The Chickwheat is pretty much the only seitan I make. I love it so, so much. The first time I made it, I ate the *entire batch* standing at the counter as I shredded it.
oh, here's an idea for a series you could do, you can try out a recipe from a blog or something and then improve it/make it your own, I think it'd be really fun
This is giving me old SVK vibes!! I loved this. You could test whatever the heck recipe you want and I would watch it and enjoy it because of your lovely personalities. That said, I would so love to see more complex, intricate recipes either involving seitan, or a fermented nut cheese!
What a great video! I cannot wait for more of those where you make staples like that. Even including the fancier, more complicated ones, as you are a very experienced recipe developer and I could learn a lot from you! I must say, seitan is the idea I have been experimenting with as well and chickwheat is actually the first meat substitute my non-vegan family actually liked! I don't have a decent food processor and I did it in a KitchenAid (kneaded it for around 20 mins, which did not bother me as I just did other things in the meantime), steamed it split into two smaller logs over the stove (not in a pressure cooker) but the biggest difference I made was knotting the dough. And honestly, I got a much more shredded texture than on the photos in her post this way (at my first try!). And honestly, I think there is no need for precision to the gram here - I used sauteed onions and garlic (as we never use powdered ones) and made the dough slightly looser in general to make the texture less dense and it worked out absolutely spectacular :D Also, the sweet thing is the VWG aftertaste actually, you can try to get rid of it partially by adding some acid or baking soda but some people are just very sensitive to it ;P Anyways, I am waiting for you to try some wash-the-flour seitan next! It is definitely the most meat-like I have ever seen and "The Seitan Appreciation Society" group on fb is definitely a great resource if you want to explore these ideas!
It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken makes a seitan recipe with VWG and tofu and it's my favorite for things like chicken in salads. It's also super easy to make!
Pepperoni! Please share that. What about trying to make salami, too? Thanks for sharing these recipes. I didn’t know using a food processor for this process was even possible. I don’t have a stand mixer, so that recipe is actually doable. I appreciate the in depth review of each recipe and their outcome!
Salami is a great idea! Used to love that in sandwiches. I will update if I find any good recipes for pepperoni or salami. Glad the food processor tip is helpful for you! 💕
It seems like the inclusion of blended up jackfruit is a lost opportunity. Isn't the best part of jackfruit the texture? Korenn Rachelle has some fancy seitan recipes where she folds in shredded up king oyster mushrooms to give the finished seitan a layered, shreddable effect. Jackfruit, just mashed up, not blended, might do similar - but you'd definitely have to boil away the flavor first. Thanks so much for this video. It's fun to see you try and compare recipes like this side-by-side, and give your kind and honest, and knowledgeable, reactions to them. Much appreciated. I already knew I loved the Chick-wheat recipe (and that food processor technique!), so it's neat to see it here and to see it compared to something different. Be well.
When you said jackfruit, I expected that was what gave the fibrous texture but then the recipe told you to blend it?? 🤔 don't really understand what purpose it serves tbh 😅 Appreciate you testing & reviewing... I'll definitely be trying the chickpea one! 🖤🖤🖤
Yeah, when I first read the recipe I thought we were going to shred the jackfruit by hand and then stir it into the vital wheat gluten. I do think something about the fiber in the jackfruit helps tenderize it and make it a little more shreddable even when blended, but I'd be curious to try it without blending as well.
looking for such a recipe for realistic chick setain for longest time, this was perfect!!! thank you for a method that won't burn out my food processor!
It's a excellent and adventurous video Sarah with great vegan seitain recipes including gluten free versions. I don't have any allergies but it shows that you love and care about others that you made alternatives for those with allergies. Loving and caring about others isn't much of a good trait that is seen in people because we're prone to meism( thinking and talking about yourself all the time).
So excited to see this. I love how the two recipes were compared directly. I’ve tried the first recipe and was so relieved to see it wasn’t just me that thought the recipe needed to have more gluten added! I’m very keen to try the second recipe as I wasn’t 100% sold on the texture of the first one (plus… that grey colour… XD)
Loved this video!! I feel like you we sooo thorough and I loved getting both of your opinions. SUPER impressed with what you did with this video. Can't wait for more to come! You rock!
