Meatless Monday: Seitan Doner Kebab ‘Meat’ [Vegan]

Serves: 3-4
Prep: ≤30mins
Cooking: 4 hrs (SC/low heat setting)
Cooling: 20 mins (minimum)
Type: Main meal
Tools: Chopping board, sharp knife, veggie peeler, non-stick pot w/lid, colander, food processor, measuring jug, large mixing bowl, kitchen foil, slow cooker

Notes: This recipe contains: Vitamin A, B-Vitamins, Vitamin C & E, protein, carbohydrates, fibre, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, no added sugar and per serving- a moderate quantity of added salt and fats. 

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! You’ll have to excuse our lack of posts lately, there’s been a lot going on (all good) and we haven’t been keeping up to date (including getting to see what everybody else has been getting up to on here!). But that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been cooking, of course we have… so you’ll have lots of lovely recipes to look forward to! 🙂

Today we our sharing a seitan recipe….

…move over dried soya mince, tofu, tempeh, and high salt/fat and overpriced preformed vegan ‘meats’, there’s a new guy in the Eat2Health Kitchen- seitan! For those that are unaware, it’s made from wheat gluten, spices and seasonings, (and in this case a sweet potato!); it’s an effortless, nutritious and delicious meat alternative that has a great texture, giving rise to endless possibilities (faux sausages, meatballs, steak, duck, doner, chorizo, mince… just to name a few!)

Using wheat gluten is something we have wanted to try for a while now; unfortunately it’s not widely available in shops so we purchased ours online. Our 1kg bag cost just over £4; has anyone purchased it at a lower price or does that seem about right? For those that are keen, you can have a go at making it yourself! It sounds quite laborious to us; just do a quick internet search to see if it’s something that you’d enjoy! 😛

With a cursory internet search we also found that there are several recipes for seitan knocking about; given the cost and practicality of acquiring seitan we decided to start by adapting someone else’s tried and true recipe. One that caught our fancy was a doner seitan recipe at Flash Gordonette.com. Her recipe seemed straight forward and used a steamer to cook the seitan, but we’ve used our trusty slow cooker to do the same thing. Cooking wheat gluten to make seitan is indeed effortless and there are several ways to do it, again you only have to look in your preferred search engine to find that out. 

The seitan doner kebab resemblance to actual meat is a little uncanny. Of course it isn’t ‘meat’ and we were not looking to replicate it! Yep, no desire what so ever to replicate the mystery ‘elephant leg’ that spins in every kebab shop in Britain…(ha!) …our line of thoughts we more into finding another cheap, healthy, tasty and versatile protein source. This mock meat works perfectly in a vegan doner kebab, in sandwiches, salads, as part of a meze platter or used as a healthy plant-based pizza topping!

We packed our vegan doner kebab with plenty of veggies (yummy suggestions below) and topped it all off with a delicious tahini sauce and dollop of plain soya yoghurt! 

Some other good things to note include:

• If you do not have a food processor, finely chop the onion before cooking. Mash the cooked potato and onion in a large mixing bowl instead; mix in the remaining ingredients with a silicone spatula and then knead the dough.

• The ingredients list looks long but it’s mostly spices and/or seasonings! Adjust the spices and seasonings to your own perfect mix. Unfortunately there is no way of checking how it really tastes until after it has cooked (the raw mixture tastes terrible btw!), so don’t go too over board with the spices or salt! 

• Handle your wheat gluten flour with care; it’s so powdery that it can easily end up all over your work counter instead of in your recipe! 

• This seitan recipe combined wheat gluten with sweet potato, but we have seen others that have used tin beans or other vegetables instead! 

• The raw mixture looks a bit weird and maybe slightly off putting but don’t let that scare you. It completely transforms once it’s cooked. For those new to a plant based lifestyle, looking to swap their standard recipes this Meatless Monday, perhaps do not get on with tofu and/or paying for overpriced vegan meats, give this a go! You won’t be disappointed. 🙂

• Letting the seitan cool is vital if you want thin slices of doner ‘meat’. We left ours for 12 mins and then started to shave/cut it with a bread knife; unfortunately this was not long enough and some slices were thicker than others. The thinner slices allowed you to really taste the lovely flavours and it wasn’t chewy (as some of the thicker slices were).

