Where to buy gluten flour in the UK

November 25, 2007 7:44 AM

Where can I buy gluten powder/vital gluten flour in the UK? I want to make seitan but I'm having trouble sourcing the gluten powder to make it with. I've found a couple of online shops but the shipping is £5-7 for a £3 bag of flour.

Yesterday I discovered Seitan - I'd had it before in a Linda McCartney ready-meal but I didn't know what it was, other than I really liked it - looking at the ingredient list didn't help, flour and water don't exactly stick out as unusual ingredients.

I tried to make some yesterday using regular flour and it went ok - aside from the fact I used wholemeal flour (it had bits in it which were pretty unpleasant). The thing is, it took about 600g of flour and 2 hours to make 4 little pieces.
The making it wasn't too bad, it was kinda fun and fascinating but really wasteful.

I looked for gluten powder but none of the big supermarkets seem to sell it.

90% of my google results are coming up with 'gluten-free' products.

Bonus points for good seitan recipes ;)

posted by missmagenta to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Visit an Asian market.
posted by HotPatatta at 9:14 AM on November 25, 2007

These people are not in the UK ... but they will ship there.
VeganEssentials.com , they have most anything a Vegan cook could need. As far as recipes... I got 99% of mine from my friend Google... I don't even keep a dead tree recipe books anymore.
posted by digital-dragonfly at 9:23 AM on November 25, 2007

no health food stores that sell in bulk? a little searching tells me this isn't an uncommon problem in the UK, and that asian stores seem to only sell the canned, finished product. but maybe you could ask the store owner, or the owner of an asian restaurant about how to acquire some.

here's one site i found for you:
http://www.flourbin.com/flour.html (listed as gluten powder.)

a good recipe from Sarah Kramer:
http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-cooking-tips/seitan.htm

i recommend buying her book, La Dolce Vegan. we've been cooking seitan like crazy in our house, using her recipes for different broths to approximate the flavors of certain meats. for Thanksgiving, i made walnut crusted "turkey" cutlets that were to die for.
posted by RedEmma at 10:03 AM on November 25, 2007

damn. i've been accustomed recently to not having to use my html. here are the links:

where vegans go for wheat gluten powder. This appears to be the consensus place for UK vegans.

Sarah Kramer's chicken recipe.
posted by RedEmma at 10:10 AM on November 25, 2007

Response by poster: I found the flourbin in my searches, but the min order is £10 and they charge £6.95 delivery.

Definately need to look into La Dolce Vegan though.
posted by missmagenta at 10:24 AM on November 25, 2007

I'm pretty sure essential trading carries wheat gluten, but they don't sell to individuals. You may be able to place a special order through your local health food store.
posted by beerbajay at 10:32 AM on November 25, 2007

Gluten is often used to help bread rise, especially bread-machine bread, so maybe a baking supply place would have it. (Sorry, not in the UK, can't suggest any local resources for you.)
posted by Quietgal at 2:31 PM on November 25, 2007

Wholefoods has it in many locations.

/just don't, whatever you do, try to grill it.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:28 PM on November 25, 2007

Actually, grilling seitan works pretty well. It's best if you marinate it for a long while first so you won't cook out all the moisture.
posted by beerbajay at 1:59 AM on November 26, 2007

Response by poster: Wholefoods has it in many locations.
There's only 1 Wholefoods in the UK and its not near me.

I think I might just have to stick to using regular flour
posted by missmagenta at 3:49 AM on November 26, 2007

Whole Foods == Fresh and Wild. There's more than one in the UK.

I highly suggest trying to get a special order from your local organic foods market/health food store.
posted by beerbajay at 4:19 AM on November 27, 2007

And if you do stick to using flour as your base, try to get a high-gluten flour like bread flour or "high gluten flour" as you will use less flour per unit seitan.
posted by beerbajay at 4:21 AM on November 27, 2007