Hello friends and not-yet-friends. Today we're making vegan ginger beef. Ginger beef was invented right here in Calgary,Alberta by chef George Wong in the 1970's for the local palate. It's still on practically every Chinese restaurantmenu 'round here: strips of meat, well battered and deep fried, and lightly coated with asweet and sour sauce that is much more sweet than sour, with aromatic garlic and, of course,ginger. Plus dried red chilies to add heat. After numerous requests for vegetarian gingerbeef, especially from my fellow Calgarians, and after *so* much testing, I'm happy tobring you this vegan version which uses seitan in a batter that stays crisp and crunchy evenafter being nicely coated in that same syrupy ginger beef sauce. It's best to start this a day ahead becauseour vegan protein needs time to cook and cool down. Luckily, it's a super easy recipe: my goodol' Beefy beefless seitan. It's made of wheat. Specifically, wheat protein which tastes (surprise,surprise) like wheat so we're going to blend together some flavours to change that. To improve the texture, I'm adding beans. Kidney beans will give the seitan a reddishbrown colour but really, you can use any beans you like. Then onion powder and garlic. And mushroom bouillon powder. I'm adding dark soy sauce in place of themarmite which I usually use to add a meaty kind of flavour 'cause I'm out. Plus balsamic vinegar which is important tocut through the wheaty flavour of the gluten flour. Blend that all together until the beans arewell pureed. It doesn't have to be super smooth though. Now you can mix the wet ingredients with thegluten. So you can tell by now, this isn't a gluten-freefriendly kind of recipe. If you are gluten-free though, you could substore bought meat alternatives. I expect super firm tofu would work in placeof the seitan. Maybe soy curls soaked in vegan beef flavouredbroth; though I haven't tried those myself. Remember, this is your vegan ginger beef andthere are no rules. Knead this dough a bit, but it doesn't requiremuch. The more you knead seitan dough, the tougheryour seitan will be at the end. So it's really all up to you. Next, we'll steam it. You can wrap up the seitan for a denser loafor just plop this ugly thing on your steamer insert and steam over high heat for an hourto cook it all the way through. When it's done, it'll look pretty ugly still. And it needs to cool, otherwise it's a painto slice up. If you make this ahead, you can keep it inthe fridge for up to three days or have it in the freezer for up to two months. Afterwards, you can slice it up. Or rip the pieces by hand. This gives the strips a look more like theclassic dish, plus raggedy ends make for little crunchy bits which is nice. You'll see what I mean later. Next, the batter which consists of ground flax seed, cornstarch, and water. If you don't have ground flax, you can alsouse ground chia seeds; they work in similar ways. It looks thin now but wait about five to tenminutes. In the meantime, let's prep the rest of thestuff. Here's some light soy sauce, white vinegar, lemon juice, but if you don't have it, justuse extra vinegar; that's fine, and half a cup of sugar. Yes, that's a lot. But it's a sweet kinda sweet and sour. Just go with it. I'm using brown sugar for a richer flavourbut you can also use white which more likely what they use in the restaurants. Set that aside, and prep your aromatics. Grate some ginger. I'm doing about two teaspoons worth of finelygrated ginger. And for a wee bit of texture, I'll do anothertwo teaspoons of coarsely grated ginger. And squeeze the rest of the straggly gingerfor the juice for extra gingeriness. I grew up on ginger at almost every meal sothis might be too much for some people. When in doubt, scale back 'cause you can alwaysadd more later. You'll also need a teaspoon of dried red chiliesto make this dish a little spicy. I like it a bit more spicy so I'm also addingone fresh chili with the seeds removed. Now we can go back to the batter. The flax has gelled up nicely. Don't think about what it looks like. Just know that it will coat the seitan stripsand fry up to crispy crispy goodness. Add the seitan strips and use clean handsto get everything well coated. Finally, we can move on to frying. We'll do a shallow fry with a half inch ofoil, though you can deep fry if you like. I'm using medium high heat so the oil willget hot quickly. When it's very hot but not yet smoking, youcan add the seitan. Make sure they are nicely coated before goingin. And of course, be careful. Don't splash. Lower the strips in slowly. Try not to crowd your pan or wok but you don'thave to worry too much about them sticking together. You can pull them apart later. In under a minute, you should be able to startflipping the pieces with care. You