A few days ago, some of my yoga friends arranged to have a gluten making class with Ate Adi, a friend of ours who is also a yoga instructor and a vegetarian chef.
Gluten is a substitute for meat that vegetarians eat, if my pseudo-vegetarian ego serves me right. It's actually tasteless, depending on how one would cook it. But with this vegetarian meat, there are a host of possibilities and recipes to explore. I'm no cook but of course, gluten can be vegetarian chicken, beef, pork or fish. So really, it's a flexible food item.
Veggie meat doesn't actually have any vital nutritional values. It's much more intended for the noobie vegetarian who is starting on a green diet. It can't fully substitute any food that's necessary for one to receive adequate vitamins.
So, on to the photos...
In this class, joining us, from left to right, are Ate Adi, Naomi, Arvi, Kai, Angeline, Kiko and yours truly.
For this class, we used 1 kg of gluten flour. Lol, excuse my Captain Obvious moment.
The recipe for this gluten is pretty simple but I don't really know the ratio of the ingredients to each other. With the 1 kg of gluten flour we had, Ate Adi used 8 teaspoons of baking powder and 8 cups of water.
Kneading this dough is no joke. Once we mixed the water into the powder ingredients, the water got absorbed almost instantaneously. It was really hard to knead and mix together into a consistent batter. It felt like pulling, tugging and molding really cold tough play dough sans the cool feel.
Mommy said we all looked kinda alike. Hahaha. HAIR.
To inject some flavor into our gluten batters, we have to boil them into a mix or a marinate. (See what I mean about the cluelessness about food and cooking.) Anyway, from what I remember, this is water, soy sauce, and bay leaves. Some of your typical adobo ingredients. We left it to boil a few minutes and then put in the gluten meat to cook and for it to absorb the soup.
Happy hippies with happy tummies. :3
Okay, I know it doesn't look tempting now but when you cook it to create a certain dish, I promise you the experience will be just as the same as when the actual recipe. Maybe even better because it's healthier without the negative properties and aspects of animal meat.
After the gluten making class, we had an impromptu sleepover at Naomi's place. It started out as dinner of adobo and caledereta (favorite!) with the gluten meat we made and then a movie and then next thing you know it, we're all dozing off on the couch.
That's that for the gluten making class! I am not actually a vegetarian nor do I religiously live the yoga lifestyle but eating healthy from time to time with alternative food items is pretty interesting and the health benefits are a major plus, too.
Although I am a picky eater, I have goals to eat more vegetarian or vegan food in the near future. I bumped into this recipe book from PETA made for college kids with limited cooking resources. I'll buy the book, market for the ingredients, experiment all the way and eat to my heart and soul's content.
Bon apetit! :)
