I am always experimenting with making new vegan meats using vital wheat gluten. Mostly because I never hated the taste of meat, so after going vegan found myself looking for a replacement.
Sure, you can buy plenty of vegan faux meats in the grocery store now, but making them at home is much cheaper and actually really easy! Vital wheat gluten is pretty inexpensive and is a great source of plant based protein!
Making seitan (wheat meat) is just as easy as making dough, and can be done right in your food processor. Just dump in the ingredients, mix, form, and bake!
Seriously, not hard at all. So recently when I was chatting with my rabbi about food and the subject of pastrami came up, I instantly knew I needed to adapt our vegan brisket recipe and try for a vegan pastrami. Since pastrami is often made from brisket anyways, I just changed up the spices and added some beet for color.
It turned out delicious. Does it taste like pastrami?!? Well, if being totally honest I don’t think I am an excellent judge of that since I have not eaten any animal product in a really long time, but my omnivore neighbors didn’t hate it when I made them a sandwich, and when I asked how it tasted, the answer was “ It just tasted good!” I’ll take it!
INGREDIENTS:
You will need aluminum foil, and a 9x13 baking dish for this recipe
1 can jackfruit in brine
1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup diced raw beet, peeled
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon Vegetable Better than Bouillon
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons soy sauce or coconut aminos
1 tablespoon oil ( I used grape seed)
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
2 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons powdered mustard
1 teaspoon mustard seed, toasted (optional)
1 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
DRY RUB:
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoons mustard powder
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
INSTRUCTIONS:
preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Drain and rinse the jackfruit. Peel the beet and dice it into small pieces. Break down the jackfruit and beet in your food processor until it is finely minced.
Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor and mix for a minute, until a sort of dough forms. If you are adding mustard seeds, just toss it in a skillet and let it toast for a few minutes before adding it to the mix.
If you do not have a food processor you can break down the beet and jackfruit in a blender. In a medium bowl add the jackfruit/beet mixture, and remaining ingredients. Using your hands, (I promise it’s just easier, but your hands may be stained for a day or so) mix all of the ingredients together until a dough forms. Knead the dough by hand for a few minutes.
Form the dough into about an 8 inch log shape. Tear off a piece of foil that is about 3 times the size of the dough.
Mix up the ingredients for the dry rub in a bowl.
Pour dry rub into the middle of the foil. Take the dough and roll it in the rub to cover all sides.
Spray the dough and the foil with some cooking spray and wrap the dough in the foil, sealing it up. Just make sure it is going to be easy to open.
Place the foil covered pastrami into a 9x13 pan and place in the oven on the top rack. Bake sealed for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes open up the foil pouch and continue baking for another 30-40 minutes.
Allow the pastrami to coo then refrigerate over night. It will slice easily once cooled. It should even be firm enough to thinly slice on a mandolin.
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