My Best Seitan Ever (Thanks, Isa!)

That is a gratuitous picture of pizza margherita so that this is not a pictureless post. It was delicious. Now on to the the purpose of this post.

Thanks to Isa who generously gave me permission to post my adaptation of her seitan cutlets in Veganomicon, here is the recipe for the seitan that I think is the best I've ever made. It's a double recipe because I always make double seitan recipes. The original is on page 132 in Veganomicon, the best vegan cookbook ever. This is the seitan I used for the Hezbollahed Seitan with Sauco Port and Roasted Shallots from the previous post. And in the Hezbollahed Seitan au Poivre which will be the next post.

Seitan Cutlets
Makes about 2 pounds

2 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
3/4 cup cold vegetable broth
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup dark (mushroom) soy sauce
1 Tbsp marmite
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil

6 - 8 cups cold broth, your choice, but make it strong

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Measure the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a small bowl with the garlic. Add the wet to the dry and knead thoroughly. I use a kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook and let it go about 10-12 minutes. Add a tiny bit more broth as you go if you think it needs it. The resulting dough will not be pretty. It won't be shiny and smooth or anything like that. It will be gnarly and burly and lots of little balls of dough probably. Take it out of the mixing bowl and work it together with your hands until you get a "log". Keep rolling it until it will hold together and looks seamless. This is a lot easier to do than it sounds. If it sticks to you, wet your hands a little. Cut into cutlets and spread them/shape them until they are about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. At this point, it's really forgiving and you can patch holes, make neat sides and all that stuff. I get about 16 cutlets out of this. Pour your broth into 2 9 X 13 pans or one larger roasting pan if you have it. Bake for 30 minutes, turn over and bake another 40 minutes. Allow to cool. Use what you want and refrigerate/freeze the rest.

Next post: a yummy way to use 4 of these cutlets.

Feb. 2009 update- My tastes have changed a little and I'm now making this with a little more liquid, so it's not quite as firm.