Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

This beef style seitan has both a meaty flavour and texture to it, and would be ideal to have as part of a Sunday roast. You could also shallow fry thinly sliced strips for a vegan kebab, or finely dice it for vegan beef style mince. It’s also very easy to make, and a great source of plant based protein

You’ll need;

1. 200g vital wheat gluten
2. 40g chickpea flour
3. 30g nutritional yeast
4. Dry seasoning mix; 1 tablespoon of onion powder, 1 tablespoon of dried oregano, half a tablespoon of dried rosemary and half a tablespoon of dried thyme
5. 350ml boiled water
6. 2 meat free beef oxo cubes (they’re available in most supermarkets now. If that’s not available, use another beef/meaty vegan stock, you may have to buy it online)
7. Wet seasoning mix; 2 tablespoons of tomato puree, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of either fish free Worcester sauce or Henderson’s relish

Method;

• Add the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, those are the items listed in the first four points of the list above. Mix the ingredients together to combine
• Add the water, stock cubes and wet seasoning mix into a jug, those are the items listed in the bottom three points of the list above. Use a whisk to make sure the wet ingredients are fully combined, and the stock is dissolved
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix them together until a dough forms
• Once you have your dough, it’s ready to knead. Knead the dough for three or four minutes. You should start to feel the gluten developing, as the texture becomes a little more dense
• Now it’s ready to wrap and cook. I usually wrap my seitan in foil, as it’s easy to twist the ends closed. But you could use food safe non-pvc cling film, muslin or baking paper. Whatever you’re using, wrap the seitan and twist/close the ends securely. You’ll need to make sure that the water we’ll be cooking the seitan in, can’t touch the dough
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil, I usually fill the pot between a third and half way with water. Once the water is boiling, put the wrapped dough inside and replace the lid. Immediately lower the heat to the lowest setting, allow it to cook for one hour
• Once it’s cooked, it can be unwrapped and eaten while hot. I however left it wrapped up, allowed it to cool, and then refrigerated it overnight for this next step

Optional extra step;

You’ll need;

1. Your wrapped, chilled seitan
2. A couple of teaspoons of dairy free butter or margarine. I used salted Flora plant butter, it’s available from most supermarkets now

Method;

• Add the butter into a frying pan over a medium heat. Once it has melted, pop the seitan into the frying pan
• Allow the seitan to brown before turning it slightly. The whole process should take around 10 minutes. Just keep turning and browning it on all sides
  

Once it’s browned on all sides, it’s ready to use. You can thinly slice it and eat it cold in sandwiches, or wrap it back up in foil, pop it in the oven for around half an hour to heat through, then eat it hot

Frying the seitan off is optional, but it does add a lovely toasted crisp outer layer, which I really enjoyed