• About
  • Points of View
  • Reading
  • Recipe Index
  • Recommendations

charlottealvina

~ everyday delicious

Tag Archives: seitan

Vegan Taco Meat

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by charlottealvina in Recipes

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

homemade, meatlessmonday, recipes, seitan, taco, vegan, vegetarian

Vegan Taco Meat

In recent weeks, Americans have had a rude awakening about what’s actually in the meat served at fast food restaurants and sold in grocery stores. Pink Slime may be putting the “ew” in news lately, but the real shock is that’s anybody’s surprised. Ground beef and chicken nuggets couldn’t look less like natural pieces of animal, so they are the perfect place to hide the bits that nobody wants to see.

Our widespread cultural approach of willful ignorance about what we put in our bodies is one of many reasons I stopped eating meat. If you want to know exactly what’s in every bite of the protein on your plate, the good news is…you can just make it yourself! And although I wouldn’t categorize this as a “quick and easy” recipe, at least it doesn’t involve an industrial centrifuge.

Seitan is a protein made from wheat that you can season and shape almost any way you want. Here’s a basic seitan recipe, but this week I took it a step further and made my own vegan taco meat. This recipe yields about 4 cups, or eight servings.

Vegan Taco Meat Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1.25 cups Vital Wheat Gluten
  • 3 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
  • 1 tbsp Onion Powder
  • 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tbsp Cumin Powder
  • 1 tbsp Chili Powder
  • 1 tsp Paprika
  • 1 tsp Dried Oregano
  • 2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
  • .75 cups Water
  • 4 cups Vegetable Stock + 2 cups Water
  • 1 Head Garlic, rinsed
  • 1 Onion, rinsed
  • 1 tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 2 tbsp
  • .25 cups Grape Seed Oil
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. We’ll start by making the seitan dough. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (gluten, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, chili, paprika, oregano), then combine the .75 cups of water and liquid aminos. Pour the water mixture into the gluten mixture and stir immediately, then kneed when stirring becomes difficult. You want to work this dough harder than you would with bread dough to encourage the protein to firm up for a meaty texture. When ingredients are fully incorporated and worked, set aside for at least 15 minutes.
  2. In the meantime, prepare the broth mixture to cook the seitan dough. Combine the 4 cups of vegetable broth and 2 cups of water in a stew pot over medium heat. Cut your garlic bulb in half and pull out several cloves, putting the rest of the bulb into the broth. Mince the cloves you retained. Remove the ends and outer layer of your onion and put those in the broth. Finely dice the onion and save for later. If you have the head of a jalapeno, that can also flavor the broth.
  3. When the broth boils, reduce heat to a simmer. Take your ball of seitan dough and cut chunks of approximately two inches and put them into the broth. Kitchen scissors are really helpful for this. Let them simmer for 45 minutes. They’ll increase significantly in size and float.
  4. Intermission. This is a great time to make some homemade salsa!
  5. Ok, the seitan is done. Remove the chunks with a slotted spoon and use another spoon to press out any excess liquids. Put the cooked seitan and tomato paste into a food processor and pulse until it has taco meat texture.
  6. Last step. In a large pan over medium heat, sauté the seitan, minced garlic, chopped onion and sesame seeds in the grape seed oil for 10-15 minutes. You can boost the flavor with additional seasonings if you want, plus the salt and pepper to taste. Stir occasionally, but do allow it to brown.

Now you have a flavorful taco meat that has great texture to use in burritos, on nachos, in taco salad, etc. Here’s the bonus: this recipe has no cholesterol and it’s lower in fat, calories and sodium than taco meat made from lean ground beef.

Basic Homemade Seitan

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by charlottealvina in Recipes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

meatlessmonday, recipes, seitan, vegan, vegetarian

image

Seitan (say-tan) is a vegan meat made from vital wheat gluten. This is only the protein part of the wheat berry with everything else removed. It’s also used as an additive while baking to give more volume to bread. A quarter cup, about what you might eat for dinner as seitan, has approximately 23 grams of protein and 10% of your daily iron.

What’s especially fun about seitan is the potential for seasoning. You can add anything you want, and the flavor will be mixed all the way through every bite. You can also make it into any shape, from meatloaf to taco meat.

Ingredients and Instructions: 

image

  • 1 to 1.25 cups of vital wheat gluten
  • Liquid is 3/4 cup water or vegetable broth + 2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
  • Seasonings are 3 tbsp nutritional yeast + 3 tbsp spices
  • 6 cups of vegetable broth or seasoned water to cook it in (not pictured)

For spices I’m using 1 tbsp onion powder + 1 tbsp garlic powder + 3/4 tbsp dried thyme + 1/4 tbsp ground black pepper. This gives it a more traditional meat flavor. Other ideas are powdered ginger and garlic for Asian dishes, or cumin and chili powder for Mexican dishes, etc.

Mix the seasonings and 1 cup of wheat gluten together well before adding any liquid, then add the liquid and stir/kneed until everything is incorporated into a dough. Sprinkle additional gluten into the dough as you kneed until it no longer feels too moist. Continue working the dough for a couple minutes to help the protein develop into a meaty texture. Let this sit for ten or more minutes while you prepare and heat the broth to cook it.

The broth can be any liquid that will support the flavors in the seitan. Vegetable broth is perfect. Or water with Braggs and more of the spices that you put in the dough. Some people also add chopped onion and garlic.

image

I’m serving my seitan as medallions so I rolled the dough into a log and sliced it into rounds. You can do a whole loaf, or cut off small chunks for stir fry, etc.

Bring the cooking liquid to a boil, reduce to a simmer and add the seitan pieces. Let this simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom. The seitan will float to the top. Remove with tongs and press out excess liquid.

Now prepare as you would with any meat. I seared my medallions with mushrooms. This is also excellent with vegan gravy.

Enjoy!

Howdy

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow Me on Pinterest



Follow @charlottealvina

Recent Posts

  • Homemade Vegetable Stock Update
  • Carrot Cake Overnight Oatmeal
  • Buffalo Cauliflower
  • Amazing Vegan Gravy
  • The World’s Easiest Pasta Sauce (is also extremely delicious)

Tweets

  • 🙌🇺🇸 twitter.com/potus/status/1… 10 hours ago
  • RT @PeteButtigieg: Having my husband @Chasten by my side yesterday in a hearing room is something not seen before for a Cabinet nominee. An… 10 hours ago
  • ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ twitter.com/meenaharris/st… 5 days ago
  • RT @MsLaToshaBrown: A Black woman Vice President just swore in a Latino man, Black minister and Jewish young leader from the south as U.S.… 5 days ago
  • RT @GretaThunberg: He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see! https://t.co/G8gObL… 5 days ago

Archives

  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • November 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy