Pork Seitan
How to make tender, meaty, flavorful seitan from bread flour! This high protein vegan pork is the most meat like of any seitan you'll ever try. You'll be wishing you made more! This step-by-step guide will help you make the perfect vegan pork that's packed with umami goodness.
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Equipment
- Slow Cooker I use my Instant Pot on slow cook setting, but any slow cooker will work
- Stock Sock or Cheese Cloth
Ingredients
Gluten
- 5 LBS Bread Flour Can substitute with All Purpose Flour, but you will have a smaller yield
- 1 tbs Red Rice Yeast Powder Optional, adds a slightly pink hue that makes this pork look more realistic
- 7 Cups Water
Vegetarian Pork Flavored Broth
- 1 Large Yellow Onion (250-300g roughly)
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 1 Cup Dried Shiitake Mushrooms Can sub for other varieties of dried mushrooms
- ⅓ Cup Brown Sugar or Dark Maple Syrup
- 2 Tbs Smoked Dulse Optional, adds depth and smokiness
- 2 Tbs Vegetarian Ham Seasoning Can swap with mushroom seasoning
- 8 Cups Water Or use aquafaba from chickpeas, white beans, or pinto beans to enhance the broths meaty flavor
To Fry
- 1 Cup Coconut Oil
Instructions
Create Gluten
- In a large bowl, combine 5lbs of bread flour and mix in the red rice yeast powder.Pour in your 7 cups water and mix into a dough
- *Optional* Stretch and fold your dough every 30 minutes for about 2 hours. This helps build up the gluten, increasing your yield, and will make washing out the starch from the dough easier. It doesn't have to be exactly every 30 minutes for 2 hours, it can be a single stretch and fold whenever you walk past the kitchen. You can skip this step and still have great results, but I have noticed it is significantly easier to wash the dough if it is well kneaded (stretched and folded)
- Add roughly 3-5 tbs of salt to about 5 cups of water and pour it over your dough ball. Let this rest overnight, it can be left at room temperature or placed in the refrigerator
Wash the Flour
- You can either wash the dough with the salted water or you can pour off the salted water to begin. If you washed the dough with the salted water, your saved wheat stach will be salty. If you wash the dough with the salted water it speeds up the process and makes it slightly easier to wash, salt helps strengthen gluten.
- Gently knead/massage the dough under cold water until the water is thick with wheat starch. Pour the starch water into a large bowl to save for other recipes. Repeat this process until the water begins to become clear. You don't want to over wash your gluten by removing every single bit of starch, otherwise the texture will be squeaky. Rather wash it until almost all of it is gone. When you run water over the dough there should be slight cloud of starch where the water is transparent yet has some minor clouds of starch in it. This process takes about 20 minutes.
- Set gluten aside in a bowl or inside a large container and place in the refrigerator. The gluten will drain some of its water as it rests.
Create Vegetarian Pork Broth
- Crush and chop your garlic and roughly chop your onion
- In either an instant pot or large stock pot, bring to medium heat and add about a tablespoon of oil.Sauté the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes, then add the dried mushrooms and dulse and continue to cook for 2 minutes
- Then add your brown sugar and vegetarian ham seasoning and allow to caramelize. Then pour in your water and mix well. If using an instant pot, change the setting to slow cook low. If using a large stock pot, pour the broth into a slow cooker.
Shape your Gluten
- Stretch out the gluten into a long thin rope, slightly twisting it. Knot the dough repeatedly, tucking the ropes of the dough into itself, until it is one knotted loaf. Place the knotted gluten a stock sock.
Simmer the Seitan
- Place the gluten into your broth and allow that to slow cook overnight, rotating it every few hours. Once it is cooked it will expand and become firm
Shred and Fry
- Remove the seitan from the broth. Strain out the other solids in the broth (onions, mushrooms, ect) and return the broth to your slow cooker/instant pot.Remove the seitan from the stock sock and let cool for about 10 minutes, or until you can handle it.
- Tear the seitan into chunks. The smaller the pieces, the richer the 'pork'. For a lower fat version tear into larger chunks.
- Preheat a pan with your coconut oil on high. Fry the all chunks of seitan until they are golden brown and very crispy. Think of this as 'dehydrating' the seitan in the oil. To ensure they are all evenly cooked, do this in batches. Add more oil to your pan as needed.
- Add the crispy fried seitan back into your broth. Let this simmer for about 10- 15 minutes, or until the seitan has softened again. Strain the seitan from the broth. It is ready to serve now, however if you refrigerate it overnight (or a few hours) the texture will firm up and be even more pork like. Pour your broth into jars. Once your broth cools the coconut oil will solidify at the top. The coconut oil will be pork flavored from frying with the seitan and can be used as a vegetarian lard.
To Serve the Pork Seitan
- Once your seitan is made you can marinate it as you wish, or simply pan fry it and add it to your favorite recipes. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 year.
Notes
See article above for optional short cuts and tricks.