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Make it once, and it will become your quintessential sandwich meat.
This Washed Flour Seitan is meaty, smoky, flavorful beyond belief, and a perfect vegan dish to impress and shut up all the vegan naysayers in your life.
Ingredients
Directions
First, start by washing 2,5 lb of flour until almost no starch is left.
See the *Wash the Flour Method* tab on this website for pictorial and detailed info on how to do it, if you have never done it, that is.
For this, I washed 2,5 lb of King Arthur Bread Flour with 12.7% protein.
After washing, squeeze the water out of your gluten, and rest in a colander for 30 mins to an hour, to lose as much water as possible. Occasionally flip it so it does not stick, and squeeze out more water.
*Optional- after the colander rest, let your gluten relax some more in the fridge, over the next day or two. It helps it lose even more water, and develop into a smooth stretchy gluten ball. This does not need to all be finished on the same day.
Do as much as you want, when you can. Seitan is patient that way.
Once rested, whether the same day or for a few days, add the seasoning to your gluten.
In a food processor add 1/4 of your washed gluten ball, and incorporate the "fat" seasonings. Set it aside.
Then, use up the remaining 3/4 of your gluten ball, and incorporate the red "meat" seasoning.
Once done, half it, and process it some more, but with a few more drops of the red food dye. This is to be your redder, raw center.
It's not necessary to do this extra step, but it looks really good, and it’s easy to do.
Set your two red glutens aside.
Cover your gluten with cellophane, or a tower, and give it some time to rearrange after the food processor tore it all up again. 1 to 2 hours would do, but you can also just call it a day at this point, and have it in the fridge for a day or two.
It will lose some more water, and that's expected. There is a lot of seasoning in there, and it will all come together beautifully.
Once your 3 gluten balls (red, pink, and white) are well-rested, smooth, and stretchy, start on the final shape.
Stretch the darker red dough as long as it allows you, and cut it into 3 strips, but leave the top connected still. Oil up your hands, oil up the strands, and braid the red gluten, pulling it even longer, as you go. You should get a braid that is at least 2 feet long.
Then knot the braid on itself a few times.
Next, take most of the pink dough (leave one small chuck aside) and wrap it around the whole pink knotted braid. It should go a few times around it, and If it tears and rips, even better. It will look amazing when cut!
The next step is adding the “fat”. Wrap it all around, ripping it in places, so it’s not all uniformly covered and looks natural.
Lastly, use the small saved chuck of the pink dough, and wrap it around, tearing it open in places.
Use a frying pan with a lid, but be sure to not overcrowd.
On med heat, sauté with oil, flipping sides, until lightly browned. Remove the pan from heat.
When the oil isn't sizzling anymore, add the rest of the simmering ingredients. Close the lid and bring it to a low simmer.
Do not boil!
Simmer with the lid closed, flipping sides often, until most of the liquid is cooked away, and the seitan has firmed up. The seitan will triple in size, and flatten due to the often flipping.
This should take about an hour, hour 10-20 mins.
If you have a smoker, you stop here. Rest the seitan overnight and smoke it the next day, as per your smoker instructions. Use the coriander seeds and peppercorns as a dry rub pre-smoking, to give it that characteristic Montreal kick. Once smoked, give it at least 6 hours in the fridge, preferably overnight, to relax, before digging in.
If you DO NOT own a smoker, and once most of the liquid is cooked away, add the liquid smoke, coriander seeds, and peppercorns, and up the heat to medium. Fry for a minute or two, careful not to burn. If you have a kitchen/culinary torch gun, use it for an extra crisp.
Let the seitan cool off on the counter, before moving it to the fridge.
Leave in the fridge overnight. This will help it firm up even more, and will also turn all that dark red tones to almost black. You should not eat this on the same day- it must have time to rest. Be patient.
When rested, slice thin, along the long side, and enjoy!
Ingredients
Directions
First, start by washing 2,5 lb of flour until almost no starch is left.
