Ribalicious Ribs

Are you craving ribs?  I have been.  REEEEEBS!  I love em so hard.  One of my last meals as a carnie was ribs.  So I had to find a way to re-create these delicious things in a 100% cruelty free way.  Here you go!

Jackie O's Ribalicious Ribs 
(sorry kids, this is a picture of the leftovers.
we ate 'em too damn fast!)

Jackie O's Ribalicious Ribs

Ingredients:

• 4 cups vital wheat gluten
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of VEGAN beef broth
• 4 Tblsp. KAL nutritional yeast
• 3-4 Tblsp. of raw tahini (or if you wanna go ghetto you can use peanut butter)
• black pepper (if you can find smokehouse smoked pepper you will be super duper stoked)
• some unbleached flour for dusting
• vegan BBQ sauce of your choosing (check the ingredients people, you never know what kind of yucky stuff is in it)

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
• Mix the gluten and yeast together in a big bowl (add a few sprinkles of pepper if you choose, whateves).  If you have never used KAL nutritional yeast before, it adds a nutty, cheesy flavor as well as gives you buttloads of nutrition.  It's a win-win situation!
• Make the broth according to package direction - make sure it is cool when you are ready to use it or else you will burn the crap out of your hands...it happened to me.
• Add the water and vegan beef broth together.  Make a hole in the middle of the gluten and yeast and pour the water/broth into the hole all at once!
• Mix it fast or else it will get all sticky and crazy (make sure you incorporate all of the water into the gluten).
• Dust a flat surface with flour, dust your hands and lightly dust the gluten lump.  
• Knead that lump until it is rubbery and smooth.  If you need to, add more flour to your hands and the lump.
• Flatten the gluten out with your fingertips until it is about 1/2 inch thick all around.
• Melt the tahini (or peanut butter) in the microwave or the stove until it is smooth and easy to spread (should be slightly warm, not boiling - don't hurt your fingers yo!)
• Using your fingers, poke and spread the melted tahini into the surface of the gluten.  It won't knead into the gluten, but it will sit on the surface.
• Sprinkle black pepper onto the gluten/tahini surface - this is where the smokey pepper comes in super handy if you like that smokehouse taste
• Turn over the gluten and repeat.
• Slice the gluten into strips (thick strips for chewy ribs, thin strips for crispy ribs - your choice)
• Put the strips on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes each side (or until the underside looks golden) - they should puff up at first and then flatten as they are browning up.  You want them to be crispy, so test them out.  If not crispy enough, throw those bad boys in for a few more minutes.
• You can add sauce as they are browning up, or add it at the end.  I like a ton of sauce, so I add it at the beginning and at the end.  Bring on the sauce!

This feeds about 4-6 people with some leftovers for sandwiches the next day!

Prep time:  1 hour-ish