Seitan Bacon Recipes

VEGAN BACON

Steps:

• Add the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, onion powder and garlic powder to a mixing bowl and mix together.
• Then, in a measuring jug, add vegetable stock, canola oil, tamari, maple syrup, liquid smoke, dijon mustard and tomato paste and whisk together.
• Add the wet ingredients in with the dry and mix in with a spoon until you have a thick dough.
• Move the dough to a wooden cutting board and knead it for 5-8 minutes until it is pretty stiff and firm. 5 minutes is sufficient if you have very strong hands, if you have weaker hands then up to 8 minutes may be needed. Watch for how the dough feels to know when it has been long enough. It should be firm and spring back when stretched. See the blog post for more notes about kneading.
• Form the dough into a square as much as you can, loosely wrap it in foil and steam it for 20 minutes. The water should be boiling before you add the steamer basket so that it steams properly for the full 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes of steaming unwrap it from the foil and allow to cool completely. When it's cool, use a sharp knife to cut it into even slices.
• Prepare your marinade sauce by adding tamari, maple syrup, smoked paprika, tomato paste, garlic powder, onion powder and liquid smoke to a measuring jug and whisk with a mini whisk until smooth.
• Heat up a frying pan with the grapeseed oil and then add the first batch of bacon slices (we did 5-6 slices at a time) and brush on the marinade sauce. Flip the slices and brush the marinade sauce onto the other side. Flip the bacon slices regularly until charred on each side.
• Keep leftovers in the fridge and enjoy within about a week. It's also freezer friendly if you want to freeze it, and then thaw overnight in the fridge.

HOW TO MAKE SMOKEY MAPLE SEITAN BACON (VEGAN)

Steps:

• Heat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit. In a large bowl stir together the dry ingredients until combined. In another bowl stir together all the the wet ingredients until smooth.
• Pour the wet into the dry and stir until a dough forms. I like to do my kneading in the stand mixer with a dough hook but you can knead it by hand as well. If you re using the stand mixer the place the dough in the stand mixer and allow it to knead with the dough hook for 6 minutes on medium speed. I think the texture is much better when I use the stand mixer. It makes for a denser loaf. If you are kneading by hand then you will need to knead for 10 minutes until the dough is super dense and rubbery.
• Lightly oil a metal loaf pan and press the seitan dough into the pan pressing hard into the corners until the dough lies flat in the pan. Spoon 1 tbsp of soy sauce and 1 tbsp of water over the top and enclose the top of the pan with aluminum foil so steam doesn't escape.
• Bake for 30 minutes at 350. Remove from oven. Mix up your smoky maple marinade.
• Mix up all the ingredients and taste. A small taste though because it will be strong. Play with the balance of flavors to your own taste.
• Now slice up your cooled seitan into long strips. I like it thick cut! Place the marinade in a pan that can hold all the sliced bacon. Slather the marinade onto the bacon strips on both sides and allow to sit 20 minutes. Fry up the bacon in a skillet about 2 minutes on each side.
• Make ahead tip. This marinated bacon will keep in the fridge tightly covered at least a week. This way you can fry it up as needed. How cool I that?

STARCH WATER BACON

Steps:

• PREPARE YOUR STARCH WATER After washing flour, let your starch water rest for several hours or overnight so it has time to settle. Check out the step-by-step for washing flour to make seitan here. Once settled, pour off most of the excess water, leaving about 15% on top. Then stir them together. This does not need to be an exact science, but you're looking for the mixture to resemble a very thin crepe batter when its all stirred up. TIP: You can leave your starch water in the fridge for several days if you're not going to be able to use it right away.
• MIX YOUR BATTER Separate the batter (mixed starch water) into 2 parts. Measure out 1 1/4 cups for the "meat," and 3/4 cup for the "fat." Then add all of the "meat" ingredients into the 1 1/4 cup batter, and the "fat" ingredients into the 3/4 cup batter. I used a blender stick to make it super quick, but you can use a whisk, blender, or even a spoon. TIP: The measurements do not need to be exact. I worked with what I had from one washing and you may have more or less. You can adjust the seasonings to however you like and think of this more as a general guide.
• MAKE YOUR "PANCAKES" Heat a large, non-stick pan over medium heat. Add a little bit of cooking spray or oil to keep the batter from sticking. Pour thin stripes of red and white mixture (using more red than white) into the hot pan, and move the pan as necessary to keep the batter as thin as possible, spreading it around the pan into a solid "pancake". If it's too thick your bacon will be more chewy than crispy. As a solid sheet, it should be able to easily slide around the pan. No need to flip, it will cook through fairly quickly if it's thin enough. Just transfer it to a plate and keep making pancakes until your batter is used up. TIP: My measuring cups have spouts so I kept everything in them as I mixed to make the batter easy to pour out later. I've heard some people transfer their batter to used squeeze bottles to make it even easier to keep the batter strips as thin as possible.
• CUT YOUR PANCAKES INTO STRIPS OF BACON Once you have your pancakes made, you can use a pizza cutter or kitchen scissors to cut, or rip them into strips. I did a combination of cutting and ripping for a more authentic look. TIP: Don't worry if your pancakes rip some as cooking, they will look more authentic with torn edges. Any little pieces can be made into bacon bits.
• FRY YOUR BACON Heat another tablespoon or two of oil on the pan over medium-high heat, and working in batches, fry your strips, adding oil as necessary to finish.

SEITAN BACON

Steps:

• Make the seitan in advance, slice thin, and set it aside.
• Whisk all the marinade ingredients together and pour into a refrigerator safe container.
• Add the slices of seitan to the marinade.
• Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 days (the longer, the better).
• Once marinated, set the temperature to 370 degrees in the air-fryer.
• Place a single layer of seitan bacon on the air-fryer base and cook for 7 minutes, stopping to flip the bacon over once 3 1/2 minutes, elapses.
• Remove the pieces and cover with aluminum foil on a plate, so you can batch cook the rest and keep the pieces warm.
• If making a BLT, toast the bread or bun.
• Then, spread vegan cashew mayo on the bun, add pieces of seitan, 2 tomato slices, raw onion (optional), and lettuce.

SEITAN BACON

Steps:

• Mix the doughs up and form into balls, each one separately.
• Break the red dough into 4 pieces and the white dough into 3-4 pieces. Flatten each piece and layer alternating colors on top of each other. This is your time to be creative. Once you have a big block of dough lay it on an oiled cutting board. Place another cutting board/saran wrap on top. Press your dough for at least 30 minutes.
• After your dough has been pressed bake at 300F for 45 minutes. Your seitan will be a bit undercooked but this is what you want. It makes it easier to slice and it will pan-fry better.
• Slice into bacon strips and pan fry to the desired crispness you like. Enjoy!