I kept experimenting with seitan for the last couple weeks, and I think I’m at the point where I don’t really need to make modifications. All the issues I had with my first attempts are now gone, and I think I have a generic seitan recipe that will work no matter what flavoring is used.

Anyway, here it is:

Generic seitan recipe

  1. Add half a 15oz can of chickpeas, two tablespoons of flavoring (ie, a chicken-y spice for a chicken replacement), 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon oil and 1 tsp MSG (ok, I still have no idea if this does anything) to a food processor or blender and puree.

  2. Add one cup vital wheat gluten (do not stick a measuring cup into the bag, instead add spoonfuls to your measuring cup so the gluten doesn’t compress) to the food processor/blender and continue puree-ing. It will eventually turn into a sticky, rough dough but it can take up to a minute for that to happen.

  3. Once you have the result (it won’t be smooth, but that’s fine), take the dough-ish stuff out of the food processor and knead a couple times (or just once, honestly), just until it holds together in a big lump.

  4. Divide the lump into three parts, and flatten each part with your hands. (I recommend not pushing against a cutting board, the dough will definitely stick).

  5. Fill a medium pot with about two to three inches of water, just enough to cover one of the seitan pieces. Add one tablespoon of the flavoring used in the seitan and bring it to a boil. Add the seitan pieces, and reduce to a simmer.

  6. Simmer for 40 minutes, then take them out and leave them to rest on something like a wire rack (so moisture doesn’t build up underneath). The seitan will expand in the water and seem spongey, but don’t worry, it’ll shrink when leaving it to rest. While it’s cooling, I also will flip it every now and again so both sides dry up.

  7. Refrigerate the seitan overnight, and (IMPORTANT) save the broth used to cook the seitan. You should be able to use the seitan within a week or two.

Note: I usually do the recipe twice so I end up with 6 chunks of seitan at a time.

When you are making a meal and want to add seitan, you probably shouldn’t cook it the way your recipe says to cook chicken. The seitan itself is already cooked, sticking it an oven for 40 minutes is definitely not a great idea.

Instead, when adding the seitan to a meal:

  1. Soak the seitan pieces in the broth you collected for ~10 minutes.

  2. Take them out of the broth and add salt and pepper to each side.

  3. Then pan fry each side on medium high for, say, 1 or two minutes each. Pour over a couple spoonfuls of broth and pan fry again on each side for another minute or two, then take them out and let them rest or use in your recipe.

Chicken-y seitan cost analysis

The chicken-y spice mix I’m using (https://healthiersteps.com/recipe/chicken-style-seasoning/) uses a lot of ingredients, the seitan uses a fair amount of ingredients, and all of them come in large containers. So I really have no idea how much it actually costs to make this stuff. As opposed to just buying meat from a grocery store.

I’m curious to how it compares and want to see how affordable vegan cooking is when making everything yourself, so I’m gonna figure out the costs. With some very approximate results I guess I should mention.

Here are the prices of each ingredient whole (at least where I buy them):

Chicken style seasoning

(not includings salt)

  • Nutritional yeast from Anthony’s Goods: $18 / lb (package contains 3.5 cups)
  • Onion powder: $4 / 2.2oz (package contains 27 teaspoons)
  • Garlic powder: $4 / 2.2oz (package contains 20 teaspoons)
  • Paprika: $6 / 3oz (package contains 27 teaspoons)
  • Oregano: $6 / 0.75oz (package contains 21 teaspoons)
  • Thyme: $11.79 / 8oz (package contains 228 teaspoons)
  • Basil: $11.49 / 8oz (package contains 320 teaspoons)
  • Rubbed Sage: $16.04 / 6 oz (package contains 240 teaspoons)
  • Cayenne Pepper: $8.14 / 14oz (package contains 222 teaspoons)
  • Brown sugar: $4 / 2lb (package contains 213 teaspoons)

Up front cost: ~$90 Cost for whole recipe: $6.15 (makes 1.2 cups of stuff, or 19.2 tablespoons) Cost per tablespoon of seasoning: $0.32

Side note: I should really build this stuff into mealplanner.

Seitan

(not including MSG or oil)

  • 1/2 can of chickpeas: $1.29 / whole can
  • 3 tablespoons total of flavoring (using chicken-y spice mix)
  • Vital wheat gluten: $25/4lb (package contains 15 cups)

Up front cost: ~$26.29 Cost for whole recipe: $3.27 Cost for a single chicken-y seitan chunk: $1.09

So apart from the up front cost, which is definitely an impediment, this is actually super affordable… It’s actually cheaper than actual chicken (3x cheaper) and, honestly, imo, it tastes a lot better too.

So that’s cool, I guess.