Note: Every product listed here is not always available at your local grocery store. Publix tends to have a lot more than others, but you can usually find at least one of these brands at other grocery stores as well.
According to Barbara and Leonard Jacobs in their excellent book Cooking with Seitan, The Complete Vegetarian "Wheat-Meat" Cookbook, "seitan has been a staple food among vegetarian monks of China, Russian wheat farmers, peasants of Southeast Asia, and Mormons. People who had traditionally eaten wheat had also discovered a method to extract the gluten and create a seitan-like product."
Seitan is derived from the protein portion of wheat. It stands in for meat in many recipes and works so well that a number of vegetarians avoid it because the texture is too "meaty."
Learn how to make your own grain meat at home. It's fun and easy!!
**TVP is the very, very inexpensive version of the packaged foods. You can find it in the bulk section of your health food store. With some quick recipes and veggie broth, you can do amazing things with TVP: beef style stews, stir fries, casseroles, chili, balls, loaves, and more. Basically, you can use TVP (in chunks or granules) to replace animal flesh in nearly all recipes. You just have to experiement and try the recipes. The best method is to soak your TVP in super hot veggie broth for about 20 min, then use it in your recipes. You can substitue egg, for binding, with ground flax (really sticky). Take two tablespoons of flax powder and add it to your moist recipe, or add a little bit of water and make a sticky paste and then add it to the recipe.
Here's some TVP to help you on your way:
Lentils, chick peas, beans in general, carrots, celery, garlic, and other veggies and ground nuts make excellent loaves and neat balls (veggie balls) and they are naturally filled with protein, vitamins, fiber, trace minerals and are totally delicious and free of soy and wheat gluten and meat!
Here's some links to help you on your way:
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