Thank you Chris. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Seitan tends to be higher in protein, versatile, and is easy to make at home. The drawback is that it is farther removed from the whole-food source. The primary ingredient is wheat gluten flower. While flour is quite simply, ground wheat berries, wheat gluten flower requires additional processing to isolate the gluten. Tempeh, on the other hand is made from whole soy beans. This gives gives it a considerable advantage over it’s more processed counterpart. Furthering its case, tempeh is a cultured product. The fermentation that takes place helps to “pre-digest” parts of the bean which facilitates the absorption of nutrients. Tempeh is also much higher in fiber and lower in sodium than seitan and most other foods, for that matter. The main drawback to tempeh, is the difficulty in making it at home. There is a steep learning curve for growing your own cultures. The temperature ranges necessary to maintain a stable culture require special equipment. Seitan, on the other hand, is much like making bread. It requires only a bowl and possibly a pot, depending on the recipe. This gives seitan a leg up in the area of cost effectiveness. To buy the tempeh equivalent to the amount of seitan I use weekly, would land me in the poor house. Additionally, making your seitan at home allows you to control the use of sodium and preservatives, which offsets some of its disadvantages. All in all, I admit that tempeh is a better protein source from a health standpoint, but I prefer seitan for its flavor, versatility and cost. Below is a link to one of my favorite seitan recipes. It is highly adaptable to any flavors you would like to include.
http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15959&p=1
