Seitan Nuggets with Maple Mustard

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Originally uploaded by jennifermf

Recently, my husband and I made a spur of the moment trip to Chicago. I was really excited to check out the Chicago Diner and we ended up having both dinner and breakfast there. It was fantastic! We had these great seitan nuggets (we had great food period, but I'd never had seitan nuggets before) and they were inspiring. I tried to make my own version here. They went over so well that my husband asked me to make them again a couple days later!

ingredients:

1 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
a few dashes of black pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sage
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp soy sauce
a dash worcestershire sauce

directions:

In a bowl, mix the flours and spices. In a small bowl, mix all liquid ingredients and pour at once into the flour and spice mix. stir until combined and knead for about 5 minutes.

While the gluten rests, preheat oven to 350f. fill a 9x13 glass dish with water and about a tbsp sea salt. Dissolve what you can but the rest will dissolve eventually.

Break off tablespoon-sized pieces of the gluten and flatten them as much as possible. They'll expand when they cook, so don't make them too huge if you don't want giant nuggets.

Once you've made a pile of flat nuggets, drop them into the salt water (it's okay if they touch, but try and spread them out evenly), and cook for about 40-45 minutes. When they're done, you can drain them in a colander and rinse with cold water so they're cool enough to handle (or just use tongs, which is what I did).

Dip them in bread crumbs (i seasoned mine with thyme, salt, and pepper), spray lightly with cooking oil, and bake at 400 for 15 minutes on each side, or until they're as crispy as you like them. I ran out of bread crumbs halfway through the second batch pictured here, so I used matzo meal, which made them lighter in color, but just as tasty.

For the sauce, I mixed dijon mustard with maple syrup about half and half, until I liked the taste. The other ramekin is ketchup. :)