See the *Wash the Flour Method* tab on this website for pictorial and detailed info on how to do it, if you have never done it, that is.
For this, I washed 2,5 lb of King Arthur Bread Flour with 12.7% protein.
After washing, squeeze the water out of your gluten, and rest in a colander for 30 mins to an hour, to lose as much water as possible. Occasionally flip it so it does not stick, and squeeze out more water.
*Optional- after the colander rest, let your gluten relax some more in the fridge, over the next day or two. It helps it lose even more water, and develop into a smooth stretchy gluten ball. This does not need to all be finished on the same day.
Do as much as you want, when you can. Seitan is patient that way.
Once rested, whether the same day or for a few days, add the seasoning to your gluten.
In a food processor add 1/4 of your washed gluten ball, and incorporate the "fat" seasonings. Set it aside.
Then, use up the remaining 3/4 of your gluten ball, and incorporate the red "meat" seasoning.
Once done, half it, and process it some more, but with a few more drops of the red food dye. This is to be your redder, raw center.
It's not necessary to do this extra step, but it looks really good, and it’s easy to do.
Set your two red glutens aside.
Cover your gluten with cellophane, or a tower, and give it some time to rearrange after the food processor tore it all up again. 1 to 2 hours would do, but you can also just call it a day at this point, and have it in the fridge for a day or two.
It will lose some more water, and that's expected. There is a lot of seasoning in there, and it will all come together beautifully.
Once your 3 gluten balls (red, pink, and white) are well-rested, smooth, and stretchy, start on the final shape.
Stretch the darker red dough as long as it allows you, and cut it into 3 strips, but leave the top connected still. Oil up your hands, oil up the strands, and braid the red gluten, pulling it even longer, as you go. You should get a braid that is at least 2 feet long.
Then knot the braid on itself a few times.
Next, take most of the pink dough (leave one small chuck aside) and wrap it around the whole pink knotted braid. It should go a few times around it, and If it tears and rips, even better. It will look amazing when cut!
The next step is adding the “fat”. Wrap it all around, ripping it in places, so it’s not all uniformly covered and looks natural.
Lastly, use the small saved chuck of the pink dough, and wrap it around, tearing it open in places.
Use a frying pan with a lid, but be sure to not overcrowd.
On med heat, sauté with oil, flipping sides, until lightly browned. Remove the pan from heat.
When the oil isn't sizzling anymore, add the rest of the simmering ingredients. Close the lid and bring it to a low simmer.
Do not boil!
Simmer with the lid closed, flipping sides often, until most of the liquid is cooked away, and the seitan has firmed up. The seitan will triple in size, and flatten due to the often flipping.
This should take about an hour, hour 10-20 mins.
If you have a smoker, you stop here. Rest the seitan overnight and smoke it the next day, as per your smoker instructions. Use the coriander seeds and peppercorns as a dry rub pre-smoking, to give it that characteristic Montreal kick. Once smoked, give it at least 6 hours in the fridge, preferably overnight, to relax, before digging in.
If you DO NOT own a smoker, and once most of the liquid is cooked away, add the liquid smoke, coriander seeds, and peppercorns, and up the heat to medium. Fry for a minute or two, careful not to burn. If you have a kitchen/culinary torch gun, use it for an extra crisp.
Let the seitan cool off on the counter, before moving it to the fridge.
Leave in the fridge overnight. This will help it firm up even more, and will also turn all that dark red tones to almost black. You should not eat this on the same day- it must have time to rest. Be patient.
When rested, slice thin, along the long side, and enjoy!
How long did you smoke it and did you smoke it at 225. Thank you I’m making this for a family reunion.
Hi Kathy,
Yes, you can do 225*F, but as this is already cooked, during fry and simmer, you do not need to have it in the smoker for long hours, but just enough to implement some smoke flavor.
45 mins to an hour should be enough to achieve this. If after this time, you still want to give more smoke, give it more time, but be careful to not dry it out too much.
Hope you family loves it! 🤞🤞
Thank you so much