• This ‘meat’ will dry out, so once cooled wrap immediately and refrigerate. 

Quick Foodie Facts:

• Wheat gluten consists of almost pure protein and very little starch; 100 grams contains 75-80% protein! It’s the natural protein left over when you wash the starch out of wheat flour; it’s then dried and ground back into flour. It’s the perfect resource to improve the texture, rise and elasticity of your bread or make the veggie and vegan meat alternative seitan; it’s so versatile, healthy and effortless!

Happy cooking everyone! 🙂

 

Ingredients

280g   Sweet potato 85g      Brown onion 3½ C.   Water 6g        Fresh coriander (2 tsp) 1           Garlic clove (1 tsp) 1 tbsp   Veggie stock powder (low-salt) 1 tsp     Salt 1 tsp     White pepper ½ tsp    Dried chilli flakes 1½ tsp   Ground coriander

1 tsp       Ground cumin 1 tsp       Garlic powder ¼ tsp      Mild paprika ¼ tsp      Cayenne pepper 1 tsp        Dried oregano ½ tsp      Cumin seeds 1/8 tsp    Ground mace 1 tbsp      Rapeseed oil 1½ C.        Vital wheat gluten (220g) 1               Brown onion (small)

• Pitta/wrap filling suggestions: shredded iceberg lettuce, diced salad tomato, carrot ribbons, shredded cucumber, diced (raw) brown onion, shredded red cabbage, pickled chillies, diced fresh coriander, all topped off with your favourite sauce…try: a tahini, chilli or garlic sauce or a dollop of plain soya yoghurt instead.

Need an easy-print PDF? Print here. 🙂

 

Directions

Wash, peel and then chop the sweet potato into small chunks. Peel and chop the onion into quarters (or smaller if applicable). Pour 1½ cups cold water into a non-stick pot. Add the sweet potato and onion. Stir together. Cover with a lid. Bring to a gentle boil. Simmer and cook for 4-5 mins or until tender. Remove from the heat. Drain in a colander. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, wash and dry the coriander; remove the leaves from the stems and roughly chop them. Peel, chop and finely mince the garlic. Tip: If you have a garlic press, just use this instead!

Place the cooled potato and onion into a food processor (or mixing bowl if applicable). Add the fresh coriander, garlic clove, 1 tbsp veggie stock powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp white pepper, ½ tsp dried chilli flakes, 1½ tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin,1 tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp mild paprika, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp cumin seeds, ⅛ tsp ground mace and 1 tbsp rapeseed oil. Process the ingredients until a thick puree is achieved.

Add 1½ cups wheat gluten into the food processor. Process until the mixture is combined and starts to form a ‘dough’ texture. Transfer the dough into a large mixing bowl. Gather the mixture, forming a ball and knead it for about a minimum of 5-10 mins or as long as you can (we kneaded ours for 8 mins); the mixture will be tacky, but will become more smooth and elastic. Tip: Kneading will help improve the texture of the seitan. Use your hands and shape the mixture into a fat log (it won’t be perfectly symmetrical but this is OK!).

Transfer the dough onto a long piece of kitchen foil. Roll the foil over the dough, completely covering it and then loosely twist each end close. Boil 2 cups of water in a kettle. Peel and horizontally slice a small brown onion. Place the slices of onion onto the base of the slow cooker. Pour in 2 cups of freshly boiled water. Place the wrapped dough on top of the onions. Cover with a lid. Cook on a low heat setting for 4 hrs.

Remove and allow it to cool for at least 20 mins before serving. Tip: The seitan cools down considerably within 10 mins of removing, but to achieve thin slices of doner ‘meat’, the mixture needs to cool and set further first. 

Tip: Wrap any leftover seitan in kitchen film and refrigerate; reheat leftovers in a frying pan with a little oil and consume within 2-3 days. 

Enjoy!