Wheat Meat

This comes from our friend Cris Cisneros, who created this recipe through many iterations. The recipe is in his head, and he plays around with the spices and liquids a lot, but I'm including a good, basic version.

My favorite way to eat wheat meat is to cube it and sauté it, then eat it on a tortilla with tomatoes and lettuce. Cris gets a lot more inventive than I do. However you slice it, it's a great vegan protein source, and it's tasty!

This recipe makes approximately 9 pounds of wheat meat.

Ingredients

7 cups vital wheat gluten

70 ounces crushed or diced tomatoes

1 can chick peas

1/2 pound (plus an extra mushroom or two) mushrooms

1 1/2 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 tablespoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (don't use iodized salt)

6 cups chicken broth

Note: Feel free to go crazy with the spices to whatever type or degree your palate prefers. But do avoid leafy herbs like oregano or basil.

Directions

Mix

1. Measure gluten into a big (biggest you have) mixing bowl. A KitchenAid works best, but I don't have one of those, so I mix by hand.
2. Drain the chick peas (no need to rinse them).
3. In the Vitamix blender, blend 42 ounces of tomatoes with the chick peas until smooth.
4. Add spices to tomato mixture and blend.
5. Remove tomato mixture to separate container.
6. Add mushrooms and another 28 ounces of tomatoes to Vitamix and blend until smooth.
7. Mix the two tomato batches together.
8. Make a well in the gluten and add liquids, half at a time. Mix immediately.
9. Stirring first with a wooden spoon and then by hand, knead the mixture vigorously until it becomes the texture of raw hamburger. (Note: You can actually freeze the mixture at this point and bake later, if you want.)

Bake

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two cookie sheets (jelly roll style sheets with edges work great). Line first with aluminum foil, then a sheet of parchment paper over the top. (Note: take two sheets of aluminum foil that are a bit longer than the pan. One on top of the other, make a seam by folding over twice on one long edge, using about 1" folds. When you open it up, it will cover the cookie sheet nicely.)
2. Spread half of wheat meat mixture over each cookie sheet. (You'll need to pull the parchment paper flat periodically.)
3. Cook at 350 until bottom is browning. Check after 45 minutes and switch racks as necessary. (I ended up cooking for around an hour.)
4. Meanwhile, make 6 cups chicken broth.

Shape and Pressure Cook

1. When wheat meat is browned on the bottom, flip it onto a big cutting board. Trim and save the curvy edges and shape the rest into rectangles (3 or 4" x 7" is probably good, but you don't have to be super picky).
2. Fit wheat meat into pressure cooker. Put edge pieces on bottom, then stack rectangular pieces sideways. Pour broth over the top, making sure not to fill above the max fill line. (Mine fit nicely into a 6 quart instant pot.)
3. For a 6 quart instant pot, pressure cook for 60 minutes. (Be sure lever is set to "sealing." Hit Manual, then + up to 60.) Let the pot natural release on its own. (No need to turn lever to "venting.")

Finish

1. Remove the wheat meat from the pressure cooker and put in Ziploc bags while the wheat meat is still hot. (Note: As long as the pressure cooker is keeping the wheat meat hot, you don't have to rush to take it out right away. You just need to make sure to bag it while it's still hot.)
2. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate or freeze.