Oh, soy crumbles. How I used to devour you in college, standing in for all those homey classics my mom learned from her mom. That big bag of you, in TVP form, I had been hoarding from that day at the bulk section. The day that I Googled what the hell “textured vegetable protein” is and found out it’s defatted soy flour. Scary enough, but how does one “defat” soy flour? Oh, just some run-of-the-mill thermoplastic extrusion.
Oh, no thermoplastic extrusion in your daily routine? That’s OK! I’ll share some deets on this exciting process! Let’s start by defining thermoplastic and extrusion, as explained by Evolving Wellness.
Definition of thermoplastic: a large molecule that turns to a liquid when heated and freezes to a very glassy state when cooled sufficiently.
Definition of extrusion: an industrial processing technique used to to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile.
Put those together and what do you get? An insanely processed product which takes something in nature (soy.. originally) and turns it into a molecule our bodies do not recognize, something completely artificial. Yum yum!
That might not be a big deal to everyone, but for those of us trying to avoid highly processed foods, it is. So when I made my North African meatballs last week, I decided to whip up some vegan ground “beef” by grinding up some tender, flavorful seitan. It’s not the most whole food ever, but it’s not themoplastically extruded, so I feel a little better.
God, my obsession with seitan cannot be tamed, and it pulses with passion even in ground form. In fact, I’m filled with such intensity regarding this faux-meat, I wrote a haiku (that means it’s serious).
O tender seitan
the perfect meat-like substance
love you in meatballs
All passion-profession aside, the next time you’re in the market for a vegan ground “beef” substitute, try this recipe. It’s super simple and insanely delicious. Without a doubt, this seitan ground “beef” made the best vegan meatballs I had ever, ever had, and knocked typical beanballs sheer out of the water. I started with the steamed white seitan recipe from Viva Vegan, the greatest book ever, I think, and then uh, ground it up. Pretty straightforward stuff. But the results cannot be matched. Oh mama!
Make this.
Seitan Ground "Beef"
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or chicken-flavored broth, minus 1 teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke one teaspoon
- 4 tablespoons garlic cloves grated
- 2 tablespoons olive oil for sauteing
- 1 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten wheat gluten
- 1/4 cup chickpea flour chickpea flour
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast one cup
- 2 teaspoons seasoning 1 teaspoon paprika for a slightly richer look, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, and about 1/2 combined teaspoon of basil, oregano, thyme for a savory flavor, your choice.
- 1 teaspoon salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce optional
- 1 teaspoon smashed cloves of garlic optional
Instructions
- In a measuring cup, whisk together broth, liquid smoke, garlic, olive oil. In a large bowl combine wheat gluten, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, dried seasonings, and salt. Form a well in center of dry ingredients and stir well with rubber spatula until dough leaves side of the bowl.
- Knead for 2-3 minutes to develop the gluten. You can whip out your big ass KitchenAid bowl here and use the dough hook, but O gives me dirty looks when I do this. Más dishes, no gracias.
- Leave dough to rest for 10 min, knead again for 30 seconds.
- Place dough on cutting board and cut into 4 equal pieces.
- Tear off 4 pieces of foil and place piece of dough in the center of the foil. Loosely wrap foil to cover the loaf, leaving a bit of room for expansion. Don't twist the ends and make a severe loaf shape for the seitan you plan on grinding, but you could definitely multitask here and steam some loaves. Pour about 1" of water in a saucepan and add a bit of soy sauce and a couple smashed cloves of garlic if you like, then cover with a steamer basket.
- Place in steamer basket and steam for 30 minutes. Allow the dough to cool to the touch, then rip into a few pieces. Place in a food processor and pulse until just ground. Don't over-grind. Use in recipes as you would cooked or raw ground beef.
Notes
Adapted from (Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero). Recipe yields approximately 2 servings. Nutritional values shown reflect information for 1 serving. Macros may vary slightly depending on the specific brands of ingredients used. To determine the size of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed, then weigh the entire finished recipe . Divide the total weight of the recipe (not including the weight of the bowl, pot, or plate the food is in) by 2. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Nutrition
Cheryl Malik is the recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind the healthy, flavorful, family friendly recipes at 40 Aprons. She’s been a blogger for 10+ years and is known for her delicious recipes and detailed recipe instructions. Cheryl is a mom of three who lives in Memphis, TN.
});
Arielli says
Hi,
Since it’s ‘ground beef’ substitute, can you use to make burger patties? What else would be needed?
Thank you
Anna Claire | 40 Aprons Team says
This should work if molded and cooked as patties, but we haven’t tried that method. So, let us know how it turns out if you do! Just be sure to cook them long enough on both sides so that they brown. This will help hold them together, but they may crumble a bit once bitten into.
