This seitan turkey recipe creates a flavorful vegan roast that’s perfect for holiday gatherings! It’s great paired with vegan gravy, mashed potatoes and other vegetable side dishes.
Made with a simple ingredient list, all you’ll need to do is blend the liquid ingredients, mix with dry ingredients, then bake and serve. The result is an easy high-protein option for roast dinners and meal prepping sandwiches, wraps or salads.
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Ingredients for Vegan Turkey
This seitan roast recipe is made from a base of vital wheat gluten (gluten flour) and chickpeas. To create the ultimate seitan turkey, you’ll need:
- Chickpeas: Blend chickpeas into the mix to add texture and keep the seitan from becoming too chewy or rubbery. Other beans, like white beans, could work as well.
- Onion: For a savory flavor and additional fiber (to help create a nice texture) onion is a great addition to the recipe.
- Vegan chicken bouillon: If you can get your hands on some vegan chicken-flavored bouillon cubes, I highly recommend it. These are the easiest way to add tons of delicious, umami flavor that’s hard to replicate with vegetables, herbs and spices alone. If you can’t find vegan chicken bouillon, a vegetable bouillon cube will work, but the final flavor will taste less like chicken/turkey.
- Olive oil: Oil keeps seitan moist and tender while enhancing other flavors in the recipe. Any type of cooking oil should work in this recipe.
- Soy sauce: Chickpeas and gluten flour, which make up the bulk of this seitan turkey, have little flavor. Therefore, we need lots of tasty ingredients to add salt and umami! Soy sauce is the perfect way to add extra flavor to this recipe. Since there’s already salt in the bouillon, you may want a low sodium soy sauce (although I use regular soy sauce as I find the extra salt really helps make a tasty seitan).
- Apple cider vinegar: Vinegar is very helpful when making seitan to balance the flavors and make the roast taste less like wheat. Any type of vinegar should work for this recipe.
- Dry thyme: This is one of my favorite herbs and it adds a great flavor to this roast. Thyme is commonly used to flavor roast turkey, so is a perfect for a vegan version. Rosemary could work as well if you prefer.
- Gluten flour: This is the key ingredient in seitan and cannot be substituted for anything else. Gluten flour (vital wheat gluten) is pure gluten protein, which is what creates the chewy, meaty texture in this recipe.
- Nutritional yeast: To add additional depth of flavor, nutritional yeast is one of my go-to ingredients for vegan cooking. It’s a yellow-colored flaky seasoning that tastes slightly cheesy and nutty. It is not the same as baking yeast/ brewers’ yeast and these other types of yeast cannot be used in place of nutritional yeast.
- Spices: Gluten flour has little flavor, so I use plenty of spices to ensure my seitan tastes amazing. For this recipe, to create a turkey roast flavor, I use onion powder, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Poultry seasoning should be vegan as it’s usually just a blend of herbs that commonly flavor roast chicken/turkey. When adding salt, keep in mind the saltiness of the bouillon and soy sauce and adjust to your preferences.
How to Make a Seitan Turkey Roast
This recipe is quite simple and quick to make! It’s a beginner friendly seitan because there’s minimal work involved in preparing this roast.
Step 1: Blend Liquid Ingredients
Start by draining and rinsing the chickpeas before adding them to a blender along with onion, bouillon, olive oil, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, water and dry thyme.
Blend until the mixture is very smooth. I like to scrape the edges of the blender down at least once to make sure everything blends evenly.
Step 2: Mix Dry Ingredients
In a large mixing bowl, stir (or whisk) the gluten flour and dry spices. This includes onion powder, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.
Step 3: Combine and Form Seitan Dough
Pour the liquid mixture from your blender into the mixing bowl. Use a spatula to scrape as much liquid as possible from the blender.
Stir the liquid and dry ingredients together until a ball of dough starts to form and you can no longer stir. At this point, switch to using your hand to finish combining the dough together.
Knead the dough for about a minute, incorporating all the dry ingredients into it.
The dough should start to feel firmer as you knead. After a minute of kneading, shape the dough into a slightly oval-shaped roast.
Step 4: Bake and Serve
Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
Place the seitan dough onto a piece of tin foil, shiny side up, then wrap your seitan as tightly as possible. Next, put the folded edge down onto a second sheet of tin foil and wrap the roast tightly again.
Place the roast into a baking dish/pan/tray then into your oven for 1 hour 45 minutes. Flip the roast about halfway through cooking; I roast for one hour, then flip before cooking for the final 45 minutes.
