Dragonfly's Vegan Ribs
2 cups vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons vegan beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato flavored bouillon
1 7/8-2 cups water
2-3 tablespoons raw tahini
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (I use KAL)
unbleached flour, for dusting
vegan BBQ sauce, to serve
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, and grease a cookie sheet. Mix the gluten with the broth and bouillon. Using a fork, make a well in the center and add the water all at once. (Add more if you live in a dry area, less of you don't, hence the different amount.) Mix fast, rapidly encorporating all the gluten. Mix in nutritional yeast.
2. Dust a flat surface, dust your hands and lightly dust the gluten lump. Knead until rubbery and smooth. Use more flour if you need to. Flatten the gluten out with the tips of your fingers. Melt the tahini in the microwave or on the stove. You want it to be smooth, slightly warm and easy to spread. Using just your fingertips, poke the melted tahini into the surface of the gluten.
3. Turn over the gluten and repeat. It won't actually knead into the gluten, but will work in a bit and sit on the surface. Slice the gluten into strips. The thicker the strip, the chewier the rib, the thinner the crispier. Put the strips on prepared sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes.
4. When the under side is golden, flip them over and bake some more. You want a crispy product. They should puff up at first and flatten as they are browning up. You can add sauce to each side as they are browned up, or add it at the end. We like a small amount of sauce, but you can drench yours, if you like.
These are a homemade version of the non-vegan rib mixes you can buy at the HFS (they require butter). That, and it is a much larger quantity. I have four girls who can eat them all by themselves. I have to triple the batch when my grown sons are here. Those boxes should be out of reach price wise. We eat these every Friday or there is a general household revolt.
Enjoy!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Ahh you can grill these and they come out amazing, next time I will have to take pictures. You just have to halfway cut them so you have "racks" of rib. I put mine in a small square baking dish, and made sixteen riblettes that were divided in half, baked them for about thirty minutes. After, divided in half, coated with barbeque sauce and let the hubby grill the two "tacks" of ribs.
Here's a video on how to do them, the recipe is a little different, but the same idea ---> http://everydaydish.tv/Videopages/Rib'z.html
By the way if you're ribs are too rubbery or you're having a hard time stretching them out... don't knead the dough. Just do a quick mix of the ingredients and throw them in a pan and they will come out perfectly.
Thanks Dinkfeet, good to know! :D
Corinna - I'm going to try grilling these on Friday, I'll tell you how it goes!
Oh hey all - grilling does not work so much on these.....
I made these for dinner tonight and I was pretty happy with the final result. I didn't have the tomato or beef flavored stuff, so I added extra nut. yeast and tomato paste. I think I might have added too much water, but I worked it out by adding a little whole wheat flour while kneading. I baked them for 12 minutes total and they did puff up nicely. The texture was very chewy, but they still tasted good. I definitely drenched them in BBQ sauce, but I'd be interested to see how they taste plain...
Wow! I waited for a night that I was by myself to try these in case I messed up & they were excellent!! I felt like magician. Ribs from flour! I just made a half batch & it would have been plenty for two people. Instead of the beef broth & tomato bullion, I used ketchup, Bragg's, & a little liquid smoke & counted those liquids towards the water total. I thought the mixture seemed really wet & I wasn't sure what the flour was for since it wasn't sticking to anything, so I didn't flour it until I formed a rectangle. Then I got it as thin as I could & smooshed the tahini in, cut into strips & baked ten minutes, flipped & brushed on bbq, cooked ten minutes, flipped & brushed on bbq, 5 minutes, flip& brush, 5 more minutes. Yum! Anyone who hasn't tried this needs to now! It was messy to work with but well worth it. I used Annies Naturals smokey maple bbq sauce.
Thanks Dinkfeet!
Corinna - I'm going to try grilling these on Friday, I'll tell you how it goes!
I was just wondering...do you think you cook cook these on a grill? would you bake them first and then grill r just grill? any suggestions? Thanks!
This recipe is wonderful! I didn't have the vegan beef broth or tomato flavored bouillon, but I picked up some vegetarian brown gravy mix and vegan Worcestershire. I added the gravy mix to the dry and then used about a 1/2 cup of the Worcestershire sauce to 1 1/2 cups water. Yummy, yummy, yummy! My whole household loved them.
this recipe has been making me drool for quite awhile, but i made it the first time about two weeks ago and then again today. the first time, i stretched the gluten strips super thin and they were yummy and chewy out of the oven but reheated in the microwave..uhh. heh. kinda hard to eat.
i made them a little thicker tonight, and they were better. definitely going in my lunch tomorrow ;)b
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