This seitan gyros recipe make the perfect vegan gyro meat alternative. It’s packed with flavor and offers a chewy, meat-like texture that isn’t dry or tough!
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Seitan: The Ultimate Vegan Gyro Meat
There are plenty of ways to make a vegan gyro, but I use seitan because it’s the perfect meat alternative.
While some other ingredients make a tasty gyro wrap, nothing compares to the texture and flavor of seitan. Not to mention that seitan is one of the highest sources of vegan protein you can find!
Seitan gyros (or any seitan recipe) are a great choice if you’re serving people who enjoy a chewier, meatier texture and flavor. Learning to make seitan was one of the things that convinced my husband that vegan food is awesome and can easily replace consuming animal products.
How to Make Seitan Gyro
Seitan is simple to make, although it may seem intimidating the first time you try. With a long list of ingredients, you may wonder if you should even attempt this recipe but I assure you it’s straight forward.
With this simple seitan gyro recipe, you simply mix together the dry ingredients (gluten flour and dry herbs/ spices).
In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. The wet ingredients won’t mix together perfectly but that’s ok.
Then, mix wet with dry. Stir until a ball of dough forms then use your hand to knead the dough together.
Shape, wrap in tin foil, then bake – it’s that simple.
How to Serve Seitan Gyro
A classic gyro is served in pita bread wrap along with tzatziki sauce, tomato, cucumber, onion and lettuce.
This is the best way to serve the recipe, in my opinion, but this seitan can easily be served in place of meat in many other dishes. It’s also tasty thinly sliced on a sandwich or Greek-inspired pizza!
If you want to skip the pita, make a gyro salad bowl with the seitan, tzatziki sauce and veggies! This is also delicious with a side of rice.
If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!
Seitan Gyros (Vegan Gyro Meat)
Equipment
- Tin foil
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups gluten flour (vital wheat gluten)
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 teaspoon dry thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin seed
- ½ teaspoon ground dry rosemary
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper , ground
Wet Ingredients
To Serve
- 1 batch vegan tzatziki sauce
- pita bread
- tomato
- cucumber
- red onion
- lettuce (or any leafy greens)
- fresh dill (or parsley)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Prepare two large pieces of tin foil.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.1 ½ cups gluten flour, 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon dry oregano, 1 teaspoon dry thyme, 1 teaspoon ground cumin seed, ½ teaspoon ground dry rosemary, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl. They won’t mix together completely (will be flecks of tahini and oil; that’s perfectly ok).½ cup onion, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons oil, 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, ¾ cup vegetable broth
- Stir the wet ingredient mix into the dry ingredient mix until a ball of dough starts to form. Then use your hands to knead the seitan dough for about a minute.
- Place the seitan dough onto one sheet of tin foil (shiny side up) and form into a rectangle that is about 1-1 ½ inches (2-3 centimeters) thick.
- Tightly wrap the seitan dough in tin foil. Place the open edge down onto the second sheet of tin foil and wrap tightly again.
- Place the wrapped seitan onto a baking tray and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Allow the seitan to rest and cool for about 10 minutes then transfer onto a cooling rack and place into the fridge so it can set.
- If possible, allow the seitan to rest in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight (it can be sliced after 10 minutes of resting but is easier/ firmer when completely cooled). Slice thinly and serve in a pita bread with vegan tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber and lettuce.1 batch vegan tzatziki sauce, pita bread, tomato, cucumber, red onion, lettuce, fresh dill
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Vegan Meat Recipes
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About Nicole Stevens
Nicole is a vegan Registered Dietitian (RD) and founder of Lettuce Veg Out.
She helps people thrive on a vegan diet with balanced recipes and easy-to-understand nutrition science.
Taylor M
I’ve made this three times and I love it! Any suggestions on replacing the tahini though? I always just leave it out because I never have it at home. The one time I bought it, I accidentally bought some that was expired 🙁
Nicole
If you've made it without the tahini and it's worked, I'd just keep going without it. Otherwise, any nut or seed butter should work.
Jennie
Appreciate your take on making Vegan unprocessed foods, more emphasis on Organics would be appreciated!
Lauren
I made this last week and have come back to your recipe today as it was so nice I'm making another batch! My oven is broken so I wrapped it in foil and steamed it for 45 mins instead, I've got an air fryer now so might try it both ways today and see which I prefer 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe.
Nicole
Glad you enjoyed the recipe and that it cooked well steamed! I know people have made this with an air fryer (but I don't have one so can't test it out).
Joan
I am so happy to have found your website! I cannot wait to make this for hubby. He LOVES sandwiches and makes them almost daily with loads of veg, mustard, hummus and mayo. In our 11 years as vegans I’ve only made seitan once. Not sure why because we enjoyed our first and only attempt. You have reinspired me to make it again.
Nicole
Hope you both enjoy!
Debi
I have tried quite a number of seitan recipes, and have also thrown out quite a number of seitan results -- my biggest complaints are dryness and overwhelming wheat flavor. 🙁 But THIS RECIPE IS SUPERB!
As a vegan, I confess, I miss sandwiches with lunchmeat. This recipe is so tasty, perfect amount of moistness (refrigeration definitely helps firm up for slicing), flavorful, and didn't taste wheat-y at all. It was so perfect I could hardly believe it.
Besides making this recipe as is again (followed to the letter except I cooked in my air fryer instead of oven), I bet with some tweaking of spices, I could get other "lunchmeat" flavors, using this recipe as a kind of template.
Thank you Nicole, you are heaven-sent!
Nicole Stevens
Hi Debi, thank you so much for the kind words - I'm really happy you enjoyed the recipe! You can definitely use this as a "base" to change the spices and make it taste like whatever you like! As long as the liquid-to-dry ingredient ratio stays the same it should always work out.
