I have always liked tofu, ever since I was a tiny child who enjoyed all things with weird textures. (I like to think my childhood love for Jell-o led directly to my adulthood love of panna cotta and tapioca pudding.) When I was a vegetarian I obviously ate tofu all the time, and learned how to cook it to maximize its deliciousness. (The answer is usually frying.) Now I am no longer a vegetarian, but I act like one most of the time, so I should be eating lots of tofu. Right?

But alas! I have become so accustomed to the delicious and cheap tofu from Northwest Tofu, the factory in the Central District, that I won’t buy tofu at the store anymore — it’s more than twice as expensive and practically tasteless in comparison. And I don’t make it down to the tofu factory much either these days, so I never eat tofu. Except at restaurants — restaurants generally have very good tofu.

At Joel and Marie’s New Year’s Eve party, though, I finally learned the power of SEITAN! They made some and told me how and I tried it for myself.

Looks meaty, right? It’s not — it’s merely a pot of onions and chunks of seitan, which is cooked wheat protein. I refer to Joel’s post for the recipe, but you can also find it on the back of the bag of Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten.

For the batch photographed above and below, I used the recommended soy-sauce-and-molasses broth. I spiced the wheat gluten mixture with fresh garlic, crushed coriander seeds, salt, pepper, and a large number of sesame seeds. Sesame seeds made it GREAT!

My most successful seitan dish to date is a stir fry with rice noodles and a sauce of tamarind, fish sauce, peanut oil and lime juice:

In short, seitan is incredibly easy to make and is quite delicious. It is much chewier than tofu, and holds up well to stir-fry-type methods of preparation. I am obsessed with this new food in my arsenal. Enjoy!

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