I made seitan today for the first time. I was a little apprehensive about it since I read how difficult it can be. One of the things I did to make the process easier was to purchase a bag of wheat gluten. As I read recipe on this website, http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/homemade-seitan/, I discovered that I also needed nutritional yeast (I had no idea what that was until I “googled” it).
Per instructions on the website, I combined all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and then I added the liquid—vegetable broth and some soy sauce.
I mix everything with a large spoon and noticed there were dry spots so I added a little more broth. I kneaded it for a couple minutes then separated the batch. I should mention that I doubled the ingredients because I didn’t think two cups of wheat gluten would be enough—I was wrong.
The rounded portions of dough were placed in a pan of vegetable broth and pre-made pot roast sauce.
I was supposed to wait until the liquid had boiled before adding the dough, but I didn’t think it would be a problem. Once the contents of the pan were boiling, I lowered the temperature and waited for the dough to cook, turning it over periodically for an hour.
After cooling it down for about 15 minutes, I sliced some of the cooked dough and added it to the gravy I made. Surprisingly, it looked like meat.
Although the texture was a little like an overcooked roast and it didn’t really taste like meat, it was still good. As long as I told myself that this wasn’t meat and not to expect it to taste like meat then the seitan was tolerable and almost enjoyable.
I think I’ll make it again, but this time I won’t cook it in the pre-made pot roast sauce, and I’ll try kneading it a little more.