This is a really good video. Shot really well, voiceover is great and you just killed it with your process and evaluation takes. I’ve been using Lacey’s recipe for a while and I agree that is “the” chicken seitan recipe. I’m not a fan of the blank canvas school of seitan so I’ll add mushroom powder, vegan chicken broth, marmite etc. to boost the umami flavor. Also I have a pretty small kitchen so I’ll divide the seitan dough into two and then eights. I add four at a time evenly spaced to my food processor. It takes a couple of minutes for the kneading and when I see the food processor dancing across the countertop I know it’s time to stop lol. Thanks for everything!
Adding tofu to the seitan is a nice idea. I like that! It gives the seitan a greater variety of amino acids that's more bioavailable. I tend to not eat too much seitan as gluten isn't great as a protein source; soy or pea is better from what I understand.
You can try to firm up the first recipe with agar agar powder if the extra VWG doesn't work. Maybe 1/2 tsp? I wouldn't use too much of it. Also, I found that using consomme (artificial chicken or beef flavoring) helps with flavor. The chicken flavor is unbelievably realistic. I believe it is vegan, but I would check to make sure. BTW, I am so glad you showed us the food processor. I was trying to remember where I heard that and then I was like, oh yeah, Sarah showed us!
What a great video. Thank you for doing all the investigative work for us! I've failed so many times making seitan, but the chickwheat method looks foolproof. Plus, i don't have a stand mixer. Gonna try it soon, thanks guys!
Yes! Definitely try it -- I think you'll love it. 💕 I've made so many batches of seitan that came out gross and it's such a bummer after all the hard work. But the chickwheat really does seem foolproof to me.
Same. I don't use mine much. It was one of my late husband's obsessions, which, once he got it, like our yard pond in a box, our above ground pool, and other shit, he never touched it. It was still in the box when he died. (So is the pond and pool, to this day.) Because I'm descended of Mennonite, I tend to always use manual tools. When I first used it, it was kind of like him gifting me shit I didn't know I would want after he died. Sarah, if this use is what it looks like, then you're kind of helping him give me another present, over four years after he died, just after my 53rd birthday. For widowers, that's genuinely special. I hope you will never know how I feel, but I don't wish this on your husband either. I guess you know what I mean. Be well, lve long, and prosper. 🖖
I absolutely love these kinds of videos (testing others' recipes), but not many food RU-vidrs make them! This was so interesting and fun to watch! You also seem to really know your sh*t
Thank you for this. I keep buying bags of VWG determined to attempt making chickwheat and so this vid makes me feel like I can give it a go with confidence. Have you had Daring's yet? Although it's soy based, I was wondering what you thought about the texture and if it resembles yours. Not crazy about Darings flavor but the texture was pretty spot on. Thanks again for another great vid.
If you make the jackfruit seitan again with the modifications, can you update with the results? Also, love the video! I’ve only made seitan once before, and it did not turn out well, but I will have to try the chickwheat one!
for sure, i'll do an update! i think the chickwheat is definitely a good place to start. i've made my fair share of bad batches of seitan 😂 and it really is such a bummer after all the hard work.
@@SarahsVeganKitchen Thanks! And so true!! I used the washed flour method (the one from Tik Tok lol), and I spent so much time kneading and wasted so much water and flour for it to taste like soggy socks. I’m glad I only made one serving lol!
I've been wanting to try making seitan and I've watched several different videos, but none looked very easy to make. That chickwheat recipe looks so easy and so good. Thanks for making this video.
I finally found your channel after months of searching and I am so happy. I learned so many recipes from you and, I love your genuine personality, Sarah ^^
I soak my jackfruit in water and white vinegar for 30min or a little longer. Takes the taste of the brine right out of the jackfruit then I cook it in broth.
So excited for upcoming seitan content! I love your videos, and will probably watch whatever amount of product tests even though none of them are available where I live, but recipes I can actually make will be great :)
Appreciate all the details included here! Thanks for doing all the legwork - gonna try the chickwheat recipe, can't wait! Will be my first time making seitan actually :)
Loved this theme and format! :D I suggest you can start making 1 video (part 1) with recipes testing and theeeeen 2nd video (part 2) you optimize the best recipe or create your own best recipe out of a combination of recipes in the first video. After that everyone will only make your recipes, cause they will be super bomb! :D Love your channel. Big hug from Berlin :)
My favorite chicken replacement has been the sweet earth mindful chikn but the chickwheat sounds good and is probably way more cost effective. I'm going to try it sometime soon! BTW my favorite fake meat products are the loma linda hot dogs and scallops I'm so glad to have found those through your review :)
Oh, actually I feel like the texture of the chickwheat isn't too far off from the Sweet Earth stuff! It's been awhile since I've purchased that but I remember really liking the texture. And haha what a throwback to the loma linda taste test! 😂
My partner has a soy allergy so I’m super excited about the chickwheat recipe. I wonder if I could combine the recipes using chickpeas, jackfruit and maybe pumfu... 🤔
That's what I was thinking! I feel like the jackfruit did make it a little more "shreddable" so I might experiment with a hybrid recipe. Also, how is pumfu? I keep seeing it at Whole Foods and I'm intrigued!
