How to Make Gluten aka Seitan

“Mother, can I help you?” asked a younger Minty. “Nah gyal. This is too much wuk fuh yuh small han.” My late grandmother, Virginia, fondly known as Mother used to make gluten quite often. I remember coming in to the kitchen to see her vigorously working away at something in the sink. She told me she was washing out the flour to make gluten. “Washing? Flour?” That seemed very strange to me as a little child, but whatever she did, it ended up tasting good. lol

Gluten remained a mystery to me for a long time. I ate it from time to time, but did not have any idea how to make it. I finally learned to make it in my Vegetarian Cuisine class in college under the graces of Mrs. Donna Green-Goodman, the BEST vegan chef (stillshoutin.com).

So what is gluten? Well, let’s get this dietetics degree to work! lol Flour is made up of two basic components: starch and protein. The protein in the flour is called gluten. Once we wash away all the starch, all we’re left with is the protein! Gluten is a very cost-effective option for vegetarians. It does take some time to prepare though.So let’s start!

Recipe:

1. 4 cups bread flour

2. 4 cups whole wheat four

3. about 4 cups water

Mix the flour together.

Take out 2 heaping handfuls of flour and put in a small bowl.

Make a well in the middle of the larger portion of flour.

Pour the cold water in.

Mix together with your hands.

The dough should still be wet, so add some of the flour you

set aside and continue to knead.

When it has pretty much come together like this you can

take it out of the bowl…

…and start kneading on a clean counter.

Make sure to sprinkle some flour onto the counter

before kneading.

How do you knead? Like so! :)

Grab the edges.

Bring it in toward you and press into the middle.

Repeat while rotating around the diameter of the dough ball.

You see? You must looove the dough. :)

Now love that dough for ten more minutes! lol

In order, to develop the gluten protein in the dough,

you have to knead and knead. So time yourself,

and get to kneading.

When you’re done, you should have a smooth dough

ball like this.

Put the dough ball back in the bowl and cover with cold water.

Allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes.

Now time to wash the gluten. Washing the gluten is

basically kneading it in water. See how white the

water is? That’s the starch being washed out.

Knead.

Empty the water. Repeat the wash process several times,

kneading and emptying out the water.

When the gluten is done, the water will look almost

clear like this. Here I’m using a steamer pot as a colander.

This makes it a lot easier to dump the water without losing

the gluten. I suggest doing this from the beginning.

Looks different now right?

See the stringy protein fibers?

Now, it’s time to season the gluten. There are several ways to do this. I like to boil mine in a broth. I don’t have a set recipe for it yet. I usually just throw in soy sauce, Italian seasoning, cumin, fresh onion, celery, butter, garlic, etc. Taste the broth and adjust to your liking. Your gluten will taste like your broth. I’ve seen some people use vegetable broth. Next time I’m going to use a homemade version of McKay’s Chicken Style Seasoning.