I just want to eat wheat products without nutty people trying to convince me that it is 'poison'. The evidence vastly supports wheat being awesome for your health, not detrimental.
"It will help you to survive" is a far cry from, "The evidence vastly supports wheat being awesome for your health," though. Based on that logic, all food is "awesome for your health." :P
I chowed down all through college on the Seitan chicken in the cafeteria's Vegan line, if I had Celiacs' I'd know.
But I try to limit my carbs now and I do hate the looks I get when I ask for a gluten free menu just to see the entire offerings of a restaurant(and then I feel doubly dumb when sometimes the menu is just a listing of the already gluten-free plates on the normal menu).
Yeah, except for flavor and texture. Seitan might be the single worst food substitute for anything I've ever seen. The only thing worse than the texture is the flavor. It's like eating raw flour flavored packing glue.
You've never had good seitan. I've recently perfected seitan sausage. The meat eater in my house loved it.
When made well (and fresh), it has the texture of the tenderest chicken or pork you've ever eaten. And, it should not taste like flour, at all. It's mostly the protein from wheat (I use Bob's Red Mill vital wheat gluten, which is 80% protein), and none of the other components that taste starchy or bread-like.
I make a double batch and still use less broth and water (I use six cups total simmering liquid for a double batch), as the recipe calls for way too much.
For sausage, I add rubbed sage, thyme, cayenne pepper, fresh minced ginger, and white pepper. A touch of brown sugar is also a reasonable addition. Once boiled, I slice it into 1/4" patties and put it into the toaster oven, on a pan oiled with a bit of peanut oil, to broil for 5-10 minutes to make it sizzly and a little crispy. It really is pretty awesome; I serve it with vegan biscuits and gravy (I make the gravy from the remaining broth from the seitan cook).
In short, seitan is one of my absolute favorite foods. I was ambivalent about it, until I had really good fresh seitan at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. I tried for years to find some at the store that was as good, and was always disappointed. The key seems to be to make it fresh.
Wow, I might have to try that one myself. Iv'e just been buying the Field Roast brand seitan sausages, and they're awesome. I'd been missing the chorizo sausages of my childhood until those came along... but sadly, there is some scuffle between Field Roast and the Canadian government and so the product was taken off shelves. Good to know I could get good results if I wanted to DIY.
