My New Favorite Seitan is: All of Them

Deep fried seitan chxn.

I simply adore seitan.  MMmmmmmMMMmmMMM!  It is such a versatile, filling, nourishing plant-based protein.  Plus, it is so easy to make at home.

Spicy seitan sausages kababbed up with bell peppers for the grill.  It is adapted from one of Kathy Hester's vegan InstantPot recipes.

Matt can make tofu from scratch, but it is significantly more involved than whipping up a batch of simple seitan.  That said, not all seitan recipes are simple!  If a person wants to make vegan haggis, say, it gets complex quite rapidly.

Seitan and mushroom stroganoff over noodles, featuring "Not Mrs. Maisel's Brisket But Marvelous Nonetheless," from The Vegan Meat Cookbook.

We belong to a pair of Facebook seitan groups (here and here) and I am astonished at what some of those creative cooks invent!  It is mind-boggling.  Where there is a will there is a way!  A lot of those folks swear by the wash-that-flour (WTF) method for their creations...but that's far too involved for me.  At least for now.  Matt, Mr. Ambitious, did try it a few times.  We use store-bought vital wheat gluten (VWG) in our seitan recipes though.

A slice of the "charbroiled succulent steak," from Miyoko's The Vegan Meat Cookbook.

Plus, there are already endless--and I mean endless--variations for making seitan without taking it to that next WTF level.   

Homemade pizza with seitan, roast garlic, and mushrooms.

Unless specifically mentioned otherwise all the seitan pictured are based on recipes shared in the Facebook groups linked above.  

Air-fried seitan chxn in two forms: nuggets and cutlets.

This winter Matt has also been trying recipes from The Vegan Meat Book by Miyoko Schinner*.  Miyoko is a culinary vegan rockstar in my book.  Her name is synonymous, to me, with outstanding vegan food--no matter if it is the DIY stuff from her cookbooks or her line of grocery store products.

Miyoko's "succulent steaks" get the specified char with a few minutes on the grill.

Over the past year, we've played around with augmenting the VWG in our seitan with chickpea flour, lentil flour, ground mushrooms, pea protein, instant mashed potato flakes, and tofu.  [Sidebar:  We make our own pea protein and legume flours on the cheap in the Vitamix!]

Air-fried seitan chxn nuggets.

In addition to ingredient substitutions, we're experimenting with seitan techniques, too.  Simmering vs Steaming.  Kneading vs no-knead.  Shaped vs knotted.  Length of the simmering/steaming time.  Wrapped vs loose.  They all have an impact on the texture of the end product.  It has been interesting to see just how much so.  We appreciate the motto that variety is the spice of life.  I don't ever expect to stop playing around with all the different things possible with seitan.  Matt printed off three new recipes to try yesterday!

Seitan mock duck stir fry.  We bought this canned seitan at a local Asian market.

I've written about a few of my then-favorite seitan recipes in the past.  There was the slow cooker seitan.  And the InstantPot seitan.  We do still make most of our seitan with the InstantPot, though sometimes we go back to the stovetop as we did in our very first seitan recipes.

Potato flake seitan chxn cutlet with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Once upon a time, I thought I would find "the one."  The perfect seitan--and then the rest would be history.  Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, it didn't work out that way.  I guess humans haven't settled for one kind of bird to eat.  So, why did I think I needed to settle for one kind of seitan?!?!  Talk about boxing myself in!

Seitan pepperoni pizza.

(Another sidebar:  For Real!  Humans consume so many different avian species it crazy!  From little birds like Coots and Snipes to big ones like Turkeys and Emus!  And soooooo many chickens, in particular.  Poor things...but I digress.  Back to the seitan.)  

Fried seitan chxn.

As I said, variety is awesome! Some of our dinners call for a tender and juicy cutlet.  Others are better with chewy, dense little nuggets. In the summer, I want sausages for the grill.  At Thanksgiving, I want an ample roast to eat with gravy.  On Pizza Friday, I want pepperoni.  For the Super Bowl, I want buffalo chxn wings.

Seitan black pepper stir-fry with the "marvelous" brisket, once again from Miyoko's cookbook.

So, it turns out, my new favorite seitan is ALL OF THEM.  :)  

Herb-crusted seitan cutlets with spaghetti.

*And because "If you're vegan why would you even want to replicate meat," is a common enough question... I'll answer it.  While I certainly can't speak for all vegans, for me the way I eat is about harm reduction and taste preferences.  I am opposed to suffering and death.  I never said chicken pot pie tasted bad.  In fact, I was a huge, huge fan of eating chicken for much of my life.  I once was a connoisseur of diner chicken strips.  It isn't about that.  I just no longer want any beautiful birds to die just so that I can have Kung Pao Chicken for dinner.  I'm happy to use beans or wheat instead.  Kung Pao Tofu rocks!  Chickens are cool!  So, for me, mock meats allow me to have the best of both worlds.  I can choose compassion AND still obtain that sense of comfort I get from enjoying the foods I knew growing up.  Like pepperoni pizza!  And stroganoff!  And fried chicken!  And black pepper steak!

A hearty stir-fry made with seitan mock duck.  Again, storebought from the Asian grocer.