Joe
I concur. I would like to use the air fryer next time. What setting did you use (time and temp)?
Debi
Hi Joe, I used 350 but I never pay attention to the time because I set for 10 minutes, check it, then set for another 5 or 10 mins at a time until it's ready. Not especially efficient, but that's what I do.
Kerrie
Did you use the same time and temperature when you cooked it in the air fryer?
Dani Fream
Wow!!!! Took one bite and both my husband’s and my eyes got wide with shock at how delicious and flavorful. My toddler loved it too. I missed gyros for years after going vegetarian. So happy to add it back into my meal rotation. Though there are lots of ingredients, the actual process is SO MUCH EASIER than other Seitan recipes out there. We were to excited to eat so we had it straight out of the oven. I can’t wait to try it pan fried next time.
Nicole Stevens
So happy your family enjoyed!! Pan fried gyros would be delicious. Glad to hear the process was easy to follow, despite all the ingredients 🙂
Joe
This turned out great. I subbed vegan western dressing for tomato paste 1:1 and it worked fine. The taste of this is indistinguishable from real gyro meat (although it has been 5 years since I went vegan, so my memory might be off...but delish nonetheless).
Nicole
Glad you liked it and that the substitution worked well!
Sissy
Is there a way to convert vegan mayonnaise into tzatziki sauce?
Nicole Stevens
I've never made tzatziki with mayo, just sour cream or plain yogurt (vegan, of course) - are either of those an option for you? If not, you can always give it a try but it'll be more like an aioli than tzatziki sauce.
Sissy
I was just curious.
Vessi
This was hands down THE BEST seitan recipe I have ever tried and made. And I have tried many. They always ended up lacking flavor. This seitan was so delicious rich and flavorful that I think ai will make it at least once a week now. I followed the recipe measurements and ingredients exactly, the only difference I made was I blended all wet ingredients in the blender instead of chopping and stirring them together. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe!!
Nicole Stevens
Hi Vessi - So happy you enjoyed the flavors in this seitan! And blending the wet ingredients together is certainly an option if that's easier 🙂
Tracy
I’m trying to find recipes to make for my adult kids who ate vegetarian. I don’t have the flour mentioned, can I sub something else?
Nicole Stevens
Unfortunately this recipe only works with gluten flour (vital wheat gluten) and there aren't any substitutions that will work. You can find it at most grocery stores; I buy mine at a bulk food store (or online).
Graham
This is the second time I have made seitan and this recipe made me look good. The recipe is perfect and instructions are easy to follow. The taste is amazing.
Nicole Stevens
So happy you enjoyed!
natasha
This recipe looks delicious. I’m an oil free vegan and i was wondering if i could leave out the oil in this recipe. Should I sub it with something else and if so then what? I would love to try this recipe out ! 😉
Nicole Stevens
Please see my other comment!
Jesslyn R Hildred
So delicious! I made it in the morning- it was so easy and tastes great! Thank you for sharing!
Nicole Stevens
Thanks Jesslyn, so happy you enjoyed!
Cheryl
Hi,
First time making this….outstanding! Very easy to make didn’t have lemon juice so substituted orange juice and was delicious . Definitely will be a regular. Can this also be frozen?
Nicole Stevens
So happy you enjoyed Cheryl! I'm trying to remember if I've ever frozen seitan and think I must have but it usually gets eaten quickly around here. I don't see why it wouldn't freeze well - maybe test out a small piece just so it doesn't get wasted? I'll add this to my to-do list for sure.
Cheryl
Hi, any substitutions for the Lemon juice?
Nicole Stevens
Hi Cheryl. At the very least, the liquid would need to be replaced and you could do that with water or vegetable broth. The lemon juice brings some acidity and you could replicate that with about 1 tsp of vinegar (ex. apple cider vinegar). So maybe 1 tsp vinegar with 1 tbsp + 2 tsp other liquid (to make a full 2 tbsp of liquid). Hope that helps!
Rachel
Looks like a great recipe! Are the onions raw? Or should I sautée them first?
Nicole Stevens
Hi Rachel! I put them in raw because they have time to cook in the oven and come out soft. It wouldn't hurt to cook them first if you prefer but not needed (I recommend chopping them quite small).
natasha
This recipe sounds amazing. Could I leave out the oil in this recipe or not? Im an oil free vegan & i was just wondering if the seitan would cook the same?
Nicole Stevens
Hi Natasha, I've never made this without oil so I can't comment on how it would turn out. It may be a bit dry and much less similar to gyro meat (which is very high in fat, typically). At the very least, the liquid would need to be replaced to get the dough to come together. Extra tahini may work but the small amount of oil that's called for really makes a difference in creating a delicious flavor and texture.
Sara
Made this today and LOVED IT! How long will it keep in the refrigerator?
Nicole Stevens
Hi Sara, I'm so happy you enjoyed! It should keep for 5-7 days in the fridge (I haven't tested any longer than that).
Cristina
This was absolutely delicious and so so easy to make!! I might tone down the tomato paste to 2 tbsp next time as I found it a little overwhelming (just my personal taste, I’m sure most would find it perfectly delicious as is!), but otherwise it was amazing!!
Nicole Stevens
I'm so glad you enjoyed it Cristina and found it easy to make! Absolutely adjust to your tastes next time 🙂
Amanda
I can’t believe how yummy this is! Pan fry it crispy and you’d almost swear it was beef and lamb. My only craving so far...
Nicole Stevens
Hi Amanda! Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed! Pan frying it is such a great idea, I'll have to try that out 🙂