Weekend prep - Seitan and chickpea flour cutlets

Weekends are time for prep work for the coming week. This weekend it’s more white wine braised garlic (since I use tons of the stuff) and seitan cutlets. I like seitan but find it can be a little heavy at times, so I’ve been trying to figure out new ways to make it a little less dense and chewy. Today’s experiment involves adding some chickpea flour and steaming it in a bamboo steamer as opposed to simmering it in liquid. After steaming, they’ll be marinated in stock and white wine in the fridge until they get used in a day or two. (I’m thinking about sautéed seitan cutlets with some kind of pan sauce and twice baked potatoes where the stuffing is the potatoes mashed with braised garlic and some kind of cashew cream, but I haven’t gotten it all worked out in my head yet.)

Before steaming



After steaming but before marinating in the white wine and stock



Seitan and chickpea flour cutlets
Makes 6 cutlets

1 ½ cups of wheat gluten
½ cup of chickpea flour (besan)
¼ cup of nutritional yeast (nooch)
2 teaspoons of dried sage
1 teaspoon of dried tarragon
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of lemon pepper
¼ teaspoon celery seeds (optional)
¾ teaspoon dried mustard
2 tablespoons roasted garlic (mashed to a paste)
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
7/8 cup of water

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl or stand mixer. Add the roasted garlic, soy sauce and water. Knead for a few minutes until the dough comes together in a ball. Divide into six pieces and let it rest for about 5-10 minutes to relax a little. Flatten each piece of dough into a cutlet. Lightly spray the racks of a bamboo streamer with oil. Place the cutlets in the rack and steam over water at a moderate boil for about an hour.

While the cutlets steam, make the marinade.

White wine marinade
1 cup of white wine
1 shallot finely minced
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 sprigs of parsley
1 bay leaf
6 allspice berries
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
2 cups of vegetable stock

Add everything except the vegetable stock to a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and reduce by about a third. Add the vegetable stock, bring back to a boil, and then turn it off. Let it cool. Add the steamed, cooled cutlets to the marinade and refrigerate for a few hours or a few days.