Seitan
Submitted by wreiling
Homemade seitan from scratch using bread flour, kneaded and washed to extract pure wheat gluten, then simmered in a savory tamari, ginger, and kombu broth. The ultimate plant-based protein.
Making seitan from scratch is a meditative kitchen project, and the result blows store-bought versions out of the water.
You start with a simple bread flour dough, then wash it repeatedly underwater to rinse away the starch. What’s left behind is pure wheat gluten: chewy, dense, and ready to soak up whatever flavors you throw at it.
That ball of gluten gets simmered for hours in a savory broth of tamari, onion, kombu seaweed, and fresh ginger until it’s firm, deeply seasoned, and packed with umami.
Slice it, dice it, stir-fry it, or use it anywhere you’d use meat in a recipe.
Kitchen Tips
- Use bread flour, not all-purpose. The higher gluten content gives you a much better yield after washing.
- Don’t rush the washing. Eight rinses sounds like a lot, but each one removes more starch and leaves behind a chewier, meatier texture.
- Cut the dough into smaller pieces before simmering if you want to save time. Small chunks cook in about an hour versus three for a full ball.
- The cooking broth is liquid gold. Save it for soups, stir-fry sauces, or cooking grains.
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the flour and water together to make a medium-stiff dough.
Knead it until it is elastic when pulled (about 8 to 10 minutes).
Allow the dough to rest for about 5 minutes in a bowl of cold water.
Wash out the starch by filling a large bowl (1½ to 2 gallons) with warm water and kneading the dough in it, underwater.
When the water turns white (after 1 to 2 minutes), drain it through a strainer, adding the floury residue back to the ball of dough.
Keep kneading, washing, and changing the water, until no more starch is given off.
This may take as many as eight rinses, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Pour 6 pints of water into a large pot.
Add the tamari, onion, kombu, ginger, and dough, and simmer for about 3 hours.
(To speed up the cooking, you could cut the dough into small pieces, each about 1½ inch; the pieces would cook in about one hour. ) The seitan is properly cooked when it is firm to the touch and when it is firm in the center.
You can check by cutting into the seitan.
If it is not done, it will feel like raw dough in the center.
Comments