Homemade Wheat Meat



I made this meat all by myself.

 I was about to make 'Philly cheese-wheat sandwiches,' but realized I was out of wheat gluten/seitan. Luckily, I had some vital wheat gluten in my cabinet, so I decided to make some. It's not that it's so hard or anything. I just didn't feel like going back downtown just to go to Whole Foods. It was really easy. Now, there are some vegetarians out there who find it distasteful to make vegetarian food look like meat, but I'm not one of them. Besides, wheat gluten naturally looks like meat. Or what do you think? Does my batch of wheat gluten look like meat to you? Now, if I was making cheesesteak sandwiches, I'd probably cut these a little thinner. So, I'll cut them thinner a little later.

What a time saver!

Before they had vital wheat gluten in the store, the way you would make this stuff is to take regular flour, knead it for a long time, let it rest, knead it some more, then, rinse out the starch from the flour, leaving the gluten in a wet ball. It's therapeutic and relaxing, but you may not want so much therapy. So, now, with this vital wheat gluten, you just add water and the gluten ball magically appears.

Bob's Red Mill's Vital Wheat Gluten Flour has a recipe on the packaging, which I use as a base. My recipe is as follows:

2 cups of vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup of garbanzo bean flour
1/4 cup of soy flour
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder

6 cups of water
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of molasses

When I follow Bob's Red Mill's recipe, my gluten is a little spongy and the taste I'm going for is a little denser, like WestSoy's products. So, I looked at the box and they put in garbanzo bean and soy flour, so I decided I would too.

Mix the vital wheat gluten, garbanzo bean flour, soy flour, garlic and onion powder together. Add the 2 cups of water and stir well. You will notice that it will solidify very quickly so work fast! Now, form a ball and knead it for a minute or two. Let it rest a few minutes while you prepare the simmering broth.

In a stockpot, pour in the water, the soy sauce and the molasses. Bring to boil, then lower the heat to simmer.

Break the gluten ball into 8 pieces. Each piece has 23 grams of protein. I cut each ball into 12 pieces and I toss it into the broth. Repeat with the others. Now, don't worry that the pieces look small because they will expand while cooking. Let the gluten simmer in the broth for an hour, then drain. And that's it. You can freeze them if you want, or keep a few days worth in the fridge.

I didn't have to go downtown and I saved myself some money too. You can get vital wheat gluten at Whole Foods, PCC or Red Apple. Try to make some yourself and let me know how it went.