How to Make Seitan: Easy 3 Ingredient Recipe

Vegan substitute products like seitan can be costly, processed, and wrapped in plastic (as with many supermarket-bought foods). Why not make seitan yourself?

Seitan, unlike what you may have thought, has been around for centuries, originally used by Zen monks to gain balanced nutrition for their vegetarian diet. Today’s seitan comes in many forms with a number of different flavorings.

This high protein and low-fat vegan alternative to meat could be a tasty addition to your diet. In this piece, we will cover a simple seitan recipe, including tips on what to pair seitan with when you make it yourself.

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How to Make Seitan: 3 Ingredient Vegan Recipe

Ingredients:

For the dough

• 1 ¼ cups (300 ml) of vital wheat gluten
• 1 cup (240 ml) of water

For the broth

• Broth 6 cups (1.5L) of water
• 2 stock cubes (or ~12 grams vegetable stock)

Instructions:

1. Mix up the vital wheat gluten and water into a dough.
2. Knead for around 5 minutes.
3. Prepare and heat the broth in a pan until boiling and bring to a gentle simmer.
4. Cut up the dough into a few pieces and add to the pan.
5. Simmer over low heat for around an hour.
6. Remove from the pan and store in the stock before using.

As the seitan dough itself is quite plain, it is worth experimenting with different spices, flours, and broths to cook it in. The seitan can also be baked or steamed.

Dough alternatives: Combine with additional flour such as chickpea or soy flour to add in some extra protein and a smoother texture. Nutritional yeast and your chosen spices will help to add some more flavor to the dough.

Broth variations: You can try adding ingredients to the broth to experiment with flavors, e.g. soy sauce, maple syrup, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, liquid smoke, dried thyme, sage, nutritional yeast or yeast extract (marmite).

You can also make seitan without using wheat gluten – it just takes a little longer. You’ll find a simple recipe without wheat gluten in this video: 

How to Cook & Pair Seitan

From vegan seitan schnitzel to vegan steak to burgers, you have a multitude of ways to prepare your (homemade) seitan. In the photo, you can see a seitan steak paired with oven-cooked vegetables and vegan mayo.

You can use seitan in a stir fry, between a sandwich, in a pasta dish as a bacon substitute – experiment to see what works best for you!

Read on:

• Tempeh vs. Seitan: What’s the Difference?
• Can You Eat Raw Tofu? Here’s What You Should Know
• Tempeh Bacon: An Easy Vegan Recipe

Tags: Guide recipe Vegan