So I saw this recipe on Youtube one day and I thought I had to try it. I found it very interesting. Seitan is that vegetarian meat alternative that you can find in stores.  But if you want to try you can make it at home.  This recipe is a pretty time consuming but also fun.  For this recipe you will just need one ingredient…  Flour oh and patience.

The amount of seitan that results from this is about 1/2 the amount of flour you start with.  In a bowl add some flour and water together.   I started with 3 cups of water.

You want to add just enough water to form a dough ball.

Now remove the dough and knead. Kneading helps bring out the gluten in the flour. The more you knead, the more the gluten will stick together. I tried making this recipe by kneading the dough quite a lot and without much kneading. I found that the dough that I kneaded more stayed together better and was easier to work with.   Knead for about 10 minutes.  My hand is shown in the picture to show you how big the dough is before the next step.

Now place the dough in some warm water. Some people soak the dough for a couple hours. I didn’t.

Knead the dough to release all of the starch. The starch will wash away and what will remain is the gluten.

You will see that the dough will start getting stringy and clumpy. The water will be cloudy.  Pour out the water and add clean water.

Notice that the dough looks stringy and clumpy. Keep rinsing and kneading.

The dough might look like is it falling apart but don’t worry, the dough will start sticking together again. Just continue rinsing and kneading.

I decided to switch to a strainer to help catch the bits of gluten.

After continuing this process for a while, the water will be pretty clear and what remains is the gluten.  This is what you find in stores, vital wheat gluten.

I made a second batch since there wasn’t much left of the first batch. Before you can do anything with this, you need to cook the gluten.

Boil in a pot of water for about 20 minutes.

Now your seitan is ready and you can use it in different recipes. (I have seen recipes where the seitan is boiled in a broth to make it tastier.)

I decided to make a sweet soy sauce to go with the seitan.  I sliced the gluten into bite sized pieces.

Coated it with some cornstarch to give it a crunchy exterior.

In a frying pan, shallow fry the seitan until they are golden on eat side.

For the sauce, chop up some ginger into tiny pieces.

In a frying pan add soya sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic. Simmer until the sauce thicken.

To this add cornstarch and water to the sauce and thicken.

Once the sauce gets nice and sticky, add the seitan and toss.  Serve this as a meat alternative.

You can try different sauces and in different dishes.

Seitan Recipe

• 3 cups flour
• water

Mix enough water to form ball. The amount doesn’t really matter.  Knead the ball for at least 10 minutes on a floured surface.   Place the ball in a large bowl and add water. Knead the ball in the water to allow the flour to dissolve, leaving the gluten.  When you are kneading the flour in the water, the water gets cloudy and the gluten is stringy. Pour our the water carefully and add fresh water.  Keep rinsing and kneading the ball until the water is clear. When the water is clear, your gluten (seitan) will be ready. Boil the seitan in a pot of water for about 30 minutes. (You can use broth instead to flavor the seitan).  Now the seitan is ready to use for various recipes.

For the Mongolian Beef recipe: I used this one here https://yupitsvegan.com/mongolian-seitan-vegan-beef/

• 1/2 cup soya sauce
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• sesame oil
• 3 gloves garlic
• chopped ginger
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp cold water
• Seitan (about 3 cups – made from 6 cups of flour)

In a sauce pan, simmer the soy sauce, coconut sugar, sesame oil, garlic and ginger for about 3 minutes.  Mix together the cornstarch and water.  When the sauce bubbles, add the cornstarch and water to thicken. Toss in the seitan to coat with the sauce. Serve this as a meat alternative. This pairs nicely with some rice and vegetables.

Enjoy.

More recipes: https://eatitnoworeatitlater.com/recipe-list/