My vegetarian mission has been to perfect seitan and I’m getting closer with every batch.
I’ve seen a decent amount of recipes and they’re all pretty much: equal parts of seitan and water/broth, add whatever spices. I’ve come across a few that add garbanzo bean flour and never understood why. I don’t have the stuff in my kitchen, the person posting the recipe doesn’t give a reason for it and getting that stuff organic means downgrading to a studio apartment.
In wanting to cut out processed flour recently, I looked around for healthier alternatives. As much as I’d love to switch to whole wheat because it’s decently priced and can be found most anywhere, I know it tends to make baked goods heila dense so I kept looking.
Of course I land on garbanzo flour. Of course I can’t just get organic, I spring for sprouted. If I’m spending that much money, it better be sprouted so that my body can pick up every last nutrient.
Then I remembered!
I made a batch and froze a whole mess of seitan chicken cutlets. To this batch I added garbanzo flour. In this moment, I’ve realized I never posted the recipe for chicken cutlets. I suck, I’m sorry. That will be the next post up – immediately following this one.
It makes a difference. That’s why it’s in the damn recipes. Why people don’t tell you that is beyond me. It gives a firmer texture to the seitan so that it’s less brainy. That’s it. That’s the damn secret. My preferred method of cooking has been to drop the seitan in a big pot of cold liquid (with whatever spices), bring it all to a boil and then simmer covered for an hour. I then freeze and when I defrost, I squeeze out the excess water and treat it like regular meat.
half-priced hippie 