Kelly says
Just curious, if I browned the VWF prior to mixing would it deepen the flavor?
Savannah | 40 Aprons Team says
It might add some additional flavors, yes!
Annie Coleman says
Can I dehydrate this recipe for camping
Savannah | 40 Aprons Team says
We have not tried that, but let us know how it goes!
Tricia says
Made this for taco salads. Doubled the recipe. Delicious!!!!! I was a little confused with the oil ingredient, the ingredients said it was for sauteing but then in the instructions it said to add it with the wet ingredients?
Holly says
I really want to try this recipe! I am wondering if I could substitute almond flour for the chickpea flour? Or I also have coconut and oat flour, so maybe some kind of mixture could work?
Amelia Camurati says
You can definitely sub the other alternative flours here!
Rebecca D says
I just want to confirm that the nutritional info is for half of the entire recipe (you list the recipe as 2 servings.) Thank you!
Amelia Camurati says
It is!
Freda says
I have a question. Are you suppose to steam the loafs wrapped in the foil?
And do you chop up the garlic or smash it to go into your gluten mixture? How much soy sauce should you use?
Savannah | 40 Aprons Team says
Yes, steam in foil! The garlic is smashed then added to the mixture 🙂 . 1 teaspoon of soy sauce!
Kaylyn says
I was wondering if this recipe would make the standard amount of 1lb of ground beef if I am following a traditional recipe calling for ground beef? Also, pardon me ahead of time if it is written somewhere and I didn’t see it!
Savannah | 40 Aprons Team says
You could always measure the seitan with a kitchen scale or measuring cup to determine the amount of ounces need for the substituion.
Ronny says
Let’s be factual. Extrusion is similar to pressure cooking and squeezing through a pasta maker at the same time. It doesn’t make the food artificial. It cooks the food and it can make the food more digestible, causing some slowly digestible carbs to convert to quickly digestible carbs, but nothing that can’t happen if you cook your food for a long time. Sure, it’s a processing step and you are free to reduce them, but it won’t turn the food artificial. Seitan is a terrific alternative, however. Vital wheat gluten (VWG) goes through two processing steps, first milling, and then a wet separation, but neither process uses much heat so it’s a much gentler processing than extrusion. You can skip one or both steps if you want to mill your own wheat and then make your own VWG by forming a dough ball and washing with water but that’s a lot of work to skip gentle commercial processing. Thanks for the great recipe!
Gina James says
I didn’t know that about TVP!!!!!
What molecule does it become and why can’t it recognize it!?!?! :O
Tina says
I made this tonight! I wanted Italian sausage crumbles in a lasagna I was making, so I put in classic Italian sausage seasonings… crushed red pepper, fennel, oregano, garlic, onion powder. I followed your lead and put a bunch of smoked paprika in there too — it helped make the flavor richer. The mixture was surprisingly wet… I was expecting more of a hunk of dough, but this was kind of gooey, maybe like thick oatmeal. I kneaded it for a long time. I didn’t want it too firm, though, since it was mimicking sausage crumbles, so I just slopped the mixture into some foil, steamed, and hoped for the best. The texture was perfect! I didn’t even bother dirtying my food processor; I just chopped up the little lump of seitan with a knife. It was so delicious I was even snacking on it while assembling my lasagna.
Lasagna’s still in the oven so TBD how that turned out, but I only used half of this recipe in it and I’m stoked that I still have two little blobs of seitan for whatever. Hello breakfast scramble. 🙂
Thanks so much for the recipe!
Rebekah L Gonzalez says
How many cups or oz of the ground “beef” does the recipe make? 🙂
Katie says
Could I use a sub for the chickpea flour?
Cheryl Malik says
If you must, you might try brown rice flour. I would highly suggest sticking with the chickpea flour, as it provides a wonderful savory nuttiness and texture that no other GF flour does, but if you have an allergy, try the rice flour! Maybe even swap out a little coconut flour for a bit of the rice flour for texture and taste.
Fran says
This looks great, can I boil instead of steaming? If so, do I still wrap in foil?
Cheryl Malik says
I would much prefer you steam it!
Eliana says
I had to add a bit more VWG flour but it was very delicious! I used it as part of a vegan lasagna and the amount was more than enough.
Cheryl Malik says
That’s so great to hear!
Karin says
I made this because you wrote a haiku for it (even linked it on my FB page just for that!). It is really nice. I can (and am) eating it by itself lol. Good thing I made a double batch to justify pulling out the KA 600, because there probably wouldn’t be much left to use for ground beef 🙂
Cheryl Malik says
Ha! I’m glad you appreciate my shameless poetic genius (har har). Happy you liked it – what did you eat it with/as?