It finally happened. I've posted my first ever seitan recipe. And it isn't just any old seitan recipe either, I decided that if I was going to post a seitan recipe, it should be THE seitan recipe. It's go big or go home time, so I went all the way to the top of the seitan game, straight to a VEGAN SEITAN STEAK.
Yes, Vegan Seitan Steak! Mouth-watering, flavor packed, tender, chewy, juicy, flavourful, meat-like texture. You can BBQ, skillet, or pan fry. Then serve whole or slice and put on top of salad for a steak salad or in a vegan steak sandwich. So delicious and satisfying!
YES, THAT IS VEGAN!!!!! Caps lock on. So much excitement. Can't help it. Yes, I made this vegan steak from scratch in my kitchen, and you can too! I know, it's mind-blowing.
What is Seitan?
OK, let's talk about seitan. Unfortunately, in the vegan world, there are a lot of unappetizing named foods. Nutritional yeast, tempeh, quinoa, and then you have seitan. If I could re-brand some vegan foods I totally would, but what can you do?
Seitan (not satan 😈) is a chewy, protein-packed, meat-like food made from vital wheat gluten (another horrid name for a food).
Vital wheat gluten is a flour made by removing the starches from wheat, leaving behind just the gluten. Gluten is the main protein in wheat and it's also the part of wheat flour that makes dough stretchy and chewy, which is why it's difficult to make gluten-free baked goods that have that same bouncy, chewy texture.
So, vital wheat gluten can be used to make seitan which has this amazing, chewy, meat-like textured dish that wows. A lot of the vegan meat substitutes you see in grocery stores or in restaurants are often seitan. If you've ever had a vegan meat and asked: "are you sure this is vegan?" you were likely eating seitan.
Despite the weird name seitan can be pretty dang healthy too (assuming you don't deep fry it). One of my vegan seitan steaks contains: 295 calories, 42g protein, 22g carbohydrates, 4g fat, 5g fiber, 27.7% iron. Pretty cool right?
Ok but now, let's get to the real meat of the matter (tee hee), DOES IT TASTE GOOD?
The answer: silly rabbit, surely you know I would never post a recipe on my blog that isn't (in my opinion) straight up delicious. It took a LOT of experimenting, but I finally nailed the texture and flavours to be incredibly mouth-watering scrumptious. This vegan seitan steak has the perfect chew, is juicy, a little smoky, umami, satisfyingly yum for each and every bite.
How To Make Vegan Seitan Steaks:
Add all of the vegan seitan steak ingredients to a food processor and pulse to combine, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed until everything is well mixed. Alternatively, if you do not have a food processor you can first mash the cooked lentils with a fork or potato masher, then add everything together in a large bowl and mix well.
Now you know I'm not a fan of hard to find ingredients, but for this recipe, vital wheat gluten is crucial and it's worth the search. If you're lucky, your local grocery store may carry vital wheat gluten, but if not you will be able to find it in a health food store or here on Amazon.
Once mixed, it will look something like this.
Turn the mixture out onto a clean work surface and begin to knead it together. It may be a bit crumbly at first, but keep kneading it for a few minutes until it comes together into a tight ball.
Cut the ball into 4 sections, then use a rolling pin to roll out each section into ½" thick steaks. The dough will be very tough and stretchy, but just keep working at it until you get your desired steak shapes.
Add several inches of water to a large pot with a steamer basket and bring to a boil. Put the steaks in the steamer basket and cover with a lid. It's ok if they are overlapping a bit. Steam for 25 minutes, flipping the steaks halfway through so they steam evenly. They will double in size.
Steaming the seitan first, cooks the dough through, and makes it juicy and tender. In my experimenting, I also tried boiling and baking the seitan, but steaming it was by far the best method for the ideal texture for a vegan steak.
In a large ziplock bag or air-tight container, mix together all of the marinade ingredients. The oil won't really combine, but that's fine. Remove the steaks from the steamer and coat in the marinade. Let marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes before cooking, or for as long as several days when kept in the fridge.
I love that I can make these in advance and let them hang out, ready to be grilled up when I desire. They also freeze well pretty well. Just pop the steaks in the marinade and freeze the entire thing, marinade and all. I have found that after frozen and thawed the steaks might suck up more of the marinade so you might want to whip up extra marinade for brushing on when cooking.
How To Cook Vegan Seitan Steaks:
Bon Appetegan!
