Seitan or Satan?
How I embraced fake meats (for love)
Before I started dating my boyfriend, I had no idea what the heck ‘seitan’ was. I assumed vegans and vegetarians mostly ate tofu or portobellos as their “meat” in their meals. I actually never had any friends who were vegan: only vegetarian or pescatarian.
Cut to me at my first real vegan restaurant secretly Googling seitan under the table so I didn’t look like a complete idiot. After giving this weird spongey thing a try, I realized that I actually really enjoyed this mystery fake meat. Let’s be real, it doesn’t taste like meat. Not even a little bit. But it gave my meal a feeling of substance.
People ask me if it’s hard to live with and make food for a vegan. It’s not. It helps that my boyfriend isn’t a PETA vegan and I am not a big meat eater. Prior to meeting him, I would have laughed at the idea of ever being with someone who won’t eat oysters (gasp!). In my mind all vegans were granola crunching, tree-hugging hippies and vegan food was boring salads. Then I met Matt and somehow over the course of the last 2 years I’ve come to not only love him but also love making and eating vegan food.
Being with a vegan does change how you live your life. You learn to be more cognizant of what you buy and what you put into your meals. I look at the back of every thing I buy at the grocery store and in return I’ve become more aware of what’s in the things I buy beyond just calories or how much fat or protein is in it. I scour every menu before we go out to eat to make sure there are options for him beyond spring salad. If we travel, I preemptively research restaurants in that area to find vegan or vegan friendly food. Thai and Indian foods almost always have vegan options because of their religious leanings. I’ve learned to love Thai and Indian foods.
Sometimes it can be hard. Traveling to New England or Seattle and not being able to go to a seafood restaurant because there isn’t anything for him to eat can be a bummer. He does try and indulge my need for dead sea animals but an intense feeling of guilt washes over me as I go after my 20th clam and he’s picking at a crappy boring salad.
If you think about what you eat everyday, it’s not a far stretch to think anyone could eat vegan. I’ve been baking vegan cookies for years and never knew it. Substituting eggs, butter and milk was a norm in how I made my sweets. I’ve gone days on end being vegan and didn’t know it. A lot of pastas don’t have egg and if you use just red sauce and veggies, or white wine sauce and veggies, boom you’ve got a vegan feast. Even breads don’t need egg or milk to make them tasty. Go look at the ingredients of a baguette and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
There are things that I can’t give up, nor would I try. I’m genetically predisposed to love seafood. My family is from a seaside town in South Korea and I’m pretty sure my first solid food after kimchee was fish. I’ll try any sea creature at least once and nothing really freaks me out from the ocean.
I can’t say the same about my land animals. I’m not much of a red meat eater and you couldn’t pay me to eat bull testicles. I’ve never had veal and I believe cows remind me of my last dog (RIP Jaxie).
So to come back full circle. I eat animals and animal products: chicken, fish, oysters, cheese, yogurt. I also love animals. I have one and it’s the second love of my life and is frequently referred to as so and so’s first grandchild. I love my partner. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me and his life choices are important to me. I believe it’s possible to live happily with a vegan and enjoy every morsel of life.
Last thought. My go-to seitan recipe below. We make this quite a bit and then will saute it and put into pasta, pizza, tacos, makes awesome buffalo wingies (seriously so good, I’ll post that recipe next time)….anything you want it’ll taste good in.
Basic Seitan recipe (inspired by Post Punk Kitchen with a few modifications for taste)
1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
3 heaping tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast
1/2 cup of veggie broth
1/4 cup of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of minced garlic or 3 cloves
For the simmer broth
One box of veggie broth or 4 cups of veggie broth if you’re using cubes
4 cups of water
1/4 cup of soy sauce
Combine the simmering sauce and bring to a simmer. While this is heating up, mix the dry ingredients (wheat gluten and nutritional yeast) in one bowl and the other remaining ingredients into another bowl.
When thoroughly mixed, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and mix together. Use your hands! Make sure the garlic pieces are mixed well.
Once it’s a consistent spongey feel, stretch out the seitan and cut into 3 equal pieces.
During this time the water should be simmering. Put the 3 pieces into the pot and cover the pot, but allow a little steam to get out. Lower the heat to ensure a consistent simmer but not boiling and set timer for 60 minutes. Turn the pieces every 20 minutes or so and keep an eye to make sure it’s cooking consistently. Mostly, leave it alone.
About 45 minutes into the cooking cycle, turn off the heat and let the seitans sit in the broth for another 15 minutes.
After the 60 minutes is up, take the seitans out and strain. Once it’s a bit cooler, cut and use. If you don’t want to use all of it, I reserve the cooking broth and put both into a container and refrigerate to use later.
It might seem a little time intensive but it’s pretty easy prep and once made, this can last you several days.
Enjoy! Seitans!