want them to be nicely browned beforepulling them out... and on to a paper towel lined wire rack. A rack is nice so there's air circulation. Without it, the seitan will sit and steamand your vegan beef may lose some crunch. Remember watch the heat and lower it if youroil starts getting too hot and starts to smoke. Here, I added the last of the seitan and didn'tbreak them apart at the start. That's fine. The trouble with a big clump stuck togetheris that it can flop around causing splashes and that's not very safe. Just use tongs, go slowly, don't rush, andit'll be fine. When all your seitan is fried, turn off theheat and you can carefully transfer most of the oil out into a heat-proof container. The safe way is to use a ladle. I'm not living dangerously. Filming just takes a long time and this oilisn't that hot. Leave a couple teaspoons worth in the wok,turn the heat back on to medium high, and you can add the aromatics. I recommend adding sesame seeds too at thispoint. But I completely spaced on the sesame seedswhen it came time to film. They are optional but the sesame flavour reallybumps this dish to the next level. Stir-fry for about a minute. Just until everything is fragrant but be carefulnot to burn your chilies or sesame seeds. Stir the sauce mix well, then add that. Turn the heat up and let that boil for 2 or3 minutes. Pretty quickly, it'll reduce and get a syrupyquality. You can test it on a spoon but make sure youlet that bit cool before you taste it. Then you can arrange your seitan on a servingplate and pour the steaming ginger sauce over top. Toss a bit. And there you have it. Sweet, sticky, aromatic gingery vegan gingerbeef. Ready to go on rice with vegetables or directlyinto your mouth. It's crunchy on the outside. Tender on the inside. And the sauce is flipping delectable. You'll want to eat this right away. Super good fresh. Don't get me wrong; it's still good later. But if you have leftovers, you can box themup after they've cooled. Leave a little space for air circulation. And you can store them in the fridge for acouple days. To reheat, pop them in the oven at 425°F,spread out on a baking sheet, or in your air fryer to make them a bit crispy. Otherwise, if you heat them in the microwave,they're not going to be very crunchy. But they'll still taste good. And that's it. I really hope you enjoyed this video and tryout this veggie ginger beef. Share it with anyone who misses ginger beefand give this video a like so YouTube will recommend it to more people. As always, let me know what other favouritesyou'd like me to veganize with the hashtag #reciperequest and you might just see it. Also, let me know if you have any questionsand I'll do my best to answer. Thanks so much for watching, my friends! Bye for now.
This vegan ginger beef recipe uses tender homemade beefy beefless seitan, coated in a crispy fried batter, and dressed with sweet ginger beef sauce. It's super delicious and just as good, or better than Chinese take-out ginger beef (AKA ginger fried beef or deep fried shredded beef in chili sauce). Scroll down for the recipe link. Ginger beef is a Chinese Canadian invention. According to Wikipedia, it was developed for the local palate in the 1970's by chef George Wong at the Silver Inn in Calgary, Alberta. It's made from strips of beef, battered in a mixture of egg and cornstarch and deep fried before being covered in a very sweet and somewhat tangy sauce. It's on practically every Chinese take-out menu here in Calgary, even the vegetarian Chinese restaurant menus. By popular request, I developed this vegan ginger beef recipe for anyone and everyone who craves the taste and crunch of ginger beef without the meat and eggs. ---LINKS--- Vegan Ginger Beef Printable Recipe + Blog Post: https://wp.me/p3RZht-1vT Beefy Beefless Seitan (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlODaKhgla8&index=5&list=PL6QDlGTnYxpGYJqWWWHXbqNYMHz6UIn4Q&t=0s A NOTE ABOUT SUGAR (vegan vs non-vegan sugar): http://www.marystestkitchen.com/note-sugar-vegan-vs-non-vegan-sugar/ -----SHOP MY FAVES*----- AUDIBLE 30 DAY TRIAL + 2 FREE BOOKS: https://goo.gl/wwgwEQ My recommendation: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN: https://amzn.to/2LMfogB MORE FAVES: https://amzn.to/2L7ePgb -----KEEP IN TOUCH----- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/marystestktchn/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/marystestkitchen Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marystestktchn Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marystestkitchen Website: http://www.marystestkitchen.com *Some links are affiliate links. This means I'll earn a small commission if you make a purchase through the link at no extra cost to you. This helps me buy supplies to make more videos so thank you!