Fun facts about vegetable proteins!
- Protein sources for veg*ns come from a variety of sources, the most obvious being tofu which is a cake made from coagulated soy milk.
- Tempeh is the whole soybean which is fermented and pressed into a cake form.
Soybeans and other legumes provide a lot of protein which, when combined with whole grains and rice, become complete proteins and provide veg*ns with essential amino acids.
Another source of protein for veg*ns is wheat gluten, otherwise known as its macrobiotic title seitan. Veg*n restaurants may use seitan to create all sorts of fake meat dishes but it’s almost a little too eerie how well the texture of meat is replicated. I enjoy the versatility of seitan in vegan dishes, and making it at home is not at that complicated. You can follow the time-intensive process of washing vital wheat gluten flour for three days or you can follow this recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen.
You’ll have some mighty large batches of seitan to work with when this recipe is complete. To store the seitan in your refrigerator, make sure you place some of the broth from the stockpot into whatever container you use to store the seitan.
This seitan is not as firm as what you would find in grocery stores but it works well with a variety of recipes.
- Cut the seitan into medallions, dredge in flour, and fry in olive oil.
- Cut the seitan into strips and stir-fry with crushed garlic and a dash of soy sauce.
- Crumble the seitan into small pieces for use as taco meat.
Tonight we are pairing seitan with soba noodles and a spicy peanut sauce. Throw red pepper, green onions, black sesame seeds and mung bean sprouts into the dish and you’ve got yourself a kick-ass dinner!