Kevin introduced me to seitan about a year ago—his old kitchen is where I shot this step-by-step—and I really haven’t altered the recipe too much. It’s a pretty solid one, based on the Chicago Diner Cookbook’s. I can’t eat it straight yet, as it’s incredibly meaty, but I’m getting there.
Get your dry ingredients together. You might want to powder your herbs in a spice mill (extra coffee grinder) to avoid flecks. Or not.
·2 c vital wheat gluten
·1/4 c + 2 T flour
·2 T nutritional yeast
·2 1/4 t garlic powder
·2 1/4 t salt
·1 T onion powder
·1 T dried herbs
After thoroughly mixing the dry stuff together, stir in the liquids:
·1 1/8 c warm vegetable broth
·1/8 c Bragg’s or soy sauce
Knead it all together for about 10 minutes. Then let it rest for 15 or so. Cut it up into 4 equal-ish pieces.
While the dough is resting, get your broth ready. To about a gallon of water, add some roughly chopped carrots and celery. Onions and bay leaves would be good too. I keep a ziploc in my freezer and throw in soup vegetable scraps for seitan-makin’ day. You’re not going to eat them; they’re just there to add flavor.
Keeping your water level up, boil the seitan for about an hour and a half. It’ll float to the top and just about triple in size.
Let it cool down a bit, then cut into smaller pieces for storage. The water for storage can be flavored with Bragg’s, soy sauce, or broth. (Kevin likes cilantro, so his has cilantro in it.) This should keep for a week, although it probably won’t be around that long. You can also freeze it if you’re not going to use it fast enough.
oh yeah, i rule.
i don’t use the regular flour anymore. i did not need to adjust water levels because of this. in fact, i usually have to add another 1/16th or 1/8 of a cup of water.
Thanks, sugar. I was just thinkin’ that it’s seitan-makin’ season. I shall have to give this updated recipe a whirl–then we’ll find out if you rule or drool.
i made this the night before last and i tried grinding up my rock solid onion and garlic powder in my coffee grinder. it appeared to work, but now my seitan has pencil tip sized chunks of garlic and onion rocks in it.
there must be a better way.
i almost broke a tooth during Celebrity Rehab.
You could have thrown the garlic and onion rocks in the liquid rather than the dry stuff…they’d probably have dissolved. This is 2008–you can’t afford to go to the dentist!