Tag Archives: seitan

Burritos with Seitan

16 Saturday Jan 2021

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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I’m getting more confident now of how to make seitan that is light and tasty, but that still can be sliced and fried to a slightly crisp golden brown, with the texture similar to that of fried bacon slices. Burritos normally have thinly sliced spiced beef or chicken as one of the components, so I thought some spicy seitan should be a good substitute for the meat, then together with the guacamole and re fried beans you have a substantial filling.

For 2 portions – all spoon measurements are level spoons

4 tablespoons wheat gluten powder

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon Maggi vegetable stock powder

2 teaspoons garam masala spice

1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground white pepper

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons vegetable stock plus 1 litre for poaching the seitan

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl

Add the olive oil and mix well.

Add the 3 tablespoons of stock and mix to a soft dough. If the dough feels too firm add a trickle more liquid.

Form the dough into a neat log shape.

Bring the stock to a simmer, put in the seitan and cook at barely a simmer for 40 minutes.

Remove the seitan from the stock and let cool before slicing. You can prepare the seitan up to this point in advance, the seitan will keep several days in the fridge.

When you are ready to assemble your burritos, follow my previous recipe for burritos with their filling of refried beans and guacamole. Slice and fry the seitan until golden and a bit crisp round the edges and add to the burritos. Roll them up and slather with sour cream or a vegan substitute, then drizzle with chilli sauce. Enjoy!

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Seitan Dumplings

08 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Starters, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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For my second try with making seitan, I thought I would see if it would make little protein rich dumplings to add to vegetable soup. This time I’ve added olive oil to the mix to lighten the texture of the seitan, and added herbs and vegetable stock powder for flavour. I was very happy with the result.

Dumpling mix – enough for 2 portions – measurements in level tablespoons

4 tablespoons gluten powder

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder – I like Maggi the best

1 teaspoon very finely chopped mixed fresh herbs/ 1/2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper and a pinch of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoons stock or water

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl making sure you break up any clumps of the stock powder.

Add the olive oil and mix well to distribute.

Mix to a fairly wet dough with the water or stock.

Form into small dumplings.

Bring you soup to a simmer and gently drop the dumplings one by one into it.

After a few minutes of cooking, the dumplings will rise to the surface which indicates that they are cooked.

Enjoy your soup and dumplings!

Adventures with Seitan

07 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Techniques, Vegan

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Seitan is made from the protein in wheat, in other words the gluten. All the starch is washed out of the wheat leaving pure gluten which consists of over 80% protein. Quite clearly this is not suitable for anyone who is coeliac or has an intolerance to gluten.
The resulting powder is then seasoned and mixed into a dough with water or stock before being poached. Frequently the Seitan is poached in flavoured stock to take on the taste of a type of meat. For me making a vegetable product taste like meat is not something I feel I need to do, I’m quite happy with vegetables tasting like vegetables. Having said that, Seitan, like tofu is a pretty bland product, so it does need flavour adding to it, I’m having fun experimenting with different flavourings and will share my successes and failures with you. Because seitan has a high protein content it’s texture is quite dense and it can be browned like meat or sliced and then fried to crispness, which can add some interesting textures to dishes.

This first seitan I made, I can’t say I was very happy with the texture, it was very dense and a bit rubbery. It needed fat in it to lighten up the texture. Not one to waste anything, I cut it into matchstick shapes, fried until crisp, which came out pretty good, and added it to oriental fried rice. As the seitan was quite bland this first time of making it, it needed the flavour of the ginger, garlic and chilli to perk it up.

SEITAN – FIRST TRY BASIC RECIPE – ONE PORTION – all spoon measurements are level spoons

4 tablespoons gluten powder

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

pinch of salt

vegetable stock

In a small bowl mix the dry ingredients together.

Add enough water to make a workable dough and knead to a smooth consistency.


Form into a sausage shape.

Heat the stock to a simmer and put the dough into the stock. Keep the heat low so that the stock is only just moving. I find cooking the seitan in a slow cooker on a low setting works well.

Cook for 40 minutes then remove the seitan from the broth.

Cool and cut into matchstick shapes, before frying and adding to the stir fried rice.

Tomorrow Seitan Herb Dumplings for soup.