Vegan Salami | Washed Flour Seitan

Start by adding about 2 1/2 cups of water and mix it into your flour. If it's not forming into a dough, add a little more. It's easier to wash if it's a little bit sticky as opposed to dry and crumbly, but too much water can make it fall apart when washing. Make sure the water is fully incorporated. You can either knead it into a ball or simply let it rest in the bowl like this for 15 minutes. Then cover it with cool water and let it rest again for about an hour.

Wash that flour! If you're new to flour-washing, check out this step-by-step tutorial here. For this I washed to the cloudy/hazy water stage. I did not wash to perfectly clear water, but I washed thoroughly enough so that the texture would be chewy and the gluten strong enough to hold together around all the fatty bits.

Once washed, drain your ball of gluten for about 20-30 minutes. If making cheese from the leftover starch, you can store the drained gluten in the fridge until the cheese is ready.

Otherwise, while it's draining, add all of the seasoning paste ingredients to a small pot. Stir them together and bring the mixture up to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Continue to stir as the liquid reduces, taking care not to let it burn. It's ready once it's turned into a pasty consistency. Set it aside to cool.

Add chunks of the cheese to a food processor or chop by hand into small bits (pea-sized and smaller). Set them aside.

Wring out your gluten to remove as much excess water as possible. After doing this mine weighed approximately 475g, or just a little over a pound. Discard the bay leaves from the cooled seasoning paste and add it to a food processor along with the gluten and all of the dried seasonings. Blitz until it's fully mixed. If you don't have a processor, mix the paste and dry seasonings together, and use a knife or kitchen scissors to cut them into the gluten by hand.

Add the cheese into the processor with the gluten and pulse until it is fully mixed, or you can mix them together by hand. Shape the mound into a log and allow it to rest like this for about 30 minutes on a cutting board so can drain a little more if need be. This will give the gluten time to begin to form around the cheese.

For steaming you can use an Instant Pot fitted with the trivet or a pot on the stove with a vegetable steamer basket and lid. Add water until it sits just below the top of the trivet or basket, and if using the stove-top method get it going on medium/high.

Use aluminum foil or muslin/cheesecloth to wrap the seitan like a large sausage, twisting or tying the ends. You want it to be wrapped as tightly as possible so it doesn't have much room to expand. Place it in the Instant Pot and set to manual/high for one hour, or steam for one hour. When steaming, check it halfway through to make sure there's enough water in the pot.

The seitan should feel firm once cooked. Keeping it wrapped, let it come to room temperature. Then, let it rest in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight. It will continue to firm up as it rests.