Taking on the V-Con

Hello Tuesday! I am so excited to see you because that means I get to introduce my new feature. Actually, the feature belongs to me, Courtney and Rikki as we begin our journey to cook our way through the Veganomicon.

What is the Veganomicon you may ask. Why, it is one of the most amazing vegan cookbooks ever created. It was written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero of Post Punk Kitchen fame and features over 250 recipes.

Courtney, Rikki and I will each cook the same recipe and make a post about our experience every Tuesday. Since we are each cooking the same meal our readers will get to see how the recipe turns out for three different people with different levels of cooking experience. I am definitely low woman on the totem pole for this one, so I am looking to gain some awesome cooking experience and hopefully not burn down my kitchen :)

So without further ado... Taking on the V-Con

This week I made Simple Seitan

1 cup vital wheat gluten flour

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1/4 cup soy sauce (I used Braggs)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated

BROTH:

8 cups cold water plus 3 bullion cubes

1/4 cup soy sauce

Mix together the gluten flour and yeast in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together veggie broth, soy sauce, olive oil and garlic. Pour the wet into the dry and stir with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has been absorbed and the ingredients are clumped together. Knead the mixture for about 3 minutes until the dough is elastic. Divide into 3 pieces and then knead those in your hand to stretch them out a bit.

Prepare the broth: Fill a stockpot with the water, bullion cubes, soy sauce and add the wheat gluten pieces. Cover and bring to a boil. Try to catch it as soon as it boils and then lower the heat to simmer. Partially cover the pot so that the steam can escape and let it simmer for 1 hour, turning the seitan occasionally. Turn off the heat and take the lid off; let it sit for 15 minutes.

Remove from the broth and place in a strainer until it is cool enough to touch. It is now ready to be sliced up and used.

The ingredients

Dry mixture

This is what the seitan looked like after I added the wet and dry mixtures.

Cooking it up
The finished product

I was really happy with the way the seitan turned out. I actually made it intending to use it for a recipe, but I have been eating it plain with veggie bake. It has an awesome texture and flavor, and it was so easy. I think next time I will make a double batch so I can freeze some.

If you decide to try the recipe, let us know. I would love to see what other people think.

Thanks to Courtney for our AWESOME graphic :)