Lazy Christmas Seitan with Joëlle
If you're thinking about veganizing the Christmas roast this year, I've got everything you need. Put your antlers on, get the ingredients ready, spatula out and go!
I'm not going to tell you how to cook your veggies or make your gravy, I'm not an English person so I can't possibly know the right way to do so for a traditional Christmas roast. But I might be able to help out on the 'fake meat' end of things.
Let's make some seitan. Lazy seitan, because why overcomplicate things? Minimal effort, maximum result! Here's what you need:
Ingredients
- Vital wheat gluten
- Veg stock (cubes or broth)
- Smoked paprika
- Garlic
- Salt (can be replaced with Soy sauce)
- Some kind of meaty spice mix: I used Shoarma because that has a bit of everything, but you can get all kinds of sachets at the supermarket. Pick whatever you fancy.
- Water
Stuff
- Mixing bowl
- Big pot to boil stuff in
- Colander
- Tin foil
- Washed hands (do I even need to tell you why?)
- A knife.
- Our Constant Bangover playlist
Alright. Let's get into it.
Step 1
Press play on the Constant Bangover playlist
Step 2
Add 2 liter of water in a pot and add veg stock/cubes. While you wait for it to boil mix 2 cups of wheat gluten with all the spices. The good thing about seitan is that it takes on the flavour of whatever spices you put in it, so you can be creative. I like making my life easy by adding the Shoarma spice mix or another kind of meat seasoning mix.
Step 3
Add 1 cup of water and mix it in. Add more water until you get something that looks like this. It's soft and squidgey but not dripping wet. Too wet? Add more wheat gluten.
[ux_image id="46558"]Step 4
Okay, when all the water is soaked up by the gluten: knead for maximum 2 minutes. Don't overdo it. If you knead any longer it'll end up being very very chewy.
Step 5
Mould it into the shape you want…a flat steak, a sausage or a random shape for strips.
If you want your seitan to have a specific shape: wrap it in tinfoil and pop some holes in there with a fork. Don't wrap too tightly. Give the seitan some to breathe and expand.
[ux_image id="46559"]I made a steak, a sausage and a bunch of randomly shaped pieces.
Step 6
Pop these into thep pot and let it boil at high temperature for 2-3 minutes.
Reduce the heat until it's only simmering. Let it simmer at low temp for max. 45 mins. Keep an eye on the pot, the chunks will start floating at some point so every 15 mins go stir and turn them around so all sides get cooked evenly-ish.
If you're prepping this on the day you're going to eat it: chop your veg and whatever else you're planning on making. If you're prepping in advance.. do whatever you like but remember to turn them over regularly.
[ux_image id="46560"]Step 7
Time's up? Drain the seitan and leave it to drip for a bit.
If you want you can probably make some kind of soup or gravy from the stock. I wouldn't know how to do gravy, as I said.. I'm not English so gravy isn't in my DNA and I'm a very lazy cook... Google is your friend.
[ux_image id="46563"]Step 8
You can choose to marinade the steaks before grilling or grill them as is. Or cut them into strips or slices and fry them for a couple of minutes.Depends on the look you're going for really.
The longer you leave the seitan to fry, the chewier it gets.
Yes, they look like turds. But I can promise you it does not taste like shit.
Well, that was it. It's that easy. Enjoy your Christmas roast.
Prepping in advance or made too much?
The good thing about seitan: you can freeze leftovers easily.
Make sure they're not stacked in your containers but spread them out evenly so they're not covering eachother. As they freeze they will stick together and get hard to separate. You can put sheets of baking paper in between slices of you want to put it in a box or freeze them flat in a reusable ziplock bag.