@@SarahsVeganKitchen pumfu is alright. It’s very firm and has more of a nutty taste. It’s also a lot more expensive so we only buy it to make “egg” salad every once in a while. I haven’t tried it in many things
Loved almost everything about the Chickwheat recipe, the Gluten flavor however is too weird. May try the jackfruit recipe next. Thanks for an informative and entertaining video!
Can't wait to make chickwheat. Thank you Sarah! Not a fan of jackfruit. Yes, maybe if I boiled it first I would make it. I think I'll try both. You and Eric are very good at explaining the taste and texture of recipes you make. Yes, if you could come up with a vegan hot dog recipe that would be fantastic. Haven't found a good vegan hot dog yet.
Thanks so much for watching! Glad it was helpful. I will definitely be experimenting with homemade hotdog recipes. If you're not opposed to store-bought options, I will say we tried the Field Roast Stadium Dogs recently and they are quite convincing! Probably the most flavorful on the market, albeit a bit less healthy than the lightlife options.
This is a great video I'm a new vegan convert and this has been helpful my first wheat gluten is okay but I think this will help for the one I'm making up today. Thank you for all the great pointers. BA
I love this video! I haven’t made seitan in a long while as I’ve tried to stay away from mock meats as they don’t make my tummy feel that good. However I might just be trying the chickwheat one!! Thanks for the great tips and video. Always love 💕
Funny fact. All vegan channels that deal with jackfruit say to go the "Asian market" to get it. I live in Asia, specifically Taiwan, and the only jackfruit available here is imported (from Thailand, I think) and it is all sweet. This is a common thing among what is available in Asian markets in the US or West, and what is available in the real Asia. That said. How about mixing the two? Maybe instead of the jackfruit, maybe add the chickpeas/aquafaba and tofu together? Gonna have to skip the faux chicken cube, as not available here. Closest to vegan bouillon is mushroom powder. I cannot wait to try this though. If I want fried chicken seitan, do you cook the seitan first then fry?
I love seitan and thoroughly enjoyed this video. Would love to see follow ups on all your testing with this. The food processor hack is game changing. Anything to make seitan as simple as possible.Thank you! Do you have the Seitan and Beyond Cook Book?
I don't own Seitan and Beyond but I do have the Gentle Chef Cookbook by the same author! I haven't made time to try out too many of the recipes, but everything I have tried has been pretty fantastic! Do you have Seitan and Beyond/do you recommend it?
Thank you for comparing the two recipes. Maybe you could try making them with the same spices next time. Did you let them rest for a few hours of overnight before you cooked them, or did you eat them right away after steaming them? I've heard that using a tablespoon of vinegar removes the seitan taste, maybe it would remove the jackfruit taste. I don't know. Anyway, thank you for sharing this great video. Please, please work on pepperoni and hot dogs. I'd love to know how to make them. ☺
Oh, I don't know if you've seen this group on Facebook, or not, but they just post seitan recipes. You might be interested in checking them out. It's the Seitan Society. ☺
Since I remmember you speaking spanish, maybe you can check out the 'Dimension Vegana' channel, the guy has made salami, pepperoni and every cold meat I can think of, his videos are very explanatory and thorough. Will def try the chickwheat from this video as you seem to really like it!
I definitely want to try the chickwheat recipe. I don't like jackfruit, so I won't even try that one. My question is, I gave away my food processor because I had forgotten how to use it, so do you think it would work to try kneading it in a blender? I have a pretty good Ninja blender. Or I might just knead it by hand. I'm usually not very picky about seitan textures. I'm just glad to have something to stand in for chicken. But if anyone has tried using a blender, I'd like to hear about it. Thanks! Great video!
