- This looks really meaty,
but is this gonna fool someone into thinking it's steak?
I'm conflicted.
Hey, what's up everybody, it's your girl Merle.
And today we are back with another fun vegan substitute.
Today we are going to be making vegan steak
out of wheat.
Technically it's vital wheat gluten.
This recipe has been floating around the internet
for a long time now.
And in fact, this idea was inspired
by many, many other videos where people have tried
to perfect the perfect vegan steak.
I am gonna be totally upfront with you guys,
I am considerably skeptical about this one,
but I would love to be proven wrong.
Let's do it.
(mischievous music)
Basically what we're doing here is making a seitan,
or seitan, you could say it either way.
I think as long as you don't call it Satan we're good.
Seitan is not a new thing,
it was originated centuries ago by vegetarian monks.
And it was commonly found in China and Japan
as a pretty popular meat substitute.
It's what's gonna make our steak hopefully meaty.
Okay, so I'm gonna start off by adding some veggie stock,
a half a cup of white beans,
I'm using some great northern beans.
I've seen people use chickpeas too.
One tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce.
We're gonna do two healthy tablespoons
of some nutritional yeast,
two tablespoons of tomato paste.
I think it's important to have a sense of humor
when you're making vegan versions of meat.
I see a lot of people say,
why would you call that steak?
It's not steak.
I get it, I know.
A lot of the people that are either vegetarian or vegan
still miss some of those old flavors
that we were raised with,
and so it's a nice way to be reminiscent of the old days.
So this is vegan worcestershire sauce.
I didn't see as much of this in other recipes,
I'm adding this 'cause it's what
I would sometimes eat with my steak.
Could backfire miserably, but we'll see.
I've never made this, so we're all in this together.
I've got a nice little combination of spices here.
We've got some smoked paprika, some garlic powder,
onion powder, and black pepper.
So I'm adding a little bit of dijon mustard.
And another thing I'm adding that is optional
is a little bit of this Better Than Beef Bouillon.
And then finally liquid smoke.
Super potent, only need a little bit,
one little drop, and it's like (imitating explosion)
exploding with flavor.
So don't overdo it with the liquid smoke,
you will regret it.
Before we add our vital wheat gluten,
we're gonna blend this together into a nice, smooth paste.
(blender running)
Let's see what we got.
Ooh wow.
It's definitely a powerful, powerful smell.
And I know what you're thinking,
you're probably like oh my God,
this is gonna be so overly flavored.
So it's okay if it feels a little intense
because it's all gonna come together
once we add in the vital wheat gluten.
Okay, so now we're gonna get our mixture into this bowl.
As you can see, it's pretty liquidy, which is good.
The true test of this recipe would be my grandfather.
He used to get me steak every Sunday when I would come over.
Since I'm sort of culminating a bunch
of different vegan steak recipes that I've found online,
I'm gonna be really careful with the amount
of vital wheat gluten that I put in,
because there's no goin' back.
So I'm gonna start with a little under one cup
and slowly add in at a time.
All right, she's already gettin' a little bit more meaty.
If you don't look at vegan food as the worst version
of the original thing, and instead think about
how creative you can get, it's just fun.
All right, I'm gonna go in there with my hands now.
Make sure I get all of that vital wheat gluten in there.
Wow, look at this.
It's already like a meaty thing.
(laughing)
The one thing I've seen across the board
is that people knead this pretty heavily
for about three to four minutes.
That's what's gonna help the vital wheat gluten
activate and firm up.
Look at that, that looks pretty damn cool.
I'm really excited actually.
This formed together really nicely.
So now what I'm gonna do is chop this in half
and roll it out a little bit.
Wow, the inside of it looks good too.
So I'm just gonna form this into a sort of
like an oblong shape with my hands.
Pretty easily moldable.
I'm just gonna roll it out a little bit with my rolling pin.
All right.
I expected it not to hold its shape as well as it has.
Shame on me for doubting the process.
There's one, let's do the same with the other.
All right, so now that we've got our patties formed
I let them rest for about 15 to 20 minutes.
I've heard that's good for the texture,
so I figured it couldn't hurt.
Now what we're gonna do is wrap them
in a little bit of parchment paper,
and then we're gonna steam them for about 45 minutes.
