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    Home » International » Chinese » Seitan Soup | The Vegetarian Meat Soup

    Seitan Soup | The Vegetarian Meat Soup

    Posted on February 12, 2017 · Last Updated on August 14, 2019 · By Srividhya G · 19 Comments

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    Seitan is the mock meat or the vegetarian meat prepared from the wheat gluten. Seitan is a Japanese word which means wheat gluten or wheat meat. According to the wiki, wheat gluten is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch granules have been removed, leaving the sticky insoluble gluten as an elastic mass which is then cooked before being eaten. Today I am going to share how to prepare the seitan from vital wheat gluten flour and a simple vegetable soup with the cooked seitan.

    The third ingredient that I received from Smruti was the “Vital Wheat Gluten,” an ingredient that I have never used before. I know that we use wheat gluten for baking purposes especially bread. Initially, I thought of baking some bread with the gluten flour. But as I started to read about it, I realized its other culinary uses apart from baking purposes. Wheat gluten is an alternative to soybean-based foods such as tofu. The Vegetarian Resource Group, mentions that “According to Barbara and Leonard Jacobs in their excellent book Cooking with Seitan, The Complete Vegetarian “Wheat-Meat” Cookbook, “seitan has been a staple food among vegetarian monks of China”. It also referred to as mock duck meat. 

    After reading all about seitan, I was in a dilemma, whether to bake bread using the wheat gluten or to try the seitan with wheat gluten. But the amount of protein content in this made me try seitan. I rely on dairy products, lentils, and soy-based products for our protein. Now I can include Seitan too. :-) I need to agree that, its an acquired taste.  It is more chewy and spongy than tofu. But it opened up a whole new world for me in the vegetarian cooking. Now I can’t wait to try them in Asian-style stir fries, Kung pao (I suggest to try seitan in kung pao to get acquired to the taste easily), noodles and of course in baking. Once again, I would like to thank Smruti for sharing these excellent ingredients.

    WheatGlutenSoup

    I noticed that there is no set recipe for seitan. All we need to do is flavor the wheat gluten and prepare a dough using water or veggie broth, knead them (the more you knead, the chewier the seitan is) and chop them into small pieces and simmer them in the vegetable broth. The cooked seitan can then be used in soups, stir-fries, noodles as a meat replacement. What I did was, along with seitan I simmered vegetables along with curry powder and prepared a very simple protein rich soup. 

    As you can see from the preparation pictures how elastic and stretchy the gluten is. It is comparatively hard to knead this but we need to accept the fact that we are working with gluten. ;-) I used one 32 oz can of vegetable broth. Used ¾ cup while preparing the dough and used the remaining for the broth. 

    Without any further ado, here is the recipe.

    Ingredients:

    For Seitan:

    • Vital Wheat Gluten – 1 cup
    • Salt – ½ tsp
    • Curry powder – ½ tsp
    • Vegetable broth – ¾ cup

    For the Broth:

    • Broth – 4.25 cups
    • Peanut Oil – 2 tsps
    • Ginger – 1-inch piece
    • Garlic Clove -1
    • Baby Carrots – 10
    • Broccoli florets – 1 cup
    • Cauliflower Florets – 1 cups
    • Soy Sauce – 1 tsp
    • Curry powder – ½ tsp
    • Salt – ¼ tsp
    • Pepper Powder – ½ tsp
    • Prepared seitan 

    Prep – Work:

    • Chop the garlic and ginger into small julienne. 
    • Cut the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets.

    Steps:

    seitanstep1

    • In a wide bowl, add the vital wheat gluten, salt, and curry powder and mix well.
    • Now add the ¾ cup of broth in one shot and slowly start mixing it with the flour and prepare a dough.
    • It might be little watery, but as you knead the dough will thicken.
    • Knead for three minutes and let it rest for 15 minutes. (During the resting time, you can start preparing the broth)

    seitanstep3

    • Again knead for 3 more minutes and stretch the gluten and chop them into small pieces using a knife. 

    seitanstep2

    • While the dough is resting, in a wide pan or wok, add the peanut oil and once the oil is hot add the chopped ginger and garlic.
    • Let the garlic brown for a minute and then add the vegetables (Broccoli, Cauliflower and Baby Carrots) and mix well.
    • Let it cook for two minutes and now add the approx 4 cups of vegetable broth.
    • Add the salt, curry powder and soy sauce and let it simmer until the veggies are al dente.
    • At the stage add the chopped wheat gluten to the veggie broth mix and lower the heat.
    • Cover and cook for 7 to 8 minutes on low heat. 

    seitanstep4

    • After 7 to 8 minutes, the seitan should have enlarged in size.
    • Adjust salt and spice at this stage and let it cook for five more minutes.
    • Total cook time is around 10 to 12 minutes.

    That’s it Seitan soup is ready.

    GlutenMeatSoup

    Notes:

    • Peanut oil is preferred for this recipe. But other oil can be used too.
    • Add more or fewer veggies of your choice.
    • Veggies can be altogether skipped, and you can drain the cooked seitan and use it in noodles and stir fries.
    • As I used low sodium store bought vegetable broth and soy sauce, I used minimal salt. But adjust the salt and curry powder as per your preference.
    • Instead of curry powder, you can use garam masala and chilly powder too.
    • The more you knead, chewier the seitan. So knead as per your texture preference and as I mentioned it an acquired taste.

