Chipotle lentil seitan loaf recipe


Personal question - how are you with seitan?

Me and the seitan, I always feel like we should have a proper thing going on by now, but we never quite make it into success territory. I keep going back to the vital wheat gluten to see what I can make with it, and normally what I end up making with is quite chewy and has a bit of a funky taste.

Still, never let it be said I'm one to learn from my mistakes, so I've been experimenting with seitan once again. But now I've discovered the secret to seitan I really like: cutting it with other common or garden pantry substances.

I tried diluting it with cooked red lentils and Mexican spices, and the end result has the bounciness you want from seitan but without the stiffness. (Does that sound like an advert for a new brand of shampoo? It does a bit doesn't it? This seitan recipe also gives you style and hold that will last all day, now I think about it.)

Anyway, if you'd like to try the seitan loaf that convinced me that maybe all my experiments with seitan weren't in vain, just check it out below.


Chipotle lentil and seitan loaf
Makes one loaf

Ingredients
110g of red lentils
One tbsp soy sauce
One tbsp olive oil or other oil of your choice
One tsp of oregano
One tsp of ground cumin
One tsp of ground coriander
One tsp of smoked paprika
Two chipotles in adobo, finely diced, and one tsp of adobo sauce
200mls of vegetable stock
140g of vital wheat gluten

How you do it
Put the red lentils in a pan and cover with water. Bring to boil and cook according to the packet instructions (or indeed, according to your whim), then drain.
Add soy sauce, olive oil, oregano, cumin, coriander, paprika, chipotles, and stock, and mix.
Then add the vital wheat gluten, and give it a good old stir until you've got something seitany looking.
Pop into a well-greased loaf tin, and cook for one hour at 180C, flipping it over half way through if you can (clearly, you'll need another another loaf tin on top of it, or some other ingenious method of loaf flipping - I'm not suggesting upending it onto your oven rack).
Once it's cooked, use it for a no-meat-and-two-veg type dinner, as a sandwich filling, or in Mexican recipes.


Comments

  1. yes seitan is rubbery and odd but I too have had most success with adding legumes so would be interested to try this

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  2. Its hit and miss with me, sometimes it excellent and sometimes not so good, but always edible. I made a seitan bacon recently, but it was not quite right so I am hoping to make it again. I like your loaf, and how you used foil tin.

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  3. I used to love seitan until it started to not love me back, but yes, adding beans works well. You can make a pretty great sausage with vital wheat gluten and kidney beans. Your recipe looks delicious — love chipotle in adobo!

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  4. I've never made Seitan, but I enjoy it! This recipe sounds totally doable, I'll have to try it and use it in salads and sandwiches for work!

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  5. An awesome loaf of seitan! Love the addition of the lentils. I really need to experiment more with seitan making, I've been much too lazy going with the store-bought kind.

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  6. Damn, that looks so beautiful!! I like seitan but try not to eat too much gluten, so I don't eat it often. It is really nice, though, and chipotle is such a great flavor. Love the protein uppage here too...I've made and loved the chickpea cutlets often from Veganomicon, which is sort of similar.

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  7. LITERALLY just this morning in bed I was thinking about how I should go buy a Vegusto roast because I always made sub-par seitan. Thanks for this I am having a sunday roast next weekend and I will give this a go!

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  8. I simply adore seitan, but I'm embarrassed to admit that I've still never made my own. Happily, your recipe looks both easy and incredibly delicious, so I have a good place to start now! Consider it bookmarked. :)

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  9. Ooh interesting! I have only tried making seitan once, and yep, it was weird. Mine was kind of spongy and unpleasant. That was about 4 years ago and I haven't tried it again since! I like the sound of cutting it with other ingredients, perhaps I should give it a crack.

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