Seitan is a very well established meat replacement, probably for several thousand years. It uses the gluten proteins from wheat. You can make it by developing gluten in a dough (via kneading or autolyse) and then washing away the starch (which you can retain and use in other recipes) to leave the gluten strands, but it is a lot easier to buy vital wheat gluten flour and mix that with a liquid.
Plain seitan isn't always my favourite thing in the world. I don't love the bready, gluten taste. This can be countered somewhat by using an acid in the mix. Some people use bread soda or apple cider vinegar. In this recipe I am using miso, which is acidic, for some additional interesting unami flavour. I have found it works better for me than the others.
Many people will cut the vital wheat flour with another flour to change the flavour and texture. Here I am using gram flour which is ground from dried chickpeas. This adds another protein source. I am also adding nutritional yeast for all its savoury goodness.
Other recipes will use garlic and onion powders. I feel that the fresh options deliver a much better flavour, but it is worth experimenting to see what works for you. Once you have a basic recipe like this working for you, you can change it up with, say, herbs to achieve a more Italian sausage flavour, or paprika to get a more chorizo style seitan.
Ingredients:
40g gram (chickpea) flour
40g nutritional yeast
2 tbsp low sodium organic miso
1 medium onion, rough chopped
1 clove garlic, rough chopped
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, chopped
1 tsp vegetable stock powder
250ml warm water (can put your finger in it)
Mix the vital wheat flour, the gram flour and the nutritional yeast together in a large bowl.
Put the miso in a bowl and slowly combine with half the water, a dash at a time, until mixed well.
Into a blender put the onion, garlic, ginger, veggie stock powder, miso mix, and the rest of the water. Blend until we'll mixed and the veggies are chopped into very small bits. You could go completely smooth here, but I like the small bits in the finished meat for texture.
Slowly stir the blend into the dry ingredients until all the flour has been combined. It may not use all of the liquid, or you may need to add more water - it seems to be different every time! If the mix looks a little damp, that is fine too.
Get in with a clean hand and knead for just 30 seconds. This is not to develop gluten - we are not looking for fake-meat strands here - this just makes sure everything is really mixed well.
Wrap the seitan tightly in a sheet of parchment and then wrap that tightly in a sheet of foil. Tightly seal up the ends.
Get a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water on high heat, and steam the wrapped seitan for 1 hour. Check the level of the water every so often - how frequently depends on your setup.
At then end of the hour, carefully take the seitan out of the steamer and put on a plate until it has cooled a bit. Then put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, though better overnight.
Unwrap the seitan and slice to your desired thickness. Scoff between two slices of your favourite bread, with some tomato, vegan mayo, and a pile of fresh lettuce.