Slow cook for 24 hours and then keep warm for 24 hours. 48 hours in total. That's very interesting. And the end results looks really great. Please keep sharing more vegan recipes. Thank you 🙏
The keep warm for 24 hours is not required at all! It did make it extra firm and good to slice, but in my last video for wash the flour seitan chicken I skipped that part! It still was incredible, but more tender and succulent. It all depends on what you want!
How much vital wheat gluten would you use instead of bread flour? Also, are you adding the beet juice for coloring, or for flavor? I’ve got some beet powder, kinda wondering if I could sub that in. Looks like it is really good!
You would want to use another recipe if you are using vital wheat gluten so you can other things to mask the flavor of gluten. I personally don’t like to use vital wheat gluten because I don’t like the flavor and find it difficult to mask it. But I’m very picky and know many people don’t mind the flavor. The beet juice adds color and also has an impact on flavor- however it’s fairly minimal. If you are into experimenting, I would do a mixture of vital wheat gluten, the beet powder, mushroom seasoning, black strap molasses, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar to create a loaf. Acid can help cut the flavor of the VWG, and the saltiness from the mushroom seasoning and soy sauce with a bit of brown sugar (and molasses) helps balance that out so it’s not too sour. I might have to pick up some vital wheat gluten and play with this because it would be a time saver. I just prefer the flavor of washed flour so much better!
I haven’t tried it in the oven. In theory, if you have the seitan submerged in the broth and you keep it a low enough temperature for the broth to be a very low simmer- it could work! My best guess would be 250f? Then you’d want to periodically flip the seitan so it can be cooked evenly. You still want a long cook time, at least 5 hours. I haven’t tried this method yet, so it might need a lower temperature and longer cook time! It must be at a low temperature or the seitan will ‘expand’ or cook too quickly and create air bubbles. Bubbles in your seitan are from steam being released from boiling broth them trapped inside the dough. Bubbles in your seitan will cause a spongy texture, with no shredding. The thing is, you can’t overcook seitan, but it’s difficult to fix it isn’t cooked through the center considering it’s one big loaf. That is why I recommend slow cooking it overnight. That way you are guaranteed it is fully cooked despite the low temperature. I recommend checking out your local buy nothing group and see if anyone has an extra slow cooker or consider thrifting one!
That's such an unnecessary and ignorant question, really. Vegans don't typically become vegan because they hate the taste of meat. They become vegan for a variety reasons, usually health or morals. Seitan has been around over 1500 years and was used by Buddhist monks, who were usually vegetarian. As vegetarianism and veganism and plant-based eating becomes more popular, re-creating a good meat substitute will lead to more people adopting this lifestyle, which is better in general.
Because most of us stopped eating meat, but learned tons of recipes that required meat. So we substitute the meat with plant-based 'meat'. It's not so difficult to figure out.
Since you have an open mind, I would buy some just to try it. Many Chinese restaurants sell it and label it as 'mock duck', but it's the same thing- just different spices! Otherwise international grocery stores like HMart sell it too if you wanted to try preparing it at home. Lots of omnivore people eat seitan in addition to other proteins, I say it's at least worth trying!