Serving Immediately
This seitan turkey is best if refrigerated overnight (but can be eaten immediately once fully roasted). The texture is softer if serving right away.
If serving fresh from your oven, carefully remove the tin foil from and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Serving the Next Day
If making the roast a day (or 2-3 days) in advance, leave it in tin foil once out of your oven. Let the roast cool for about an hour at room temperature before refrigerating.
To reheat, place the roast (still in tin foil) back onto a baking tray/dish of some kind and into an oven heated to 350 °F. It takes an hour to reheat assuming the roast is the only thing in your oven.
If there’s other food in your oven, the roast may take up to an hour and a half to reheat.
You can also simply slice the roast cold, then reheat in a microwave. This is typically what I do since it’s way easier and faster (but if you want a full roast to serve, reheat in the oven).
How to Serve this Vegan Turkey Recipe
Vegan turkey is often made for Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas and other holidays. If this is when you’ll make it, serve the seitan turkey with your favorite side dishes and sauces.
My favorite side dishes for a holiday meal include:
Beyond a holiday meal, this recipe is great for meal prep since it’s so easy to make. It’s high in protein which makes it a great addition to any vegan meal to help keep you feeling full and satisfied.
This recipe is great for sandwiches or wraps, and you can also chop it into small pieces for any salad you like!
How to Refrigerate and Freeze Seitan Turkey
Store leftover turkey wrapped in the tin foil you cooked it in, or transfer leftovers to an airtight container. It should be okay in the fridge for up to a week, but ideally, only reheat it once.
Seitan also freezes quite well. I often like to make a double batch of seitan and freeze some for later. Take the seitan out of your freezer a full day before you want to eat it and thaw in your fridge. You can slice and use the meat cold or reheat in a microwave oven. If the turkey is thawed, you can also reheat it in a typical oven for 90 minutes at 350 °F.
If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!
📖 Recipe
Seitan Turkey
Equipment
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Tin foil
- Baking pan
Ingredients
Seitan Turkey “Wet” Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpeas , cooked, drained and rinsed (180 grams)
- ½ cup onion , chopped, about 1 small (75 grams)
- 1 cube vegan chicken bouillon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 6 tablespoons water (90 milliliters)
Seitan Turkey “Dry” Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon dry thyme
- 1 ⅛ cups gluten flour/ vital wheat gluten (170 grams)
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (5 grams)
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon poultry seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon salt , or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Step 1: Blend Liquid Ingredients
- Add rinsed and drained chickpeas to a blender along with roughly chopped onion and all other ingredients that will form your liquid seitan base.1 cup chickpeas, ½ cup onion, 1 cube vegan chicken bouillon, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 6 tablespoons water
- Blend until very smooth, scraping down the blender edges at least once.
Step 2: Mix Dry Ingredients
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together all your remaining "dry" ingredients.1 teaspoon dry thyme, 1 ⅛ cups gluten flour/ vital wheat gluten, 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, ¾ teaspoon poultry seasoning, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Step 3: Combine and Form Seitan Dough
- Pour the blended “wet” ingredients into the “dry” gluten flour mixture. Scrape your blender with a spatula to get out all the liquid that you can.
- Stir the liquid mixture into the flour until a ball of dough forms and you can no longer stir.
- Switch to mixing with your hand and knead the dough for about 1 minute. It should start to feel firmer as you knead.
Step 4: Bake and Serve
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F.
- Shape the seitan dough into a slightly oval roast (see photos/ video).
- Place onto a sheet of tin foil and wrap the seitan tightly. Then, wrap tightly in a second sheet of tin foil.
- Put the roast onto a baking tray or into a baking dish, then into your preheated oven.
- Cook for 1 hour and 45 minutes, flipping about halfway through (I cook for 1 hour, flip, then another 45 minutes).
- Remove the roast from your oven.
- If serving right away, carefully remove from the foil and cool for 15 minutes before slicing.
- This roast is best served after chilling in your fridge overnight. For this, keep the roast wrapped in foil, cool for about 1 hour at room temperature, then place into your fridge. The next day, heat your oven to 350 °F and reheat for 1 hour, or until the center is warmed through (if there are other items in the oven, it could take up to 90 minutes to warm). Remove from your oven, carefully take the roast out of the tin foil, slice and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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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.
Lmelhart says
Can you eat this cold, like on a sandwich?
Nicole says
Absolutely! It makes great sandwiches 🙂