For this month’s recipe we asked our friend (and long serving ex-Greencity member) Billy Steele to let us in one some of his vegan cooking secrets! Billy serves up delicious food, coffee and cakes from Meadow Road in Partick, and we’re always blown away by his mastery of homemade vegan meat alternatives. Here he talks us through how to make your own succulent vegan ‘beef’, which can be used in stews, sandwiches, or as the filling for a warming pie, perfect for those cold winter evenings.
Vegan ‘Beef’ Seitan Pie, from Meadow Road Coffee, Glasgow
Prep & cooking time: 3h 30min
Serves: approx 4 large portions
For the vegan 'beef' seitan:
- 250g vital wheat gluten
- 1 400g tin black beans
- 50g vegan beef stock
- 10g mushroom powder
- 50ml water
For the simmering stock:
- 50g vegan beef stock
- A few of cloves of garlic
- 1 onion quartered
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery stick
Method:
Blitz beans in a food processor with the water, stock and mushroom powder till really smooth. Add to vital wheat gluten and knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in an electric mixer with paddle attachment for 3 or 4 minutes - you should start to see the gluten strands develop.
Roll the dough into a sausage shape, cover and let it rest for at least an hour to let the gluten develop more; the longer you can leave it the better it’ll be.
Now you need to stretch the dough, after an hour this should be quite easy - you want to stretch to about 4 or 5 times the original length. Next tie the long piece of dough into knots; the more the gluten has developed the easier this will be.
Bring a pan of water, full enough to cover your gluten knot, to the boil. Add the rest of the stock ingredients to the pan.
Gently drop in your gluten knot and bring back to the boil. Once its back to boiling turn the heat down as low as it will go and very gently simmer for at least an hour with a loose covered lid on.
The knot should be quite firm to touch now – remove it and retain the stock (we’ll use it to make the stew later!) Once cooled let it rest in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up more. Next, unknot it and cut into pieces 2 or 3 inches long - you should now be able to rip these along the gluten lines into whatever size pieces you’d like.
For the stew:
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 carrots chopped into chunks
- Punnet worth of mushrooms, roughly chopped
- Retained simmering stock
- 50ml red cooking wine
- 300ml vegan stock
- salt and pepper
Method:
Once all your ‘beef’ is shredded, add to a pan with some veg oil and get some nice crispy edges on it, then add in the onion, carrots and mushrooms. Let this cook, stirring occasionally for a few minutes, then cover with half of the cooking stock and some water to cover. When the carrots are nice and tender add some vegan gravy powder to thicken the stew. You can make the pie with whatever kind of pastry you prefer and serve with your favourite tatties (mash, chips, roasties) and some tasty green veg.
Thanks so much to Billy for providing this recipe!!
