Seitan Class

Matthew Woolen is a master pastry chef and has worked in a variety of Seattle restaurants, including gastropub Old Sage, Zhu Dang, and a gluten-free restaurant called Capitol Cider.

Matthew Woolen

Plant-based eaters have more options than ever before when it comes to summer cook-out staples like burgers and hot dogs.Along with classic frozen veggie patties and tofu dogs, a number of new faux-meat products have hit the market that are meant to look, cook, and taste like real meat. I’m not here to debate whether plants should be manipulated into imitation ground beef that can be <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/the-ultimate-smash-burger">smash-griddled into a juicy burger</a>, or rather, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA8CZyLrsrI">Mitch Hedberg wished for turkey</a>, we should be encouraging them to just be their best selves. My main concern is making sure that nobody has to endure a mediocre vegan hot dog at a backyard barbecue ever again.The downside of having so many plant-based hot dogs to choose from at the supermarket is that most of them aren’t very good. Some are successful at recreating the texture of an emulsified sausage but stumble in the flavor department by going too heavy on the smoke, salt, spice, or sweetness—notes that should all be in balance with a great hot dog. Others score high on flavor but have too bouncy of a bite. To confirm this, I conducted a taste test of a dozen popular vegan dogs and only found a few that I’d be happy to eat; none of them are widely available at grocery stores. So, it only made sense to develop a plant-based dog from scratch.Seitan has a ton of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/seasoning-and-tenderizing-seitan">textural potential, and it’s perfect for soaking up seasonings like a sponge</a>. A mixture of paprika, garlic, liquid smoke, vinegar, and a little nutritional yeast for umami got me the characteristic flavor of a frankfurter. To get the texture right, blending the dough with the seasonings produced the smooth emulsified sausage look that I was going for. I then <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/shaping-and-cooking-seitan">shaped the dough and steamed it</a> before cutting the dough into rectangular franks—if hot dogs can be made from plants, who says they have to be tubular? Griddle or grill these up, pop them into buns, and top with some <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/carrot-mustard-that-garden-gold">carrot mustard sauce</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/quick-style-krauts">homemade kraut</a> for the ultimate vegan hot dog.

Seitan Hot Dogs