Sam Turnbull
Vegan Seitan Steak
Ingredients
For the vegan seitan steaks:
- 1 ½ cups vital wheat gluten
- 1 cup cooked lentils, (I used canned)
- 6 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon liquid smoke
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
For the vegan seitan steak marinade:
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or agave
Instructions
To make the vegan seitan steaks:
- Add all of the vegan seitan steak ingredients to a food processor and pulse to combine, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed until everything is well mixed. Alternatively, if you do not have a food processor you can first mash the cooked lentils with a fork or potato masher, then add everything together in a large bowl and mix well.
- Turn the mixture out onto a clean work surface and begin to knead it together. It may be a bit crumbly at first, but keep kneading it for a few minutes until it comes together into a tight ball. Do not over-knead the dough, the more you knead it, the tougher the steaks will be, so knead it just until it comes together. Cut the ball into 4 sections, then use a rolling pin to roll out each section into ½" thick steaks. The dough will be very tough and stretchy, but just keep working at it until you get your desired steak shapes.
- Add several inches of water to a large pot with a steamer basket and bring to a boil. Put the steaks in the steamer basket and cover with a lid. It's ok if they are overlapping a bit. Steam for 25 minutes, flipping the steaks halfway through so they steam evenly. They will double in size.
- In a large ziplock bag or air-tight container, mix together all of the marinade ingredients. The oil won't really combine, but that's fine. Remove the steaks from the steamer and coat in the marinade. Let marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes before cooking, or for as long as several days when kept in the fridge.
To serve the vegan seitan steaks:
- When you are ready to enjoy the vegan steaks, heat a frying pan, grill pan, or barbecue. When hot, fry or grill the steaks a couple of minutes on each side until grill marks form. Brush the steaks with leftover marinade while cooking to keep them juicy, and also right before serving. Serve however you desire. I like mine served with a potato and some greens. I also enjoy mine sliced and put on salad. So many possibilities!
Notes
Nutrition
More vegan seitan recipes you might enjoy...
Rocio says
Last night I was looking for a twist for the remaining 600g of lentils that I had from cooking a full bag at the begging of last week... and this recipe ticked all my cases: VWG, lentils and quick... So, I tripled the recipe because I really wanted to get rid of all those lentils and if I was preparing 4 steaks, why not 12? (I know, I've got all those lentils in the first place because I cooked the full bag as I was already going to cook a cup).
I should have used about 540g of VWG but ended up adding a little less than 500g (around 490g, as I felt the dough dense enough) maybe next time I'll try them as intended, regardless they were amazing!
I ended up having 12 steaks separated in 4 packages of 3 for the marinade that I made, as directed, in a measuring cup and then added 1 Tbsp of Montreal dry rub to it before dividing amount the 4 bags. After they cooled down on the counter, two bags remained in the fridge and two went directly to the freezer.
I just pan fried them (I'm lazy and it's Sunday) and at the end added the remaining of the marinade from the bag to "caramelize" them, then served them with a quinoa/broccoli gratin for the parents; our 5yo decided they smelled like "carne asada" and wanted tacos, so had hers on a tortilla with a little of lime juice and some cherry tomatoes... Ever the picky eater, but she devoured them!
I cannot wait to have them again tomorrow night.
CeaCea says
Again, super impressed by the genius recipes here. In my quest 2 find the most acceptable dupes 4 meat... I am trying it all! I made my parrot a giant batch of lentils so I just happened 2 have 1C remaining so here I am! In short, this will def b a preferred use of my lentils in the future 4 sure....
Pros-
*much easier and quicker 2 make than some recipes that came out a few years ago
*Easy 2 make ahead, freeze and pull out as needed
*Taste and texture is almost perfect!
*Cheap 2 make too!
Cons-
*Only that the seitan could b just a bit more flavorful. Although sitting overnite in the mariande surely helped, it still would need a bit more flavor if eating without a steak sauce
In long... I tried a seitan Steak a long while ago from The Gentle Chef, and was excited at the possibilities but it was too complicated and time consuming and not the best true dupe in texture nor taste but it was a good but too time consuming so I gave up on that....until recently. But THIS recipe.... not only is it EASY and QUICK 2 make but if u use steak sauce, honestly it should satisfy any meat eater. It has the texture of a tender meat steak and tastes the same, 2 me, with the sauce. If I were trying 2 satisfy a meat eater who doesn't do steak sauce though, the flavor needs 2 get tweaked just a bit.
