Soy and Seitan Roast

All of the recipes on this blog are vegetarian (and sometimes vegan), but I try to post recipes that would appeal to eaters of all persuasions. This recipe, though, is a very vegetarian recipe, so look away meat-eaters and others who are appalled that people eat "meat substitutes." (Eat Me Daily reamed me a few years ago on this exact same recipe. It was hilarious.)

Instead of thinking of tofu or seitan as meat substitutes, it'd be much more open-minded of you to think of them as real food. Because that's what they are. If you can't, that's fine.

This post is more of a reference for me, because I plan on making this roast frequently. This year, I'd like to get away from buying Tofurky slices and make my own soy-seitan roasts. I managed to bake my own bread last year (except maybe three store-bought loaves), which is quite a feat considering I go through a loaf a week packing sandwiches for work every day. Now I just need to make my own sandwich innards.

This really is my favorite homemade seitan, partly because it's not really seitan. Seitan I make at home is a bit too chewy and dense (I've tried many recipes), but this recipe combines tofu, wheat gluten, and chickpea flour to make a loaf that is somewhere between the dense texture of seitan and the squishy texture of tofu.

The original recipe from Bryanna is a jumbled mess on her website, and the notes I took and posted a few years ago about my experience and alterations didn't include a written recipe, so I'm constantly clicking between the two pages in frustration. No more!

Update 11/17/10: I was recently contacted by Bryanna Clark Grogen, who requested I reiterate that the recipe posted here is an adaptation of the original recipe she had posted on her site, specifically, that my cooking directions and techniques are different than hers. If you are curious as how I came about my cooking procedure, you can check out my previous post where I discuss my experiences with the recipe.

Soy and Seitan Roast
makes 1 big honkin' loaf or 2 bread-pan-sized loaves

The recipe is as simple as mixing dry ingredients with wet ingredients to make a dough, then baking the dough in a basting liquid.

Seasonings can be adjusted to preferences, or switched out for others. Maybe maple syrup, sage, and liquid smoke for something breakfast-y next time? These freeze well, too.
Dry Ingredients

2 cups gluten flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

- Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.Wet Ingredients

15 ounces firm tofu, broken into smaller pieces
1 1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil

- Place all wet ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients and stir until incorporated.
- Turn dough out onto a clean surface and knead for 10 minutes.
- Let dough rest for 1 hour.
- Shape dough into a loaf (one large flat-ish loaf or multiple smaller loaves), and place loaf in a baking dish with plenty of room to accommodate basting liquid.
Basting Broth

2 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf

- Combine all ingredients for the basting broth in a bowl.Baking Instructions

- Line a baking pan with parchment paper, than place shaped loaf in pan. Pour basting liquid over the dough in the baking dish.
- Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Remove dish from oven, and if there is still a lot of basting liquid left in the pan, dump out all but just a little bit of the liquid.
- Carefully flip the roast with the help of a spatula or two. Flipping the roast allows what was once the bottom of the roast to brown.
- Place the roast back in the oven, and bake for an additional 30 minutes.
- Serve immediately, or let roast cool. When roast is completely cooled, it can be wrapped in foil and frozen for later use.