In my first months ~years in Munich I had the opportunity to live in a shared apartment with two very kind happy hippies, my flatmates Miri and Benny. They are vegetarian, of course. They used to cook often, and one of the best dishes I tried there was their Seitan. They didn’t have a special recipe, so every time they prepared seitan, it was a different and tasty stuff.
By the way, seitan, is a ‘vegan meat’ made mainly out of wheat gluten (a.k.a. wheat protein) and spices, originally from Japan. The base is a powder you can order from almost any vegan or organic store.
As so many times, first we used La Dimensión Vegana as an inspiration. Then Uta and I found our own style and we ended up with this kick ass seitan and chorizo. Beware: we used it and will use it in many recipes, just have a look at the Tamale from Chiapas for instance, so you might want to bookmark this recipe!
SEITAN BASICS
Ingredients (4 to 6 pieces) :
- 1 and 1/2 cup of seitan basis (gluten powder)
- 2 tbsp of onion powder
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tbsp of oregano
- 1/2 cup of bread crumbs
- 1 and 1/4 cups of water
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of liquid smoke (you can find it in many vegan shops and it is the final touch you’ll need for the perfect taste)
Possible fillings:
- 4 garlic cloves pressed or chopped
- 1/2 cup of fresh parsley chopped
- 1/2 red bell pepper cut stripes
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Mix in a big bowl all the dry ingredients. Then pour together all the liquid ingredients. Then mix very well liquid and dry ingredients using your hands. The result should be a soft dough.
Now divide the dough into four. Spread out each part over a piece of plastic foil. You can roll it up and make plain ones, or you might top it with garlic, parsley and red peppers, as we did for the photos. Make a firm roll out of it and boil it for 15 minutes with the plastic foil around. Thus, it will keep the form.
You can eat it like this, but we often fry it, as the thin&crispy seitan slices have an amazing aroma!
We have another basic recipe for seitan powder, so let’s make this post an economic two-in-one. Chorizo in Spain and Mexico, kolbász in Hungary: a spicy sausage based on paprika.
SEITAN CHORIZO
Ingredients (6 to 8 pieces):
- 1 and 1/2 cups of seitan basis
- 2 tbsp of onion powder
- 1 tbsp of chilli flakes
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- 3/4 tbsp of salt
- 3 tbsp of paprika powder (the best is the homemade red powdered paprika from Uta’s grandmother ;)
- 1/2 tbsp of oregano
- 1/2 tbsp of thyme
- 1/4 cup of steamed rice
- 1 and 1/4 cup of water
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of liquid smoke and/or chili Chipotle (yummie!)
Preparation time: 20 minutes
The process to do Seitan in any variation is the same. First the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the liquids in another, then mix it all to make the dough. Roll them into plastic foil, firmly, and boil for 15 minutes.
For excursions like we had last weekend to the Tegernsee, our sandwiches look like this: fried chorivegano (see above recipe), vegan mayonnaise and veggies. It resists warm temperatures, will give you energy and you wouldn’t guess….it’s very tasty!!
Or try it on the grill. Mmmm….
Follow us via Facebook or Twitter @vegsuitcase
Recipes from our Suitcase 