Seitan is just another name for gluten. Now, some people can’t eat gluten, but if you can, its a great all-purpose food and fun to make. Gluten is just one of the parts of whole-wheat flour that we’re going to seperate. The other parts (which you can save and use for later) are going to be starch, germ, and bran. But for now, we’ll focus on the gluten:

Ingredients: 5-lb bag of whole wheat flour
12 cups (96 oz/2800 ml) water
Large bowl
More large bowls (to pour extra water into)

Note: This recipe uses a lot of water. If you time it right, you can use the used water for soup stock, to water plants, or anything else you would use nutritious water for.

1. Dump bag of flour into large bowl.
2. Pour all water into bowl and form into a ball.
3. Fill up large bowl with water, soak dough-ball in water for 20 minutes.
4. Begin kneading ball of dough underwater.
5. When water is milky white, replace with clean water and soak for 20 minutes again.
6. Make sure you keep the dough formed in a ball, it may start to break apart on you, but don’t let it.
7. Continue kneeding and soaking until you have a spongy ball that resembles a brain.
8. Once you have your isolated gluten, you can either make it for dinner right away, or freeze it for later.

A sample recipe from
How to Make all the Meat You Eat out of Wheat
By Nina & Michael Shandler:

Ground Seitan

3 Cups Water
2 Tblsp burdock root, ground
2 Cups raw gluten
1 Tblsp oil
2 tsp miso
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin, ground
1 tsp coriander, ground
1 tblsp nutritional yeast

In a saucepan, combine water with ground burdock root, if available. Place saucepan on high heat and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat to medium and continue to boil water gently. Tear luten into small teaspoon-sized pieces and drop into water. Allow to cook for 15 minutes while water continues to boil gently. Remove gluten pieces with a slotted spoonand drain on a paper towel
Grind gluten peices in a food processor or meat grinder until it resembles the texture of coarsely ground steak. In a bowl, mix oil, miso, garlic powder, cumin, coriander and nutritional yeast. Add ground gluten and mix well.
Ground gluten can be eaten directly or sauteed in oil for a few minutes. It is a loose “meat” that will not hold its shape without a binding material. Soy flour or chickpea flour are recommended for binding the loose ground gluten since these bean flours provide a complementary protein.