Seitan (say-tan) is a vegan meat made from vital wheat gluten. This is only the protein part of the wheat berry with everything else removed. It’s also used as an additive while baking to give more volume to bread. A quarter cup, about what you might eat for dinner as seitan, has approximately 23 grams of protein and 10% of your daily iron.

What’s especially fun about seitan is the potential for seasoning. You can add anything you want, and the flavor will be mixed all the way through every bite. You can also make it into any shape, from meatloaf to taco meat.

Ingredients and Instructions: 

• 1 to 1.25 cups of vital wheat gluten
• Liquid is 3/4 cup water or vegetable broth + 2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
• Seasonings are 3 tbsp nutritional yeast + 3 tbsp spices
• 6 cups of vegetable broth or seasoned water to cook it in (not pictured)

For spices I’m using 1 tbsp onion powder + 1 tbsp garlic powder + 3/4 tbsp dried thyme + 1/4 tbsp ground black pepper. This gives it a more traditional meat flavor. Other ideas are powdered ginger and garlic for Asian dishes, or cumin and chili powder for Mexican dishes, etc.

Mix the seasonings and 1 cup of wheat gluten together well before adding any liquid, then add the liquid and stir/kneed until everything is incorporated into a dough. Sprinkle additional gluten into the dough as you kneed until it no longer feels too moist. Continue working the dough for a couple minutes to help the protein develop into a meaty texture. Let this sit for ten or more minutes while you prepare and heat the broth to cook it.

The broth can be any liquid that will support the flavors in the seitan. Vegetable broth is perfect. Or water with Braggs and more of the spices that you put in the dough. Some people also add chopped onion and garlic.

I’m serving my seitan as medallions so I rolled the dough into a log and sliced it into rounds. You can do a whole loaf, or cut off small chunks for stir fry, etc.

Bring the cooking liquid to a boil, reduce to a simmer and add the seitan pieces. Let this simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom. The seitan will float to the top. Remove with tongs and press out excess liquid.

Now prepare as you would with any meat. I seared my medallions with mushrooms. This is also excellent with vegan gravy.

Enjoy!