Whats a healthy alternative to hamburger meat?
Seitan (say-tan) is a hyper-healthy meat alternative that is versatile enough to use crumbled as a hamburger substitute, sliced as sandwich meat, cubed in soups and stews, and much more.
A wheat glutesuchn product, seitan is what remains of flour dough when you remove the starch. You do this by a repeated process of rinsing the dough until only the insoluable gluten remains. It will still be a dough, but much more elastic than the orginal flour dough. Then, you braise the gluten in flavored liquid and then create the various sliced, cubed, and crumbled forms you will use as a meat replacement.
Similar to tofu, seitan has a more robust texture, and depending on the flavoring in which it was boiled, such as soy sauce, it can be more flavorful than tofu. You can purchase it ready-made in health food stores, although it is more expensive than making it at home.
Best of all, seitan is super-charged with nutrition, with 100 grams containing 18 grams of protein, only 118 calories, just 1 gram of fat, and 9 carbs.
