Seitan

acdw wrote on their gemlog[1] asking about my recipe for vegan fried seitan and I am happy to oblige them acdw: thanks for the seitan recipe. It is similar to mine, but with enough of a twist that I'll have to try it out. My one year old has issues with soy (that our pediatrician says she is likely to grow out of), so we have not been adding soy sauce and the like to recipes that she will be eating, but I imagine I can sub in coconut aminos (what we have been using as a soy sauce replacement for her) to a similar effect.

Seitan has become a staple in my house since the covid lockdowns began. Vital wheat gluten has a long shelf life, is easy to make, and is really nutritious (if you dont have a gluten allergy). This basic seitan recipe can be used for all kinds of stuff. My favorite is the fried seitan recipe that comes after the basic seitan int his post, but we also like bbq seitan a lot. I'd like to experiment with seitan for other things too. I really want to try making it with a strongly seaweed oriented stock and see if I can get a seafood flavor out of it. Anyway, here are the recipes:

Basic Homemade seitan

Put 6-8 cups of wate rin a decent sized pot on high heat. Add two to three vegan bouillon cubes of your choice. bring to a boil.

2 cups vital wheat gluten

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

4 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

Mix the vital wheat gluten, onion powder, garlic powder, and nutiritional yeast in a bowl until combined and evenly distributed. Add in ~1.25 - 1.5 cups water and incorporate into a dough. The dough should not be sopping wet and I tend to keep it a little on the dry side so long as everything combines well and isnt crumbly. Knead the dough for a minute or few. If it feels dry just run some water on your hands and then keep kneading repeating as needed. Rather than a normal knead on a counter I usually ssqueeze and pull in my fingers. You are looking for elasticity to form in the dough from the gluten.

Cut the dough into roughly two inch pieces (feel free to be sloppy about this, but dont let them get too big as they are going to double in size when you cook them) and add them to the boiling post of water/bouillon (stir first if it looks like the bouillon has not disolved/broken up).

I usually lower the heat, as you dont really want a rapid boil. I usually cook for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. Keep the heat at least at a simmer or a low boil. Expect the seitan to get enormous and for you to not really see the water after awhile. I have done this with a lid and without, boiling and not boiling. It is always delicious. boiling seems to get a more loose consistency and has a kind of juicy texture whereas a simmer has usually resulted in a denser texture.

At the end of the time dump into a collander and let cool for awhile. Once cooled down I put it in a pyrex container, squeezing out excess liquid from the seitan before putting it in the container. This can live in your fridge for a week or so (we usually get 3 - 5 meals for two adults and a toddler out of a batch following this recipe).

Vegan Fried "Chicken" (Seitan)

Now with the seitan made we can get to the main event: fried goodness. You will need:

1.5 cups flour (we use all purpose)

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt (or seasoned salt)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)

2 Tbsp baking powder

.25 cup nutritional yeast (optional)

.25 cup mustard (the yellow kind you'd put on a hot dog is fine)

.5 cup water

oil - a neutral oil for frying, canola is fine

seitan

Note: The above quantity I have found to be more than I need and I usually halve it. But that is how it was given to me (and my modifications were based on that so it seemed easiest to give it and let the cook make smaller batches if desired).

1. If you followed the seitan recipe above: take out 5 or so big pieces of seitan and cut them into slices, 3-4 per big chunk (they end up looking loosely like chicken nugget size), and set aside. Since this recipe is for stuff to dredge your seitan in and then fry you can use any amount you like until you run out of powder/liquid.

2. Mix in a bowl: salt, onion powser, garlic powder, flour, black pepper, cayenne, nutritional yeast.

3. In a separate bowl: whisk mustard, water, and 1/3 cup of the flour mixture from the previoius bowl. Combine well.

4. Add baking powder to the original bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Coat pieces in the wet, then dry mixtures. You can do this delicately, one at a time... or if your bowls are big enough just toss them all in the wet and then in the dry. You want the pieces to be coated pretty evenly if possible, but dont fuss over it too much. Definitely have them all ready by whatever means you prefer before moving on to frying them.

6. Add enough oil to your pan to do a shallow fry (maybe a centimeter or half a centimeter of oil) over medium-high heat. Once the viscosity of the oil changes add a single layer of seitan without crowding the pan too much. Cook for around 3 minutes, turning once during cooking. I use tongs for this part and the have served me well. Move cooked pieces onto a paper towel or the like and put in the next batch. Repeat this step until everything is cooked. By the last batch the oil will likely be pretty dark and the seitan will have a different color to it than the early batches. I have not found this to affect flavor too adversely, but you could switch out oil halfway if you have the oil and feel like doing so.

7. Now the best part: take the plate/bowl/whatever of seitan to the table and place it in the middle. Put out as many condiments as you have (we usually put out: ketchup, bbq sauce, bulldog/tonkatsu sauce, soy sauce (or coconut aminos), sriracha). Give folks plates and maybe some napkins and just grab pieces and go!

That was a longer writeup than I had planned on, but the main point I was trying to make in my ramblings was: if you dont have an ingredient dont sweat it. This is not baking and exact amounts are not needed in any of the above. This comes out pretty delicious no matter what you do.

For another seitan recipe (that I'm sure would be great fried) check out:

acdw's seitan recipe