Seitan - The Wheat Meat!

Seitan

For most of you on The Fresh Loaf site, “vital wheat gluten” is an essential ingredient used to get that additional rise in whole wheat bread.  That was my experience as well until about six months ago.  Now, “vital wheat gluten” is the key ingredient I use to make Seitan or “Wheat Meat!”

My son is a vegetarian, so I am always on the lookout for vegetarian recipes I think he would like.  Approximately six months ago I was watching “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” and saw an interesting episode featuring a restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa called Tacopocalypse.  They were making their Andouille Seitan Burrito.   Guy Fieri was impressed and commented that most people would not even know there wasn’t any meat in it.   What is this Seitan stuff anyway?  It took me a few attempts to successfully Google  “seitan” as I did not know how to spell it, but I quickly found information about seitan as well as a recipe to make it.  The recipe I used that first time and still use was from  allrecipes.com. Liquid amino acid was the only product I had not previously worked with and all of the recipe ingredients were available at my local grocery stores.

Prior to discovering seitan, the meat substitute I used most was tofu.  Unfortunately, I have never been a fan of tofu.  The texture of tofu never gave me the impression I was eating meat.  The same cannot be said for Seitan.  Seitan has an outstanding meat like texture and is tremendously moist.  Seitan is also very versatile.  After you make seitan you can keep it in the refrigerator for approximately one week and you can substitute it for almost any meat.  

Favorite recipes of my son and daughter who is not a vegetarian include  Seitan nuggets, Sweet and Sour Seitan, Spaghetti and Seitan Meatballs,  and Shaved Seitan Sandwiches.  

If seitan is not something you are familiar with or have not tried, I highly encourage you to give it a try.  It is a great substitute for meat if you are a vegetarian or vegan.  If you are a meat lover, it is a good change of pace and I would contend actually makes a better nugget than chicken!