seitan – Vegan Nosh

Seitan Bacon

Lazy Dave — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:10:00 +0000

So I says to myself, I says, “Dave, you could probably make something pretty darned bacony by layering seitan that’s reddish brown with seitan that’s kinda blonde.” And I thinks, “Eureka! You’ll be all kinds of Internet famous!” But then I thinks to myself, I thinks, “before you register davehadthisreallygreatideaaboutbaconseitan.com, you should Google that idea.”

At which point I found that Tracy Williams did it a couple years ago.

She posted a method, but she didn’t post a recipe, at least not one that I could find.

Celine Steen, however, posted an interesting bacon recipe at “Have Cake, Will Travel.”

Here’s a modified version of Celine’s, which I used to make the above- and below-pictured slices of bacon sammish-bound loveliness.

Dry stuff, part 1:

3/4 cup vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup soy or garbanzo flour

2 T nutritional yeast

2-3 t smoked paprika

1-2 t garlic powder

1 t black pepper

Wet stuff, part 1:

2/3 cup water

3 T soy sauce

2 T maple syrup

1 T tomato paste

Dry stuff, part 2:

1/4 cup plus 2 T vital wheat gluten

2 T soy or garbanzo flour

1-1/2 T nutritional yeast

1/2 t garlic

1/2 t salt

Wet stuff, part 2:

1/4 cup plus 2 T water

2 t canola oil

You’re making two batches of seitan. “Part 1” is the red, bacony stuff. “Part 2” is the white-ish streaky stuff.

Part 1: mix the dry stuff; mix the wet stuff; mix together. This dough is easy to work by hand.
Part 2: see Part 1, only do it in a different bowl (or in the same bowl after you clean it, or in another bowl-like object, or…).
Divide the reddish, Part 1 dough into 3 pieces.
Divide the white-ish, Part 2 dough into 2 pieces.
Lay down a piece of plastic wrap.
Put one piece of the Part 1 dough on it.
Lay another piece of plastic wrap over the dough.
Roll the dough out until it’s about 1/4″ high. You don’t need to worry about shape all that much.
Put the rolled dough on a piece of sprayed foil.
Repeat the rolling process (steps 5-8) for the other pieces of dough and stack them on the first piece, obviously alternating the white and reddish parts. If they don’t stack perfectly, that’s good. If you get really anal and precise about this stuff, it’ll look like it was made by a machine.
Put a piece of plastic wrap on top of the stack of doughs.
Rest a heavy book or something on the plastic wrap for 20 minutes or more.
Wrap the slab of scarily realistic bacon in foil.
Bake at 325 degrees F for about 90 minutes.

Cool it, slice it thinly, eat it cold or heat it up. It fries pretty well, and it seems to stand up to nuking for 20-30 seconds.

Lazy Dave’s $5-bread-machine Turkey-flavored Seitan

Lazy Dave — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Bread machine seitan. As in “dump all this stuff into the thing; press button; go away.” Yeah. Life is good.

I’ve been baking seitan loaves since the revered Seitan o’ Greatness grabbed the Net by the tubes a couple years ago. I wasn’t a fan of that loaf’s flavor, but I knew Sarah Kramer’s must-have recipe book “La Dolce Vegan” had some amazing recipes for chicken-, turkey-, beef-, and ham-flavored boiled seitan. To make the “loaf” versions, I just moved the spices from the boiling broth into the dough (after some trial and error I usually ended up doubling or tripling the spices), rolled the dough up into loaves wrapped in foil, and baked at 325F for 90 minutes. It is a bit of a pain to make, not only because of all the kneading but also because I always make several loaves and you have to turn each loaf every 20-30 minutes to keep the bottom from getting a very hard crust. The result has been worth the work.

Until…

I picked up a bread machine for $5. Every thrift store has at least a couple of these at all times. I got a pretty decent decade-old Toastmaster complete with instructions. [Update: I’ve gone through a few bread machines since I wrote this post. The biggest problem I find with them is rust in the pan, so keep an eye out for that.] It is a natural fit for mixing and baking seitan, cutting out virtually all of the work in mixing and kneading the dough and tending to the seitan as it’s cooking.

Recipe

(the spice mix is a modified version of a recipe from “La Dolce Vegan”)

[UPDATE: This recipe originally called for 1/2 cup soy sauce and 1-2 teaspoons of salt. Readers said it was salty enough with just 1/4 cup of soy sauce, so start there. I prefer it with more soy sauce and a little salt — especially smoked salt — but it’s good with just 1/4 cup of soy sauce.]

Ingredients:

Wet stuff (goes first in my machine):

4 t vegan Worcestershire sauce
1/4 to 1/2 cup soy sauce, tamari, or Bragg’s
1.5 to 2 cups water

Dry stuff

2 cups vital wheat gluten (I use Bob’s. It’s worth investing in a good brand of vital wheat gluten.)
1/2 cup garbanzo flour (Bob’s, again)
1/2 to 3/4 cups nutritional yeast
4 t onion powder
2 t dried sage
2 t dried thyme
2 t salt (I use less)
2 t smoked paprika

Method:

Dump the wet stuff into the bowl.
Dump the dry stuff into the bowl.
Push the button, Frank.

My Toastmaster has a cycle called “Basic Medium” (as opposed to “Basic Light” and “Basic Dark”), so I tried that one. Seems to have worked fine.

The resulting loaf is moist and meaty, with an interestingly crispy (not hard) skin on five faces.

To serve:

Slice it; dice it; tear off a hunk and eat it cold.

I’ve served the sliced version with stuffing and gravy, of course. It also makes tasty sandwiches and barbecue.

The diced version makes a chewy, flavorful protein for stir-fry, curry, stew, soup, mac’n’cheese, salads (find yourself missing after-Thanksgiving turkey salad sandwiches?), and everything else.

"Chicken" Curry with Cashews

maggiesweet — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:59:00 +0000

Ok, all I’m saying is that I DREAM about this dish ever since we made it.

Ingredients

* 1/4 cup earth balance (use soy-free)
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
* 3 tablespoons curry powder or curry paste
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
* 2-3 cups of diced seitan
* 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes (we used Rotel with cilantro and then didn’t add the fresh cilantro)
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 3/4 cup cashews
* 1 cup coconut milk (I used unsweetened vanilla Almond milk since Dave can’t do the coconut)
* cooked basmati rice or jasmine rice, to accompany
* chopped fresh cilantro or mango chutney or raisins or cashews, to garnish

Heat earth balance in a 5- to 6-quart wide heavy pot over moderately low heat until foam subsides, then cook onions, garlic, and ginger, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add curry powder, salt, cumin, and cayenne and cook, stirring, 2 minutes.

Add seitan and cook, stirring to coat, 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes, including juice, and cilantro and bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes to allows the flavors to meld.

Just before serving: Pulse cashews in a food processor or electric coffee/spice grinder until very finely ground, then add to curry along with coconut milk and simmer gently, uncovered, stirring, until sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes.

Serve over rice with additional broken cashews and TRY not to moan out loud, I dare you!!!