For the past year I’ve been making my own vegan meat out of organic vital wheat gluten.  This meat is called seitan (pronounced, humorously enough, say-tan, just like the fork-tongued guy in red).  If you’ve eaten mock meats, especially in restaurants, you’ve most likely have eaten seitan.

I am not gluten intolerant, and I know that the current ‘epidemic’ of celiac disease is not what it seems.  People eat far too much wheat in their diets, and that wheat is not only genetically modified, but sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, then processed until it has to have nutrients added back onto it to qualify as food, and then it is shipped and stored.  The consumer has no idea when that poor tortured grain actually came forth into this world.  As my good friend Bill says, “You can’t see the farm in it.” I believe that when people eliminate wheat from their diets they feel so much better because they aren’t eating all those hamburger buns, batters, snacks and other empty-calorie foods.  They are also reducing the amount of pesticides and herbicides they consume.

I know about developing an intolerance to food.  I’ve developed an intolerance to soy milk (organic, mind you), which made me realize how much of it I have been consuming. Now I drink rice milk or water mostly, and manage my soy intake while keeping an eye out for other products I may be indulging in too much.  My grandfather Walter Brower in the 30’s had developed a bad dermatitis. He was in the hospital with it, being treated for all kinds of things with no relief.  He was missing work, and he was the sole supporter of his family.  Finally someone recommended that he visit a chiropractor… a chiropractor?  For a skin condition?  In the 1930’s? This was radical thinking. Thankfully he was desperate enough to go.  He visited the chiropractor’s office, sitting across from him at his desk, and told the doctor about his affliction.  The chiropractor asked what he did for a living.  My grandfather was a delivery man for Bordon’s milk.  The chiropractor said that my grandfather had developed a milk allergy due to all the dairy products he consumed.  My grandfather went off dairy, and the skin problem disappeared within days.  (This was at a time before cows were fed pellets of corn and chicken feces laced with antibiotics as they are today, too.)

All that said, I make my own meat with organic products, as well as my own vegan butter , and am now experimenting with vegan cheese (more on that later).  Do I have a lot of time on my hands?  No.  I spend a couple hours once a month making the seitan and the butter, enough for a month, and freeze both.

Seitan isn’t pretty before it is cooked.  It is grey and spongy.  However compare it to the flesh of a butchered animal and it is beautiful.  You can buy vital wheat gluten just about anywhere now, but different brands have different quality.  I use Bob’s Red Mill which has outstanding flavor and never gets rubbery.  I also use Bragg’s Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce, tamari and often other salt.  It is organic and nutritious, and a little bit brings out the flavor of soups, main dishes, salad dressings, scrambled eggs, and anything its added to.  Compare prices online for both; Amazon.com has good deals if you want to buy a lot.

When seitan is frozen, the patties are quickly thawed in a lightly oiled pan.  The ‘meat’ is juicy, flavorful and delicious, and can be used in place of chicken strips, ground up instead of meat for stuffing or sausage, used as is in a sandwich or hamburger, or cubed for stew, curry… whatever.  The problem I have is wanting to eat it too often!

I tried several seitan recipes, most of which were either too bland or too strong and muddy flavored.  This recipe I really like for all-purpose, chickeny seitan.  I freeze the finished slices flat in a plastic bag so I can pull out however many I need whenever I want them.