Make your own seitan - from flour or gluten ⋆ easy recipe ⋆ SOULFOOD.nl

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Seitan is a meat substitute based on wheat gluten. It is completely plant-based (vegan) and resembles chicken in structure and bite. Even after long cooking or baking, seitan retains its firm bite, which is why it is so popular as a substitute for meat.

You can buy seitan ready-made in the supermarket these days. There you will find it in trays on the refrigerated shelf, with the other vegetarian products. Ready-made seitan is of course easy, but less tasty and a lot more expensive than homemade. And then you can make your own in two ways…

Making seitan with gluten

You can buy wheat gluten by the kilo at most mills and bakeries. To make seitan you can mix it with broth, soy sauce and spices. Or, for example, with an extra lick of tomato puree. It just depends on what flavor you want to give the seitan at that moment.

Wheat glutens are a bit pricey, but they make the process easy and quick. Simply knead with all the seasonings for about 5 minutes and then the seitan can go into the pan or oven. You don't have any waste with this, so it's also very efficient.

To make seitan for 4 people, you can mix 120 g wheat gluten with 150 ml broth. Add a crushed garlic clove, a tablespoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of tomato paste for a nice consistency. And then some spices of your choice.

Then knead the seitan into a firm dough in a few minutes. You roll this out into a 'sausage' of about 4 cm in diameter and you cook it for 30 minutes (in water or stock), until it has doubled in volume. You can then cut it up and use it in recipes that normally use meat.

Making seitan from flour

The other way of making seitan takes a step back: from flour. Wheat flour contains both gluten and starch and the intention is to remove the starch from the gluten. You do this by making a dough of flour and water. Knead this firmly until the gluten is well developed. Then you will rinse the dough with water. This loosens the starch and rinses away.

Now you have the gluten left, which you can then cook in the broth and use in your favorite recipe. I think it's best to cut the seitan into small pieces and then bake it with paprika powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Just like you would with chicken breast. The seitan then gets a nice crispy crust and remains soft and juicy on the inside.

Don't mind doing a little more work for your own homemade seitan? I'll tell you: it's a very nice process and it won't cost you much more than a pack of flour! Below is the recipe for making seitan with flour.

This recipe is for 6-8 servings. Inquiries are possible. The seitan will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

1 kg wheat flour
1 tsp salt
500 ml water
stock, for cooking

Preparation of seitan from flour

Mix the flour with the salt. Then add enough water until you get a smooth dough. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes by hand or 5 minutes with a kneading machine, until it is elastic.

Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in a bowl of cold water. The dough should be submerged. Let the dough rest in the water for half an hour.

Pour off the cold water and fill the bowl again, this time with lukewarm water. Now the process of making seitan really begins: knead the dough underwater. You may be afraid it will dissolve completely, but I promise you it won't.

You will notice that the dough partially washes away. You rinse the starch out of the dough and the gluten remains. Knead until you only have the gluten left. You can test this by placing the dough in a new bowl of water. If the water does not immediately turn white, the seitan is ready.

You can now rinse away the water with the starch, but you can also use it to thicken soups or sauces, or as a base for pancakes.

If you have rinsed the seitan well, it is best to press it firmly with your hands, so that it becomes more compact. Now cut it into 4 pieces and cook these pieces in ample stock for about 30 minutes. You'll see it pretty much double in volume as it cooks!

After cooking, remove the seitan from the stock and use it in your favorite dish, just like people would do with chicken breast. Enjoy your dinner!