I did taste it without steak sauce and I did find that it wasn't quite as flavorful as it could b so I think if I were going 2 eat it without a condiment (but that is so not me so if making 4 me alone, it's perfect as is!) I would either suggest maybe bumping up the seasoning amounts or adding some additional seasoning perhaps Montreal steak seasoning or something. I have made another steak from another site (which probably came from the OG inspiration of this one) which the taste I love but also needs a slight punch up in flavor. I adapted that one 2 get a better texture so I'll have 2 see between that recipe and this one which spices made the difference 2 bump it up a notch. I feel like we're sooooooo close 2 getting a dead on dupe 4 meat (no pun intended) and we can get it right...there's no reason anyone can say they prefer meat over this recipe!
Pangaea says
Sam, this is the second recipe of yours I have tried, and again, I am thrilled with the results. I made these for dinner tonight, and served them with baked potato, mushroom gravy and broccoli. They were a really nice texture, and the flavor was great! Recently I made your recipe for "THE QUICKEST AND EASIEST SEITAN RECIPE! (VEGAN CHICKEN)" which turned out so good, that I bought a multiple level steamer and managed to make 8 batches in 2 hours one afternoon. We ate two batches within 3 days, and there are just two of us. LOL! The rest of the batches are in the freezer. It's so good with different sauces! Anyway, that recipe was such a success, that I was confident this recipe would work too. I just went for it and made a double batch. I separated each batch into 6 servings, instead of 4. I found them to be plenty filling at that size, so I'm glad I did that. So with my multiple level steamer, I was able to steam 12 of these "steaks" all at once. I'll freeze several. I am so very grateful for your blog and recipes. You're the best!
Sam Turnbull says
Aww thanks so much Pangaea! SO happy you're enjoying my recipes 🙂
Sonya says
Thank you, thank you...
I am a vegan newbie and just starting out, so I went searching for a meat alternative. I googled... a lot.
I also read that seitan was difficult to make but I was still determined. I had to find a recipe that had simple ingredients and didn't take me forever to make.
I finally came across your website and found this vegan steak which is deceptively meat-like. I made these steaks and they turned out amazing. They were easy to make too. I love them.
I have just recently made these for a second time and will continue to make them. This is definitely going to be a recipe to keep.
Sam Turnbull says
Wonderful! So happy you love it so much Sonya! I have a ton of seitan recipes on my site, so hopefully you give more of them a try too 🙂
Anna says
I have made these steaks many times. They are great! Today I made them into Salisbury steaks. I just steamed them and then fried them in oil without marinating them to brown them. Then I put them into a baking dish along with a packet of onion mushroom soup mix and 2 cups water. I baked for thirty minutes at 350 degrees and then flipped and baked another 15 minutes. The steaks absorb the soup and get nice and flavorful. If there’s any soup not absorbed, you can thicken to make a gravy and serve with some mashed potatoes.
I have also made with black beans instead of lentils and it came out good too.
amy says
Hi sam your food very good 5 stars
Irene gr says
Hello ! can we use chickpeas instead of the lentils???and what color of lentils did you use? the brown ones? thank you and greetings from Greece
Sam Turnbull says
I recommend lentils for best texture, I tried chickpeas but it made the steaks grainy. Brown or green lentils will work great. 🙂
Dave Big Chief says
Better than lentils is jumbo oats soaked in hot water (ratio 1:1) for 10 min.
Maeve says
Best seitan steak recipe! Have used it multiple times
Sam Turnbull says
Amazing!!
Ellie says
Hey so I think i messed up and I’m hoping to be able to fix it.. i accidentally “boiled” them. Put them in a basket and turned the stove on but when i came over to flip them the water was boiling and they basically got wet. Oops. Any way to fix soggy seitan? Thank you.
Wendy Riley says
I made a similar mistake and baked them, flipping and flipping until they weren’t soggy anymore. Then they were really great
Janis says
I love this seitan steak. I’m vegan 10 years and have finally found a steak I enjoy. I did not have nooch left so I added chickpea flour in place. After marinating it before frying it. I added a bit of bbq sauce and a tad more maple syrup to the marinade. As I was frying it I added some to both sides as well as some Montreal steak spice. Absolutely a win here. We love it. Thank you so so so much!
Sam Turnbull says
So very happy you love it, Janis!!
Morgan says
Really excited about this recipe! New to vital wheat gluten—are the lentils meant to keep it from being too tough? Can the nutritional yeast be omitted too?
Joanne Lawrence says
This was perfect, amazing, and even the review of steak lover in my house was "I love it." I made a big batch of black beans in vegetarian "beef" bouillon earlier today, so I used a cup of those in place of lentils. I also steamed the steaks over the same type of broth. The marinade was incredible! Absolutely could not have been better. This is going on repeat in my house - even though cleaning my grill pan afterwards is a pain in the butt.
