure it would taste good.
Boiling broth:
- 6 cups of water
- 2 tbsp of molasses
- 2 tbsp of coconut amios or tamari
Spice rub (optional):
- Paprika
- Garlic powder
- Chili powder
- Oregon
Instructions
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a small mixing bowl, mix all the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and combine. Knead the seitan for about 3 minutes. Once done, cut it up into your desired sizes.
In a large sauce pan (the seitan expands, so use a large pot), combine the 3 broth ingredients and bring to a boil. Add the seitan, reduce heat. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour. Let cool.
Voila you have seitan. Now you can either fry, bake or eat as is.
Optional: Combine the spices in a bowl and rub it all over the seitan. Place in a baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Was this seitan good or evil?
There you have it, the recipe I used to make basic homemade seitan. You might be wondering if I liked it? How did it taste? What was the texture like?
Simply put, I honestly thought it was horrible. My husband, on the other hand, thought it was ok.
I didn’t like the texture, nor the taste. It had a rubbery texture, and the taste — well I just plain didn’t like it. I am pretty sure I followed all the steps correctly, and it is just my taste buds that do not like it.
I have heard that many vegans and vegetarians quite enjoy homemade seitan. I just happen to not be one of them. I wish it tasted as good as the picture I took. Oh well!
I think if I really want some seitan, I am going to splurge and have a veggie wrap down the street. They are apparently cooking or baking it right, and I clearly am not.
Now you be the judge. Is my homemade seitan recipe that bad or is it just me? If you have a different seitan recipe, please share it in the comments!
About Stephanie Moram
