Chick'n Burgers

Tonight was an experiment that worked out pretty well. My reasoning was this: if steaming wheat gluten dough makes a great sausage, then perhaps a modified recipe could mimic other meat as well. This means one could make a palatable seitan quite easily in about 40 minutes instead of hours of simmering. To me, this was quite an attractive possibility. My goal tonight was to make a chicken-like burger. I figured that using just gluten flour would make the burger too tough, so I used some chickpea flour as well. The end result was tender, but perhaps a bit dry. This may be from the chickpea flour. I will experiment some more. Suggestions welcome.

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 cup white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

- 1 cup water or veggie broth

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tsp soy sauce

- 1/4 cup chicken-style broth powder

- 1 cup vital wheat gluten

- 1/4 cup chickpea flour

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp paprika

- freshly ground white pepper

METHOD

Get your water on its way to boiling in your steamer

1. Mash beans finely with a fork. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix together into a dough.

2. Divide dough into 8 pieces and shape into burgers. Wet your hands with water is dough is a bit sticky. I pressed the dough into a ring to help get a nice round shape.

2. Wrap each burger in foil, making each as round as possible. Steam over simmering water for 30 minutes (no need for a rolling boil). Unwrap and serve.