@Sarah's Vegan Kitchen I highly recommend another content producer, "Sauce Stache." He makes faux meats from everything imaginable. You could try your own twists on his twists on others' recipes! Or do a collaboration. I have a question/suggestion: Where faux bacon is concerned, there must be some sort of thing between seitan, root vegetables, and rice paper. Also, have you heard about the soymilk "skin" for faux poultry? I accidentally made that myself, when I boiled Osem consomme seasoned pasta in Kroger STO plain soy milk, in the microwave, no less, and it blew my mind. Had I pan fried that skin, or wrapped it around something worthy to bake, I could have fooled my mama. Now, I want to make your chickpea seitan here, make chunks that are serving sized, wrap them in the skin I accidentally made, but on purpose, and roast them with seasoned veg. Oh, gurllll..... Thank you for inspiring me. You are going to make my current husband happy as hell, if not helping with him trying to lose weight. 😁
I have tried the chickwheat seitan and used it in various traditional Algerian recipes on my Instagram @ moonypomegranate if you’re curious to try it out! (A pasta dish, a soup and a tajin)
I really enjoy the Tofurky hickory smoked slices for sandwiches. As I'm watching/following making this I wonder if adding some liquid smoke would give that same style of flavour. Something I test in future batches maybe? 🤔
Can you try to make the chickwheat into a yummy carne asada or carnitas? There is a place that makes Vegan tacos near me using seitan made in house that is just amazing. Like I’m wondering specifically would you add in Mexican flavors to the seitan before steaming? or marinate it in flavors once it’s all done? 🤷🏻♀️
I just tried jackfruit for the first time about two weeks ago. I was so upset bc I loved the texture of it. I shredded it and added BBQ sauce and it seemed spot on for pulled BBQ chicken. However, the salt and lime juice brine was too much. I felt like I was drinking a margarita but it was very odd mixed into the dish. I am sooo going to try this method you mentioned about boiling it in stock. If you have any additional tips or info, please let me know! Thanks, you're so awesome!
I know exactly what you mean! Some brands don't use lime juice in their brine, so it's worth checking if you can find one that doesn't. I know what you mean about it tasting like margaritas. 😅 But yes, I usually always boil mine for 20 or so minutes in a good savory broth and it helps a lot. Even salted water helps too if you don't have broth on hand. Just use enough that you can pour it off at the end. 💕
I love saitan. Wheaty has saitan medaillons that have psyllium husk in them. They are so shreddable snd mest like it is insane. I did not find a recipe lkke that yet unfortunately.
I feel so sad when I see recipes and they dont clean the blender off the whole mix left in there. Maybe that is why the second recipe seemed extra dry. I always wonder if they use the whole mix and just dont whoe it but here you can see she didnt. Lol. Is it just me that feels sad about this? Lol
I think most of the times they do scrape the mixes off bowls and whatnot, but probably they cut that part because it either doesn't read well on camera or it's not really that useful to show on a video recipe and is better left for implied... idk
Yes! I hate food waste and definitely scrape everything out of the blender -- sometimes it just gets cut out of the edit because it takes so long to get every last drop. 😂
Also, if you want a decent seitan pepperoni: check out the Gaz Oakly's recipe (I think he has a yt video for it). A lot of people are very satisfied with it and it is not very complicated actually :D
Oh, thanks for the recommendation! I made Gaz's bacon recipe many months ago and it was quite the process 😂 so I'm glad to hear the pepperoni is simpler! I'll check it out for sure.
Thanks for the video Sarah! I have made seitan about 4-5 times and it always tastes a little weird to me... any tips on getting rid of that irony sort of taste of the vital wheat gluten?
I've also found a little apple cider vinegar helps as well. Hot For Food used that in a seitan recipe in her first book and it really help cut out the wheaty taste. Maybe it could help?
Definitely agree with what Hannah and Heather already commented! The recipes I've made that are pure vital wheat gluten definitely have a distinctive flavor. I think adding beans or tofu to the mix really helps. Also, the chickwheat recipe called for apple cider vinegar -- I forgot to mention it in the voiceover but that may have helped too.
Yes, you can steam it on the stove! Just make sure to check and add extra water to the bottom of the pot as needed. I would guess it would take at least an hour to cook through. You could always split it into two smaller logs to ensure that it cooks fully.
You can definitely freeze a portion of the recipe! In my experience seitan freezes well and it doesn't alter the texture in any noticeable way. But also, I'd imagine you could reduce the recipe by half and it would still work great!
For sure! Just monitor the water levels in the bottom of your pan and add as necessary. I'm not sure how that would affect the time. If you have an Instagram account, I've also noticed that the blog author (Lacey @avocadosandales) answers pretty much all DMs/comments and was super helpful, so you could always try shooting her a message about specifics! I think she has a Facebook page too.
