Exploring Tofu, Tempeh and Seitan

 If you're going to go whole-food, plant-based... you are likely going to come across three "meat alternatives": tofu, tempeh and seitan. And... just so you don't freak out... it's pronounced say-tan NOT say-ten or say-tun or sayt-in. Seitan is NOT evil personified. A very small but important phonetic difference!

Tofu

Going into this whole-food, plant-based eating thing... we kind of knew that we would eventually need to incorporate tofu into our diet. But... we had had a bad experience with a recipe that called for frying up a slab of tofu (basically half of a tofu block). It was a gross textural experience. Never to be repeated... or so we thought.

But... if you dice up tofu into 1 cm (or so) cubes, dust them with some corn starch and then fry them up... they are quite palatable... especially if you bury them in a curry or stir fry. You could almost think they were just a chunk of well-cooked, tender chicken. Almost...

We kind of actually like tofu now... but there are a few caveats... get the Extra-Firm Tofu... unless you are planning to make a dessert. Some people say you need to get a tofu press and squeeze out all of the extra moisture but... we just pat ours dry with a paper towel and run with it. Adding the dusting of corn starch also tends to help reduce the moisture. And... you can now buy pre-pressed tofu - the ones I've seen look like four smaller squares of tofu shrink-wrapped in plastic with no liquid bath. Drying out the tofu basically ensures that it will crisp up nicely in the frying pan instead of just turn into a sad, soft disaster.

We eat tofu at least once a week... sometimes twice if we have leftovers.

Tempeh

We discovered tempeh thanks to a FreshPrep (a meal service) recipe - General Tso Style Tempeh. I was a bit skeptical about this recipe once I opened the package of tempeh. What were the black flecks in there? Apparently just a normal part of the aging process of this fermented soy bean cake. Basically... good mold.

Ick.

But... I soldiered on with the recipe and didn't show my partner the uncooked tempeh... or the black flecks. Sometimes too much information can be a bad thing!

The final product was... absolutely amazing. We ate it gingerly at first... with our lips pulled back... nibbling tentatively at the chunks of tempeh. But... oh my god... it was super yummy!! The texture was more substantial than tofu and made for a more interesting eating experience. We gave that recipe 10+ out of 10!

I have since made the recipe again, on my own... FreshPrep helpfully includes all the measurements of the various ingredients in their recipes. The stumbling block was finding the tempeh. I had seen some nestled next to the tofu in our local grocery store's produce section. But when I wanted to buy it... there was none. What was there was flavoured tempeh in various processed forms... bacon tempeh, etc. Not what I was looking for. Another grocery chain also had none... nor did Superstore. But... I struck pay dirt when I visited the local health food store. They had four different varieties of tempeh cakes! Some in the cooler and some in the freezer. Yay!

I made the General Tso Style Tempeh recipe and... it was as scrumptious as the original. I delved into the internet and dug up several other tempeh recipes for us to try. I can see this being another one of our weekly staples... now that I know where to buy it... and that it can be frozen!

Seitan

We now come to the great unknown... seitan. What the heck is this stuff? It is made from vital wheat gluten... so if you suffer from celiac disease or are gluten intolerant... this is not for you. But... for those of us who can eat wheat gluten, it could be a serious game changer. Vital wheat gluten is 75-80% protein... so you can see why seitan would make a great meat-alternative.

Buying seitan in the store (if you can find it... and I haven't found it yet...) means you are paying a premium price. It is, apparently, not cheap. You'll also find things like Tofurky sausages which have vital wheat gluten as one of their primary ingredients... also not what I am looking for. We don't want to trade one type of processed food for another... if we can help it.

While seitan might be ridiculously expensive to buy... it turns out that it is quite easy to make... or so the internet says (here's one recipe). You just buy some powdered vital wheat gluten... mix it up with some water.... knead the resulting dough... simmer it in some sort of broth (for flavour)... and.. voila... seitan fit for a queen.

Seitan is the thing that is apparently most meat-like in texture and flavour (depending on your seasoning) and mouth-feel. I seriously want to try this stuff and just need to hunt down some vital wheat gluten. We could make beef style seitan... or chicken style seitan... mmm... shish-kabobs!

The thing I like about home-made seitan is... you know exactly what goes into the flavouring... be it soy sauce or miso or mushrooms or whatever. And, if you make too much... the remainder can be frozen. What's not to like?

Sooo... on my next foray to the health food store... I am going to have a look and see if pre-made seitan exists and... if I can find some vital wheat gluten... Down the baking aisle I think...

Stay tuned for our experiment with seitan! (Ya just really gotta watch how you pronounce that...)