In case you’re new to plant-based proteins and are wanting one thing a bit heartier and substantial than my fan-favourite tofu steaks, then you need to do this tremendous straightforward seitan steak recipe.

What’s seitan?

Seitan is a centuries-old technique of utilizing the protein in wheat flour, aka gluten (sure, the factor celiacs are extraordinarily allergic to). Seitan is a particularly versatile type of plant-based protein that may be sliced, fashioned into nuggets, cooked as shreds, minced, or wrapped round a stick for a scrumptious road meals. The time period “seitan” originates from Japanese, however there are variations of wheat meat all internationally, however particularly in Asia.

I grew up consuming seitan with out realizing it at temple! It may be chewy, dense, spongey, tender, agency, and juicy, relying on the preparation. You may wash the starch out of flour to make seitan or use commercially-washed important wheat gluten, which is the pure gluten flour.

Over time I’ve made so many various variations of seitan, starting from minimal effort to most effort. After a few years of trial and error, I’ve began to stay to minimal effort utilizing a meals processor, because of Lacey from Avocado and Ales. She used a dough attachment in her meals processor to make her seitan, however I simply went forward and used the common blades.

Lacey’s technique of seitan makes chickwheat, the place you strain cook dinner the whipped seitan and the quantity of processing has aligned all of the gluten strands into the identical path. However like I stated, these seitan steaks are minimal effort. In addition to, I’ve destroyed my final meals processor from making an excessive amount of seitan, so I’m making an attempt to not destroy this one too.

How one can make seitan

There are a mess of how of constructing seitan: you could possibly steam it, simmer it, even bake in a broth tub! However my favorite method for straightforward seitan steaks is the fry-simmer-fry technique. You get a reasonably even cooking and a pleasant “steak-like” look with the seitan.

I additionally discover it a lot simpler to gauge how “achieved” the seitan is once I can flip it and poke it, whereas it’s not as straightforward to try this once you steam or simmer. Steaming seitan produces my favorite inside texture of seitan, however the outdoors is not uniform in dimension or form until you utilize foil. Whereas there are methods to recycle foil, I’d fairly simply keep away from it and use this technique as an alternative.

The Fry Simmer Fry technique is strictly what it seems like: first you sear the seitan steaks on either side to get the final form you need. Then simmer to cook dinner the within with a concentrated broth. Then, fry once more to create a pleasant texture on the skin.

The important thing to this straightforward seitan steak is to let it relaxation in a single day after cooking. You can eat it contemporary from the pan, however the texture is gentle and nearly spongey. It may very well be interesting as a tender-off-the-bone kinda ribs texture, however if you would like it to have extra chew like steak, let it relaxation. Ideally within the fridge in a single day, however 4-6 hours may even be sufficient.

Extra Recipe Notes:

• Pink wine vinegar: The acid on this recipe helps tamp the actual flavour that important wheat gluten can impart on seitan. Washed flour seitan doesn’t have the identical ~stank~ that wheat flour seitan does, so it doesn’t want it. Don’t skip the acid. You need to use apple cider vinegar, crimson wine vinegar, white vinegar, whichever. I discover balsamic and crimson wine vinegar are generally utilized in beef-style recipes, and lends particularly nicely to a seitan steak.
• Varied sizes of steaks: This recipe makes about 450 g whole of seitan. You may divide that into nuggets (twenty 22.5 g items), smaller steaks (so six 75 g items) or bigger ones (or 4 112.5 g sized ones). I’ve included cooking occasions within the recipe, however the one distinction is the simmering time.
• Sauces: I’ve principally simply diminished the simmering broth into nearly a gravy for these steaks, however you may add your favorite BBQ sauce, teriyaki sauce, even Vietnamese fashion kho seasoning for this. That is a particularly versatile protein.