Reggie says
This looks delicious. Question about the chili powder. 1.5 teaspoons is correct? It's not going to make it too spicy? Thanks.
Joanne Lawrence says
I just made it and it was perfect. My chili powder is not spicy, however. The flavour profile is right, but I would say use caution if you have a spicy chili powder as the heat might seem out of place.
Chris David says
Was a little worried that the breading was not crunchy throughout. But pleasantly surprised it didn’t matter. Very tasty vegan steaks, thank you.
Sara says
Wow this vegan steak recipe is AMAZING!!!! So glad I finally took the time to make it. I stirred fried some onion and garlic with soy sauce and added your steak recipe with rice, oh my goodness so good!!!! Thank you so much for an awesome recipe!
BeeH says
I will definitely make this Seitan. I have a successful Vegan shredded Chck'n recipe made with Vital gluten. For all those people that find the texture rubbery I found with the chik'n recipe that the brand of vital gluten makes a HUGE difference. I used Bob’s Mill on my first shredded chck’n recipe and the texture was not quite what I expected. I’ve tried to find another brand in local grocery stores and I couldn’t. Since I already use Anthony’s products all the time, I bought their Vital gluten flour in Amazon.Omg it was a game changer the texture was PERFECT!!. Another tip is that the more you knead the better it is, it helps to form those strands that resembles chik’n, in this case steak.
I agree with Sam responding to the comments regarding why we look for familiar textures and flavors, duh!...the flavors are familiar, delicious and NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED, which is one of the main goal of Vegans.
I hope I can agree with those who have wonderful positive comments and also find this Vegan steak recipe delicious.
Susan says
Oh. My. Gosh. This was just THE best!! I doubled the marinade recipe and added some Worcestershire sauce. I served it with sauteed onions and mushrooms, fresh corn and vegan scalloped potatoes! SO GOOD! This will definitely be a "go to" recipe!
Deserae Blanco says
I finally tried this recipe and it's so perfect! I was a little scared to cook with vital wheat gluten, which is why I think it took me so long to try it. But was easier than I thought! I made it with cauliflower rice and veggies as a side. Delicious!
Laurie F. says
Loved this! First time I ever made my own steak-and it was really good…and pretty easy. Thanks for keeping ur recipes simple. I used one steak in a Thai beef salad recipe last night, and it was delicious.
Sam Turnbull says
So happy you enjoyed Laurie!
Jean Heath says
Made these today and they were absolutely delicious. I have made many different types of Seitan but this has to be the best, the texture was amazing. My hubbie ate it with chips and peas (a UK staple) and said it was unbelievable.
I steamed it in the Instant Pot for 13mins, let out the steam so I could turn them over and put them back in for 12 mins, perfect.
Thank you for the recipe.
Marie says
Hi Sam! It's me again. 🙂 This recipe is great! I made a triple batch again and tried something different. For the dough, I increased the Wright's Liquid Smoke that I use to 1 teaspoon, added 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika, and 1 teaspoon of Bill's Best Beaf Seasoning per batch. It may seem like much (3+3+3) but it was a triple batch. It really made these taste great! As I rolled out each steak, I again beat each one with my meat tenderizer tool. They were so tender after steaming. Then I marinated them for 4 days with the maple marinade. I had my gourmet cook friend try them and she thought they were great, even her husband! I told her about your site. 🙂
Also, when finished I use a paper towel all the time now to wipe the utensils and processor parts clean over a garbage can. I then rinse everything with cold water. It works great and is so easy!! The gluten just "melts" right away, is not sticky at all, and then I wash with warm water and soap and rinse.
Thank you for all your hard work.
Food-Lover Health-Seeker says
Hey:)
Last night I just used this recipe in Bonappetite's Black Pepper Beef and Celery recipe in place of the steak. I left a review there, and was sure to mention this blog and explain how I whole-food plant-based the ingredients and process. For this seitan, I omitted oil, and I used date paste in place of maple syrup in the marinade, and of course didn't grill the cutlet, but otherwise stuck to it. It was so gooood! After steaming and marinating, I sliced the cutlets and cooked them with a little bit of broth in a nonstick ozeri pan. The Black Pepper "Beef" and Celery Stir-Fry was awesome. It used three cutlets. We just had the last reheated and thinly sliced on a sandwich, with toasted Ezekiel bread, guacamole, silken-tofu-based "mayo", sriracha, salted and peppered tomato slices, a bit of garlic powder, fresh spinach and thin slices of red bell pepper. OMG. We will be making this a lot! Bravo!