And while these are steaming, we're gonna go ahead
and make our marinade.
(upbeat music)
For the marinade we're gonna start
with one tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce,
two tablespoons of low sodium vegetable stock.
Then we're gonna do about a quarter of a teaspoon
of garlic powder, a quarter of a teaspoon of onion powder,
one teaspoon of the vegan worcestershire sauce,
half a tablespoon of maple syrup.
I'm gonna add a little bit more smoked paprika,
some dijon mustard, and finally another little drop
of the very potent liquid smoke.
Gonna mix that up.
(whisking mixture)
So now I'm gonna set my marinade aside
while the steaks are steaming and then we'll move on.
Wow.
This already looks considerably firmer.
Definitely headed in the right direction.
Look at that, it looks awesome.
So now what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna pour
a little bit of my marinade in the bottom.
Put one steak in there.
Then I'm gonna cover that a little bit with marinade.
And then I'm gonna put the last one on top,
I'm gonna cover that with the rest of the marinade.
I'm gonna cover these up.
So they're gonna marinate 30 minutes on one side,
and then I'm gonna flip 'em over,
so make sure that they get equally covered
and then we're gonna marinate 'em
for an additional 30 minutes.
(upbeat music)
All right, so our steaks are done marinating,
now it's time to cook these.
So we're gonna start with this sort of grill.
(steak sizzling)
I'm only gonna cook this for about two,
three minutes on either side.
All right, I'm gonna try to flip this.
(steak sizzling)
Ooh, yeah.
Cool.
Okay, so it's all grilled up and now
it's time for me to take a bite of this masterpiece.
It looks like a steak, it's got the bounce of a steak,
but also the resistance.
She's definitely well done.
(mischievous music)
(eating)
We got a lot to process here.
What I will say about it though,
is the flavors come together really nicely.
Is this gonna fool someone into thinking it's steak?
Oh no no.
The likeness to steak is about a four, and that's okay.
Because at the end of the day, it isn't actually steak.
If I gave this to my grandfather,
he would ask me if this was made out of the packaging
that I got a steak in.
It has a delicious flavor to it,
it just doesn't exactly replicate meat.
Am I happy with it?
Would I eat it again?
I'm conflicted.
I'm gonna have to have Rachel come in here and try this.
Rachel Gaewski everyone.
(clapping)
That part probably (indistinct).
- So lovely to see you in my home.
- Yeah, so I'm sure you have no idea
what I've been cooking up today.
- No, no, none at all.
- Okay, she knows what I cooked
but she doesn't know what it tastes like.
I'm gonna have you go ahead and assess this vegan steak.
- Ooh.
It's really pretty though.
You even put the little grill lines on it, okay.
- I try to give the people what they want.
- Oh my gosh, this looks like one of those
microwave TV dinner steaks.
- It does, it looks like a Salisbury steak.
- Yeah, that's what I was gonna say, Salisbury.
Okay, I'm gonna give it a sniff first.
- [Merle] It's not like a Tomahawk ribeye steak.
- Mm.
- The notes are hitting you?
- Yes. - Great.
- It looks like dog food, but--
(laughing)
Hey.
- She says it how it is.
(pensive music)
- Okay, okay.
It definitely doesn't taste like a steak.
- No, I agree with that.
- But it's very chewy, and meaty, and hearty,
and I wanna douse this thing in gravy
and put it on some mashed potatoes.
- Yeah, of all the imitation meats
it doesn't totally hit steak as much for me,
but it's imitating something.
You can tell it's an imposter.
(laughing)
- How I like it overall, just as a it's own entity, 6.5.
- I feel like that's fair.
I feel like if you're looking for a good meat substitute
this is probably a great starting point for you.
First time making vegan steak, what a wild ride.
Let me know if there's anything else
you'd like me to substitute,
or any wacky ingredients that I should use
as a vegan substitute in the future.
- I'm still here.
(laughing)
- She's still here.
- [Rachel] What she said, yeah.
(upbeat music)
- Come on in here Rachel.
(cheering)
- Hello. - Hi.
- You have a green thing in your tooth.
(laughing)
- Great.
To better help me assess this vegan steak,
I'm gonna have Rachel come in here.
Rachel, come on down.
I got something for you real special.
Ra, rach--
(laughing)
(upbeat music)