Has Anyone Ever Tried Making Seitan?

sharloid

I've just been looking for vegetarian recipes and came across this 'fake meat' and it has intrigued me!

Step 1
Mix 5 or 6 cups of flour with enough water to make a dough and mix well. The longer you mix it, the better it will come out. Do not try to double this recipe as it will likely cause your seitan to flop.


Step 2
Let this dough rest. The longer you let it rest, the better, as it allows the gluten time to form long strands which are the base of our seitan. I've made seitan after letting it rest as little as 20 minutes, but I recommend leaving it for at least an hour and up to 24 hours, unless you really know what you're doing. (In my original instructions I said to let the dough sit underwater- completely unnecessary,)

Step 3
Rinse out the starch. You want to knead the dough underwater until all the water becomes white, then pour out that starchy water and and replace it with new water. Repeat the process until the water stays white when kneading the seitan.
You can save this starchy water for later use. Let the starch settle to the bottom of the container, pour out the water on top, and let the starch settle again. The starch paste works well as a replacement for potato starch and corn starch as a thickener in most recipes.
(Want to be especially frugal? Use the rinsing water to water your frugal garden.)

Step 4
The end result will be a silly putty textured, stretchy tan mass, roughly 3/8ths of the amount of the flour with which you started.

Step 5
Now is the chance to mix things in to the seitan. I often add different spices like paprika, garlic, salt, turmeric, nutmeg, sage, brewers' yeast, and thyme (among others) to get it to taste more meaty. I've read about adding a little chickpea or soy flour to the seitan at this point to make it a bit heavier. These flours change the texture but also round out the protein in seitan to make it a complete protein.
If you add spices or flours at this point, it is very important to mix it in very well, otherwise the seitan will have a funny texture, not unlike an unrolling jelly roll cake. I recommend using a food processor (or blender stick attachment) to mix the additives into the seitan for best results.

Step Six
Cooking the seitan. In most cases, you'll be simmering the seitan in a broth. The recommended broth is one of diluted soy sauce and kombu seaweed (eliminating the need for spices, as the broth flavors the seitan enough). I've also successfully cooked seitan in a miso broth and a diluted worchesterchire sauce broth. Cooking in plain vegetable broth also works, but will result in blander seitan. If using vegetable broth, make sure not to skip step five.

Step Seven
Cook further. Do whatever you want with your seitan. Fry it, blend it, barbecue it, cook it in a tomato sauce, or add it to your watermelon rind curry. The choices are limitless.

Taken from pennilessparenting.com

Has anyone tried to make this? How successful was it?
It sounds like it takes quite a long time but it would be interesting to try!

Nickitree30

Sorry, I'm afraid not but just wanted to say thanks for the link, that looks like a great site.

Beccatje

Yes I made it once.
It worked really well actually.

Tasted good too. My family liked it too. (not unimportant)

It's nothing like meat though. and it's a lot of work. So not something I would do daily.
But well worth a try.

VfM4meplse

Agreed, it's an interesting recipe and one I might try if I have a spare 2 hrs. Is it ordinary flour or soya?

Btw Worcestershire sauce is not veggie as it containes anchovies

ETA have read the recipe properly now, realise that soya flour can be added at a later stage.

Butterfly_Brain

Looks ok but no good for people like me with wheat allergies

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Been a vege all my life and that's a new one on me.
Mind you I never eat meat substitutes.

Just a thought surely it won't be very nutritious compared to meat substitutes containing soya etc.

Justamum

Most recipes I've seen use wheat gluten which is very expensive to buy (especially when you add on postage costs). I've found this site too which have pictures - she makes a huge batch at a time (5lb bag of flour).

Beccatje

Justamum wrote: »

Most recipes I've seen use wheat gluten which is very expensive to buy (especially when you add on postage costs). I've found this site too which have pictures - she makes a huge batch at a time (5lb bag of flour).

You can use strong wheat flour instead of buying the wheat gluten. It just takes a long time washing it.. and there's not a lot left at the end considering what you started with.

adouglasmhor

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Agreed, it's an interesting recipe and one I might try if I have a spare 2 hrs. Is it ordinary flour or soya?

Btw Worcestershire sauce is not veggie as it containes anchovies

ETA have read the recipe properly now, realise that soya flour can be added at a later stage.

Wheat or spelt only as you need gluten.

Life, Geo, Biona, Annies, The wizard, all do veggie versions. Henderson's relish is very similar and also veggie.

adouglasmhor

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Been a vege all my life and that's a new one on me.
Mind you I never eat meat substitutes.

Just a thought surely it won't be very nutritious compared to meat substitutes containing soya etc.

Much the same actually, you need a grain and a pulse to get a complete vegetable protein in most cases.


(spirulina, hemp seed, soy, amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa, and chia all have complete proteins)

Bettie

I often have this from my local Chinese take aways, most of them sell it around here, very high in protein and they do all sorts of recipes, duck, chicken, pork etc which may be offputting to some. I had a sweet and sour chicken last week it was yummy. I did look into making it a few years ago but never got around to it.
I have a veggie Cross and Blackwell Worcestershire sauce plus another veggie one I bought from the gluten free section of local supermarket.