Daily Plate: Homemade Seitan

If you have any experience with vegetarian food, you've likely encountered seitan in your travels.  Made from vital wheat gluten (it's what makes dough stretchy and gives baked goods shape), seitan is used in place of meat in all kinds of dishes, from stew to stir-fry.  Like tofu, it takes on the flavor of what you cook it in, so it's a versatile satisfying way to add protein to meals.

Though you can buy prepared seitan near the tofu in most Whole Foods stores, it's easy to pay at least $3.49 for just a couple servings.  It also usually comes pre-seasoned (and way too salty!).  Chris and I have been wanting to make our own for a while now, so last week we finally gave it a shot.

While I did laundry, he got to work on the seitan.  This box of Arrowhead Mills Vital Wheat Gluten cost less than a container of prepared seitan would - and we ended up with more than twice the number of servings.  

Ingredients:

• 1 box (10 oz) Vital Wheat Gluten
• 2 cups Water
• Vegetable broth

Directions:

1. Add vital wheat gluten to water in mixing bowl.  Stir and then knead until mixed and elastic (about 5 minutes)
2. Form dough into a 2 1/2 inch roll and let it rest for 5 minutes while you prepare the broth.  
3. Begin heating broth on medium heat
4. Cut the seitan into equal pieces about 1/2 inch thick.  Place the seitan in the broth.  Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Cover and cook for one hour.  
5. Can be removed and served immediately of left in the broth to cool.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Though I can't take credit for most of the rest of the meal (brown jasmine rice cooked with some of the seitan broth and an improvised sweet-and-sour sauce that used citrus instead of sugar), I did make the Braised & Glazed Brussel Sprouts a la Mark Bittman. This is my favorite way to enjoy brussel sprouts and one of the best go-to's in his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.