Easy Pressure Cooker Seitan

I am entering my 8th month of being meat-free. Going vegetarian in a house full of meat eaters was one of the hardest things I've ever done because I have to find a good balance of recipes that I can eat, but will also satisfy the carnivores here too. When I first started on this journey, a good blogger friend of mine who had been a full blown vegan for more than a year helped make the transition a little easier. She said, "You know, you can eat pretty much all of your favorite things still, just substitute the meat for vegetarian options like tofu, seitan, jackfruit, and tempeh. You'll hardly notice much of a difference in your recipes." I use a ton of black beans and lentils, which are amazing and helped make the transition a lot easier, but honestly, even after all of these months, I'm still not the hugest fan of tofu. I have been eating seitan at restaurants, but never made it at home because that blog friend told me it was waaayyyy too time consuming to make yourself. Seitan is by far one of my favorite vegetarian meats because it has the texture of chicken, so you really don't notice a difference when you swap out the real thing for seitan. I can only find the premade seitan at the organic food market, which is quite pricey, so I decided that time consuming or not, I was going to try making my own at least once.

I've been using my Power Pressure Cooker XL (<- affiliate link) A LOT lately (it's awesome at cooking up those black beans I mentioned in under an hour!) and got the bright idea that I could cook seitan in it quickly and easily. After browsing through The Everything Vegetarian Pressure Cooker Cookbook (<- affiliate link), I found that I was right!

With the help of my electric pressure cooker and a standup mixer, there's hardly any work in making your own seitan right at home. I spent a total of 10 minutes on the kneading of the dough, and my appliances did the rest of the work. That's the best kind of recipe there is, right?

 

Author: Theresa M.print recipe

Pressure Cooker Seitan

INGREDIENTS:

• 3½ Cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 3½ Cups Unbleached White Flour
• ¼ Cup Nutritional Yeast (not necessary, but gives the seitan a lot more flavor)
• 3½ Cups Cold Water
• 7 Cups Vegetable Broth

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place both of the flours and nutritional yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, start mixing the dough. Gradually add in the water to form a sticky dough. Switch out your paddle attachment for a dough hook, and let the dough knead for 15 minutes on medium speed. Cover the dough with cold water, place in the fridge, and leave submerged for at least 30 minutes.
2. Transfer the dough from the bowl into a colander in the sink. Turn the water on cold and carefully knead the dough to rinse out the starch and bran. After several minutes of cold water rinsing, turn the tap to room temperature and knead for a few more minutes. Alternate between cold and room temperature water for about 10 minutes, or until the dough has a firm, rubbery texture.
3. Add the vegetable broth to the pressure cooker. Pull pieces of the gluten into tennis ball sized balls. Drop the gluten into the liquid one piece at a time. Stir occasionally to keep the dough from sticking.
4. Lock the lid into place, then bring the cooker to high pressure for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and quick release pressure.
5. Refrigerate seitan in its liquid for 3-4 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

http://www.theresasmixednuts.com/2017/03/easy-pressure-cooker-seitan.html

Adapted from The Everything Vegetarian Pressure Cooker Cookbook

Created using The Recipes Generator

I use seitan in place of a lot of my chicken dishes, but my favorite is to smother it in BBQ sauce for a vegetarian style pulled pork sandwich.

Author: Theresa M.print recipe

Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups ketchup
• 1 cup KC Masterpiece Original BBQ Sauce
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2½ tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 3 tbsp original flavor A1 steak sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• homemade seitan, shredded

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients except for seitan. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in seitan. Serve immediately.

http://www.theresasmixednuts.com/2013/05/homemade-bbq-sauce.html

Created using The Recipes Generator

I think seitan is one ugly looking food, kind of reminding me of a wet sponge or Freddy Kruger's skin, but for those wishing to make the switch to veg eating, it's by far the closest in taste and texture to meat that you are going to get. It really does help making the switch a lot easier!

What's your favorite Meatless Monday Recipe?