Dry

1½ cups vital wheat gluten

2 Tb nutritional yeast flakes

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp onion powder

Wet

½ cup vegetable broth or water

½ cup tomato juice or sauce

2 Tb lite soy sauce

1 Tb olive oil (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mist a baking sheet with nonstick spray and set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, stirring with a dry whisk. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients and mix well. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, and gently combine with hands until you have a large, firm, spongy mass of gluten in the bowl. Knead this a couple times, but not very much, as too much kneading will make the gluten fluffy and breadlike instead of dense, chewy, and meatlike. Let the gluten rest for 5 minutes.

Gently stretch the gluten into a slab about ½ inch thick. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and prick gluten all over with a fork, then return it to oven and bake another 10-15 minutes.

Take gluten from oven (after it's cooked it's called seitan), and place under a large bowl to rest and steam for about 30 minutes. The bowl keeps the seitan from drying out. After 30 minutes, tear the seitan into chunks and pulse in a food processor until it is the consistency of ground beef. The recipe makes about 4 cups of ground seitan. Let it cool completely, then store it in 2-cup containers.

Ground seitan will keep in the refrigerator about 1 week, and about 4 months in the freezer. Thaw in the refrigerator before using. You can use it in recipes calling for ground beef, Griller recipe crumbles, etc. It makes a nice, inexpensive alternative to meat and soy products.

Variations

● Sausage-style— Add 2 tsp dried sage, 1 tsp ground fennel, 1 tsp dried marjoram, 1 tsp ground cumin, ½ tsp dry mustard, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, and ¼ tsp cayenne (optional) to the dry ingredients. Increase broth or water to 1 cup and omit the tomato juice.

● Italian-style—Increase garlic powder to 2 tsp, and add 2 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp dried marjoram, ½ tsp ground fennel, and ¼ tsp ground black pepper to the dry ingredients.

● Mexican-style—Increase garlic powder to 1 tsp, and add 1 to 2 Tb chili powder, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, and ¼ tsp cayenne to the dry ingredients.

(From “Vegan Vittles”)