    TheVegetarianMeatSoup

    Sending this to the BM 72. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

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    Seitan Soup | The Vegetarian Meat Soup

    Seitan is the mock meat or the vegetarian meat prepared from the wheat gluten. A simple Buddhist delight soup prepared with seitan and vegetables.
    Prep Time30 mins
    Cook Time12 mins
    Total Time42 mins
    Course: Soup
    Cuisine: Chinese
    Servings: 4
    Calories:
    Author: Srividhya G

    Ingredients

    For Seitan

    • Vital Wheat Gluten - 1 cup
    • Salt - ½ tsp
    • Curry powder - ½ tsp
    • Vegetable broth - ¾ cup

    For the Broth

    • Broth - 4.25 cups
    • Peanut Oil - 2 tsps
    • Ginger - 1-inch piece
    • Garlic Clove -1
    • Baby Carrots - 10
    • Broccoli florets - 1 cup
    • Cauliflower Florets - 1 cups
    • Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
    • Curry powder - ½ tsp
    • Salt - ¼ tsp
    • Pepper Powder - ½ tsp
    • Prepared seitan

    Instructions

    Prep - Work

    • Chop the garlic and ginger into small julienne.
    • Cut the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets.

    Steps

    • In a wide bowl, add the vital wheat gluten, salt, and curry powder and mix well.
    • Now add the ¾ cup of broth in one shot and slowly start mixing it with the flour and prepare a dough.
    • It might be little watery, but as you knead the dough will thicken.
    • Knead for three minutes and let it rest for 15 minutes. (During the resting time, you can start preparing the broth)
    • Again knead for 3 more minutes and stretch the gluten and chop them into small pieces using a knife.
    • While the dough is resting, in a wide pan or wok, add the peanut oil and once the oil is hot add the chopped ginger and garlic.
    • Let the garlic brown for a minute and then add the vegetables (Broccoli, Cauliflower and Baby Carrots) and mix well.
    • Let it cook for two minutes and now add the approx 4 cups of vegetable broth.
    • Add the salt, curry powder and soy sauce and let it simmer until the veggies are al dente.
    • At the stage add the chopped wheat gluten to the veggie broth mix and lower the heat.
    • Cover and cook for 7 to 8 minutes on low heat.
    • After 7 to 8 minutes, the seitan should have enlarged in size.
    • Adjust salt and spice at this stage and let it cook for five more minutes.
    • Total cook time is around 10 to 12 minutes.
    • That's it Seitan soup is ready.

    Notes

    Peanut oil is preferred for this recipe. But other oil can be used too.
    Add more or fewer veggies of your choice.
    Veggies can be altogether skipped, and you can drain the cooked seitan and use it in noodles and stir fries.
    As I used low sodium store bought vegetable broth and soy sauce, I used minimal salt. But adjust the salt and curry powder as per your preference.
    Instead of curry powder, you can use garam masala and chilly powder too.
    The more you knead, chewier the seitan. So knead as per your texture preference and as I mentioned it an acquired taste.

    I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.

    Tried this recipe?Mention @vidhyasvegetariankitchen or tag #vidhyasvegkitchen
    For Video RecipesCheck out My YouTube Channel
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    Filed Under: Blogging Marathon, Chinese, Fusion, International, Soups Tagged With: Blogging Marathon, Buddha’s delight soup, Easy soups, fusion, gluten meat, how to prepare vegetarian meat, mixed vegetable and seitan soup, mock duck meat, seitan, seitan soup, soups, vegetarian meat, vital wheat gluten, wheat gluten, wheat gluten recipes

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Michelle Giroux says

      April 16, 2020 at 5:03 am

      I found only one recipe that uses the uncooked tempah pieces with salsa . So I thought why not add to a Crock-Pot soup. All of the seitan Crock-Pot souls call for cooked or prebought seitan.

      Reply
    2. Michelle Giroux says

      April 16, 2020 at 4:59 am

      Di you think this could be cooked in a Crock-Pot?

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        April 16, 2020 at 5:58 pm

        oh yeah definitely. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes. Actually you can simmer in low heat for about 1 hr. That enhances the flavor really well. Sorry for the late response.

        Reply
    3. Priya Srinivasan says

      April 18, 2017 at 8:22 am

      wow girl, hats off to your patience! i would have just added it to a bread!!! soup looks filling!

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        April 18, 2017 at 2:09 pm

        Thanks a lot Priya.

        Reply
    4. Srivalli Jetti says

      March 09, 2017 at 2:31 am

      Ah you seem to have taken so much efforts to make seitan yourself..the soup sounds so hearty!

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        March 09, 2017 at 8:41 am

        Thanks Valli.

        Reply
    5. Harini-Jaya R says

      March 02, 2017 at 7:35 pm

      That sounds interesting..Never worked with seitan before.

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        March 03, 2017 at 9:12 am

        :-) This is my first attempt too.

        Reply
    6. Pavani says

      February 27, 2017 at 12:54 pm

      I love homemade seitan especially the steamed version. Your soup with seitan looks so hearty and delicious.

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        February 27, 2017 at 5:46 pm

        :-) Thank you.

        Reply
    7. Priya Suresh says

      February 19, 2017 at 12:57 am

      Such a comforting soup and hearty. I dont mind having a super huge bowl of this soup.

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        February 19, 2017 at 3:31 pm

        :-) Thanks Priya.

        Reply
    8. searchofscrumptious says

      February 13, 2017 at 8:07 am

      seitan is really good in vindaloo!

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        February 13, 2017 at 9:41 am

        oh wow, will try it in vindaloo. Thanks

        Reply
    9. Gayathri Kumar says

      February 12, 2017 at 10:45 pm

      Once I made seitan with wheat flour and as you said it is an acquired taste. This soup with seitan looks so good..

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        February 13, 2017 at 10:13 am

        yeah very true. :-) I should try some spicy stuff with it.

        Reply
    10. Lina says

      February 12, 2017 at 5:58 pm

      How lovely!

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        February 13, 2017 at 10:14 am

        Thanks Lina.

        Reply

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