Seitan (don't look further if you dont eat wheat gluten)

I have been making seitan ever since I was introduced to vegetarian cooking 30 years ago.

Seitan is pure wheat gluten. I love using it in stews as it absorbs  the flavours of the dish.

Make a dough with high protein wheat flour. The dough should be pliable and easy to kneed. The amount of flour depends on the amount of gluten you want. Try starting with 8 cups of flour.
Kneed for 5-10 minutes.
Let it sit for 1-2 hours under hot water.

Kneed the dough under the water. You'll notice that the gluten is stringy. Change water frequently until the water is clear and you have a stringy gooey mass .

The raw seitan below has been sitting overnight in a bowl , hence the shape.

Cut into pieces. At this point you can freeze it for later use.

Boil the raw seitan with water, shoyu sause, bayleaf and ginger,. I usually add kombu seeweed for umami and nutrition.

You can omit this step and add the raw seitan right to your stew, it will absorb the flavors. Be aware that the seitan will expand as it cooks.

Add the prepared seitan to your stew. Here its added to a chili.

On the picture below the seitan it deep fried.. It is so delicious added to a stew.

Here the deep fried seitan is added to a root vegetable stew. The deep fried seitan adds a meat like quality to the stew.

See my recipe for stuffed mushrooms for more ideas of how to cook with seitan.