Veggie Lunch Meat

What is it with kids and not wanting to take adventurous lunches to school? Last year, Son #1 would only take PB&J to school. Every. Single. Day. All nuts are banned at his school this year, due to allergy concerns, so all he wants is veggie meat with vegenaise and mustard. Now, you may remember my post on Solae (made by DuPont) and the fact that Yves and other companies use Solae soy. So I thought I would try my hand at making my own lunch meat. I figured I could just make a huge seitan log and steam and bake it until done. Just like a huge veggie sausage. I didn't try to make it like chicken or beef or anything, just plain ol' veggie meat. I think the end product was pretty good, but perhaps a tad dry. I think I could lower the gluten a bit and bake it a bit less. Still, the recipe is very postable and Son #1 has been eating it up this week.

INGREDIENTS

- 1 cup white beans

- 2 cups water

- 1/4 cup oil

- 2 tsp salt

- 2 tsp paprika

- 2 tsp onion powder

- 1 tsp garlic

- 1/4 tsp tumeric

- 1 tsp ground fennel

- 1 tsp sage

- 1 tsp pepper

- 1 tsp soy sauce

- 2 3/4 cup vital wheat gluten

METHOD

Get water steaming in your steamer.

1. Place all ingredients except the gluten flour in a blender and process until smooth. Pour into a bowl. Add gluten flour and work into a dough.

2. Shape dough into a log and wrap in heavy duty foil like a tootsie roll. Try to make the roll as thick as possible. Steam for 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees in the last 15 mins of steaming. Remove seitan from steamer and bake for 45-60 mins. Seitan should swell and press against the foil.

4. Cool and slice as needed for sandwiches. This seitan holds up very well and can be shaved very thin. Store in the fridge