Seitan

I forgot to post the recipe I used for the seitan I made the other night, so here is the link and below is the recipe: About.com: How to make Seitan

Combine 1 cup vital wheat gluten flour with 1 tbsp garlic powder. In a measuring cup combine 1 cup vegetable broth with 2 tbsp soy sauce or liquid aminos. Mix wet ingredients with dry and knead until well combined. Let sit for 5 minutes and lightly knead again. Cut dough into 3 or 4 cutlets about 3/4 inch thick. In a pot, combine seitan dough and 6 cups (one quart) vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer on low for slightly more than one hour. Remove finished swollen cutlets and use immediately or bag and freeze.

You can usually find vital wheat gluten at any health food store. I bought mine in a box made by a the Arrowhead Mills company. A 10oz package will make approx. 2 batches of the recipe listed above. One batch would be enough to make about 2 meals for a family of 3-4 people.

Seitan can be used in a variety of ways. You can cut it up small and put it in stir-fry or even use larger chunks to make sandwiches. It has a much better "meat" consistency than tofu and the protein in seitan is better than soy when it comes to bodily absorption.

Seitan isn't as versatile as many soy products though. Tofu is capable of taking many forms which means you can easily use it to replace eggs in many applications.

I have much more to say about seitan but I will leave it for another time.