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Among freshman vegetarians there is the belief that it is difficult to meet the normal protein needs of individuals from a plant diet.

This belief is born out the conviction among non vegetarians that protein comes primarily from animal products. Seasoned vegetarians however know better. They know that protein is available in plant products as much as it is in animal products. The trick is knowing where to look and they know that a good place to look is in wheat.

The protein part of wheat has a substance called gluten. Gluten is the raw material for seitan.

Popular among Chinese vegetarian monks and Mormons, seitan has been around for ages. Also conversant with seitan are Russian and Southeast Assian wheat farmers.

While Seitan is important in the vegetarian|vegan diet, making it can be demanding and time consuming. First of all, the gluten in wheat has to be extracted, washed and kneaded. This takes much time as the process is exacting. Gluten when extracted, seasoned and simmered in broth becomes seitan. It is this seitan that can then be cooked as desired.

For the time pressed, it is encouraging to know that you can purchase ready made gluten. All that would be needed then would be to season to taste and knead. This is good, for then you can season to your taste and desire.

A quicker alternative is to purchase pre seasoned seitan, and simply follow the manufacturer's cooking instructions for preparation. One limitation of commercially prepared seitan is that you are contrained to what seasoning is provided with the commercial seitan.

Some of the more popular ready made seitan are made by White Wave Foods. Ivy foods is also known for its ready to eat style seitan products.

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