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I love deli sandwiches, but the best vegan “meat” substitutes are always so expensive. I always try to stock up when I find my favorites on sale and store them in the freezer.
But discovering The Edgy Veg’s Vegan “Chicken” Seitan has been a total game-changer. Now, I can make my own seitan slices at home for a fraction of the price. This recipe is just so easy, you can whip up a batch of “Chicken” in minutes and then set it to cook while you multi-task on other parts of the recipe.
Today, I wanted to try to use her recipe with a few twists in an attempt to clone my favorite vegan “lunchmeat,” the Tofurkey Hickory Smoked Deli slices. For this recipe, you will need a stove-top smoker and some wood chips. This tool is really easy to use, safe for apartments, and it adds so much flavor and complexity to your mock-meats and veggies. Worth the extra step, in my opinion.
Hickory Smoked Deli Slices – Tofurkey Clone!
Ingredients
- 1 cup vital wheat gluten
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp poultry seasoning
- ¾ cup vegetable broth for seitan mixture
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1.5 tbsp of maple syrup
- 3 or 4 cup cups of vegetable broth for boil
- 1.5 tbsp of Hickory wood chips food-safe
Instructions
- Add the 3-4 cups of vegetable broth in a medium saucepan over high heat. I added 4 cups of boiling water to 4 tsp of Vegetable Boullion paste and then stirred to combine.
- Meanwhile, mix the 3/4 cup vegetable broth with the tahini, maple syrup, and spices and blend thoroughly.
- Add the vital wheat gluten to the liquid mixture slowly until a loose dough is formed. You may find that you don’t use the entire cup before the dough forms – that’s ok. Don’t add too much gluten, or your seitan will become stiff instead of juicy.
- Form the dough into 1-2 balls or logs and then add them to the boiling broth on the stove. Make them small enough that they can be fully submerged in the vegetable broth boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hour. While the seitan simmers, use this opportunity to make sure there is good ventilation in your home, in the form of fans pointed out of the windows. Also, you may want to remove the battery from your smoke detector. You are about to create some smoke after all, and it may be enough to set off your alarm.
- In the mean time, prepare your smoker. Add the Hickory chips to the bottom of the smoker and then add the drip pan, and the rack to the smoker.
- After the seitan has boiled, allow it to cool, and then slice it as well as you can with a mandolin or a sharp serrated knife. The slices will provide more surface area to absorb the smoke. Place the slices on the smoker rack and then add about half a cup of the vegetable broth from the boil to the drip tray to help keep the seitan moist.
- Close the smoker and then heat it on your stovetop over medium heat, until you start to see thin streams of smoke rising from the smoker. Allow to smoke for 20-30 minutes, or until the wood seems to be all burned up and smoke is no longer coming from the smoker (note, it’s easy to mistake water vapor for smoke, so be sure to pay attention to the smell too. If it begins to smell “ashy,” your wood chips are done).
- Allow your smoker to cool before removing the lid and collecting your delicious smoked slices. Use this time to put the battery back in your smoke detector!
- Serve on a sandwich, or with crackers and assorted vegan charcuterie. Refrigerate in a sealed container for 1-2 weeks.
- Makes 10-20 deli slices, depending on thickness of your slices. Recipe is easily doubled!
That looks so good.