Now we're cooking!
Dec. 28th, 2025 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseMy Best Online Friend would really like to eat less meat, for a variety of reasons; but she has a problem with a lot of vegan fake meats because they contain pea protein. It's quite often the case that if you very strongly dislike something, you can taste it in almost homeopathic amounts. I'm like that with vinegar. And she dislikes all forms of legumes just as strongly as I dislike vinegar, so, whereas I (and most other people) don't notice any pea-like flavour in our veggieburgers, she does. You can, of course, get meat alternatives that are just soya, but both of us agree that those are pretty meh. (I really like soya beans, as soya beans. They're great in a casserole. Tofu is also OK if properly marinated or mixed with other ingredients, because it doesn't taste of anything very much. But soya meat substitutes definitely lack something.)
My friend doesn't have to avoid gluten, thankfully, so I suggested she might like to try seitan; and she's also a good cook, so I strongly encouraged her to make her own. I have tried shop-bought seitan precisely once. It's both expensive and not that great. There are several recipes about, but the one I always used to use was a real cracker, so I shared that with her. The principle is much the same in all cases: you knead gluten flour with liquid (usually a mixture of oil and water), plus whatever other ingredients you're using. Then you roll it into lumps, put them in a pan with good stock (my recipe is heavy on the soy sauce), and give it a good long slow simmer. Boil it too fast and it'll go spongy, which is not what you're after; you want a good firm consistency.
Because of that long slow simmer, and the fact that I can't stand for long periods these days, I honestly thought I'd never make it again. But we were chatting about it, and I was stressing the importance of the long simmer, and in the middle of that it suddenly hit me.
Slow cooker. I could do it in the slow cooker. That would be perfect! In fact, I should think it'd be even better than doing it on the stove top.
So I am now getting quite excited about this, especially since home-made seitan freezes very well. And, for reference, here's the recipe; I originally found it online, but that was a long time ago now, so there is no guarantee it's still out there. The author of the recipe recommends sauteeing your seitan for a few minutes before adding it to other recipes.
150g vital wheat gluten flour
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
125 ml cold vegetable broth
60 ml soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated on a microplane grater
For the simmering broth:
1 litre vegetable broth
1 litre water
60 ml soy sauce
Fill a stock pot with the water, broth and soy sauce, cover and bring to a boil.
In the meantime, in a large bowl mix together gluten and yeast. In a smaller bowl mix together broth, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. Pour the wet into the dry and combine with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has absorbed and partially clumped up with the dry ingredients. Use your hands and knead for about 3 minutes, until it’s an elastic dough. Divide into 3 equal pieces with a knife and then knead those pieces in your hand just to stretch them out a bit. Let rest until the broth has come to a full boil.
Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer. Add the gluten pieces and partially cover pot so that steam can escape. Let simmer for 45 minutes, turning occasionally. Turn the heat off and take the lid off, let sit for 15 minutes.
Remove from broth and place in a strainer until it is cool enough to handle. Slice and use as desired.
My friend doesn't have to avoid gluten, thankfully, so I suggested she might like to try seitan; and she's also a good cook, so I strongly encouraged her to make her own. I have tried shop-bought seitan precisely once. It's both expensive and not that great. There are several recipes about, but the one I always used to use was a real cracker, so I shared that with her. The principle is much the same in all cases: you knead gluten flour with liquid (usually a mixture of oil and water), plus whatever other ingredients you're using. Then you roll it into lumps, put them in a pan with good stock (my recipe is heavy on the soy sauce), and give it a good long slow simmer. Boil it too fast and it'll go spongy, which is not what you're after; you want a good firm consistency.
Because of that long slow simmer, and the fact that I can't stand for long periods these days, I honestly thought I'd never make it again. But we were chatting about it, and I was stressing the importance of the long simmer, and in the middle of that it suddenly hit me.
Slow cooker. I could do it in the slow cooker. That would be perfect! In fact, I should think it'd be even better than doing it on the stove top.
So I am now getting quite excited about this, especially since home-made seitan freezes very well. And, for reference, here's the recipe; I originally found it online, but that was a long time ago now, so there is no guarantee it's still out there. The author of the recipe recommends sauteeing your seitan for a few minutes before adding it to other recipes.
150g vital wheat gluten flour
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
125 ml cold vegetable broth
60 ml soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated on a microplane grater
For the simmering broth:
1 litre vegetable broth
1 litre water
60 ml soy sauce
Fill a stock pot with the water, broth and soy sauce, cover and bring to a boil.
In the meantime, in a large bowl mix together gluten and yeast. In a smaller bowl mix together broth, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. Pour the wet into the dry and combine with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has absorbed and partially clumped up with the dry ingredients. Use your hands and knead for about 3 minutes, until it’s an elastic dough. Divide into 3 equal pieces with a knife and then knead those pieces in your hand just to stretch them out a bit. Let rest until the broth has come to a full boil.
Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer. Add the gluten pieces and partially cover pot so that steam can escape. Let simmer for 45 minutes, turning occasionally. Turn the heat off and take the lid off, let sit for 15 minutes.
Remove from broth and place in a strainer until it is cool enough to handle. Slice and use as desired.
