So what is seitan? Seitan is wheat gluten. This is flour washed until the starches are gone, leaving just protein behind. It’s eaten in SE Asian countries a lot more often than western ones. It’s also known as mianjin, fu, milgogi, wheat meat, or gluten meat. Seitan is extremely high in protein.
One of the reasons that seitan is called “wheat meat” is because you can mimic meat textures with it. Gluten is an incredible building block ingredient. Seitan can imitate just about any meat texture. It’s really fun. Technique is very important though.
If you want lil popcorn chicken bites, you can do that. If you want a meatloaf texture, you can do that. If you want a bacon strip texture, you can do that. If you want a sausage situation, you can do that. Seitan is extremely versatile. I make a vegan musubi loaf that is amazing.
Seitan is creating gluten then cooking it to set it into place. Add flavorings, binders, whatever. This makes seitan incredibly versatile. It’s very fun to play around with. I like to pressure-cook my seitan because it’s easier for me. Some people steam it. However you cook it, make sure to keep it moist. Gluten likes to dry out.
My recipe is from Green Edge Health on Youtube. Here’s a link to the video. I would strongly recommend watching the video because it has some great tips for shaping the dough. Shaping the dough is extremely important because it directly determines the “texture” of your seitan. I can’t stress enough how important technique is here. Please watch a few videos on this.
Quick Tips
- Work quickly. Watch the video a few times. Have everything on hand before you begin. Gluten relaxes which changes how you can work with it. Working swiftly makes this recipe a lot easier.
- Wrap them as tightly as you can. This holds everything in place. You don’t want your seitan expanding or changing shape as it cooks.
- Chicken Texture – Focus on the knots. Keep the dough under as much tension as possible. Keeping it under tension keeps the protein strands long which is what mimics muscle fiber.
- Loaf Texture – Don’t forcus too much on the knotting. Honestly
- You can tweak this recipe a lot. Just remember that if you add a wet ingredient you need to even it out with a dry ingredient.
- I often add soy sauce as well. It really just depends.
Ingredients:
Water 480 mL
Veg Oil 1tbsp
Apple Cider Vinegar 1tbsp
White Miso Paste 2tbsp
Veg Bouillon Concentrate 1tbsp
Pea Protein 70g
Vital Wheat Gluten 240g
Nutritional Yeast 20g
Salt 1tsp
Garlic Powder 2tsp
Onion Powder 1 Tablespoon
White Powder .5tsp
I’m lazy so I throw everything into a 1100w vitamix blender and let ‘er rip. The dough will come together into a pretty shaggy ball. Once it can hold it’s shape we’ll divide up the dough into 4 parts. We’re dividing up the dough so it isn’t as hard on our blender/food processor.
Form a shaggy dough, divide into 4 parts, put 1 part back into the blender/food processor until you get long fibers, about 90 seconds.
I’ve put two videos below. You can see the difference in the dough texture.
Now that we have that stringy gluten going we can put all the dough back together. Stretch the dough into a long strand, then cut it in half. You should be left with two strands like these.
Now we can form them into knotted balls. Keep the tension!
Now we wrap em up. 1 layer parchment paper. 2 layers aluminum foil.
I pressure cook them for ~75 minutes and then let it vent/cool naturally. You should be left with some lil loafs like these. If you look closely you can see the texture and knotting.
Pull it apart however you want and you’re left with something like this.
We are ten days into 2025 and my schedule is starting to take shape.
1/17 Edit: I’m DNSing the Cap Peak race. I have a weird achilles pain that isn’t subsiding quick enough. I’d rather not go into 2025 with a chronic tendon issue. I think, but I’m not positive, this is caused by the latest Lone Peak shoes that I bought 2 weeks ago. I’ve also had right groin muscle pain and my right knee isn’t 100%. All of which I think are connected to the latest Lone Peaks that I bought. Altra has been cost cutting. They have switched to different materials in some parts of their shoes. I think the different foam/rubber they’re using for the tread of the shoe is what’s causing this. The latest Lone Peaks also tend to slip off the heel of my foot on steep ascents which made me tie my laces quite a bit tighter than I normally do on climbs. On social media I’ve noticed some of their long time sponsored athletes have left their crew. I think, but can’t confirm, that their cost cutting might be why. Looks like I’ll be finding new shoes. Hey Speedland, wanna help a brotha out?
Next week, Jan 18th, I have the always fun Cap Peak Mega Fatass 50k. This is a 50k that goes up to the top of Capitol Peak near Tacoma, Washington. Well, it’s supposed to go to the top of Cap peak. A few years ago a gal busted her femur and had to be airlifted off the mountain. They’ve been rerouting the course if the weather is bad. I hope we get to go to the top this year. I really enjoy this course for whatever reason. I exclusively listen to the podcast Twilight Histories while I run this one. I can’t exactly explain why but there’s something about that course and podcast that go so well together.
I don’t have much planned for February or March but in April I’ll be down in Arizona for the inaugural Arizona Monster. I couldn’t be more excited about this event. First year races are always a bit of a boondoggle as things get figured out. This course is wild and will present a few challenges. I trust the professional badasses I’ll be working with.
May 11th is the Tillamook Burn 50k which I plan on sweeping. Last year Haley and I showed up to sweep that race only to find out there were three other sweeps, so five in total. Her and I wound up just running the course for fun.
May 31st I’ll be sweeping the Cape Mountain 50k over on the Oregon Coast. I haven’t swept this one before, I don’t think? I’m excited.
June 13th – 17th I’ll hopefully be down at the Tahoe 200. I say hopefully because I’m not sure if I really have the time to do this one. We’ll see. I really love this course. Really I enjoy Tahoe in general. It’s a breathtaking area in terms of beauty. Every mile of this course is just stunning.
Soon after Tahoe, June 25th to 29th, I’ll be either running or volunteering at the inaugural Copper Kings 100 out in Butte, Montana. I miss Butte very much. I’m very very excited to get back there. I’ll be at the Bird cafe for sure. I’ve never been to a town quite like Butte. I’m including the good and bad in this description. It has such an interesting history full of ridiculousness. The Covelite International Film fest takes place there in April. Tap ‘er light.
July 26th I’ll be sweeping almost 50 miles overnight at the Hood Hundo. I believe this is going to be Haley’s first hundred so that’ll be fun. Good luck Haley!
August 8th – 12th is the best race of all time, the Bigfoot 200. What’s there to say besides this race changes lives. Whether you run it, volunteer or crew this race it changes who you are.
In October I’ll be using my 4-week sabbatical to head off to SE Asia for a backpacking trip. The main goal here is to hit at least 2 Jay Festivals. The Jay Festival, or Vegetarian Festival or Nine Emporer Gods Festival, is a celebration that takes place in several SE Asian countries. It’s to honor some gods. It’s also a VEGAN FOOD FESTIVAL which includes self mutilation and other fun activities. My friend Joules is going with me. This should be an extremely fun time. I’m so excited to eat all the foods I can find.
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