How to Make Vegan Meat: Easy Seitan Recipe

Although store-bought vegan meats are convenient to purchase and use, making vegan meat from home is also an option. Not only is it cheaper than buying pre-made vegan meats, but it’s can also be tastier and customized to your taste preferences.

Seitan “wheat meat” doesn’t sound like an appealing food, however, this has become one of the staple proteins in my house. My husband absolutely loves it! This recipe shares our go-to choice for homemade vegan meat making.

Skill: Easy | Time: 1 hr 50 min | Servings: 8

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What is Seitan?

Seitan is a vegan meat-like food made primarily from vital wheat gluten (gluten flour). Sometimes seitan is referred to as “wheat meat” because its primary ingredient is gluten which is sourced from wheat. Other ingredients can provide various textures to the vegan meat, but seitan is primarily a baked piece of gluten.

Doesn’t sound all that appetizing? Well, the vital wheat gluten alone has essentially no flavor so use any/all herbs and spices in your repertoire.

I’ve almost never made two batches of seitan the same; I flavor my seitan depending on my mood or what I’m planning to pair it with. However, the recipe below is by far the best combination I’ve come up with to this point!

The Many Textures of Seitan

Vital wheat gluten aka gluten flour is a very interesting ingredient. The first time I made this recipe, I was amazed at the resulting texture of the seitan.

My partner was extremely happy because he finally ate a vegan meat substitute that was chewy and more similar in texture to meat (compared to the mushier veggie patties he tried up to that point).

The first time I made seitan, I exclusively used gluten flour without any beans or onions in the mix. This has a huge impact on the texture. Gluten alone without any beans or vegetables to break it up makes for very firm and chewy seitan.

Some people may prefer this, but we prefer mixing in blended beans. This makes for a softer textured meat that’s less chewy. Play around with the recipe and see what you prefer!

Is “Wheat Meat” Healthy? What to Know about Vital Wheat Gluten

Whether you consider seitan to be healthy or not might depend on your approach to food and ingredients. I don’t categorize food as healthy or unhealthy because these arbitrary classifications can lead to harm for some people (especially those prone to disordered eating).

Vital wheat gluten is an excellent source of protein. Gluten itself is a protein, so its flour is basically pure protein with extremely small amounts of carbs and fat. This may be helpful for people with higher protein requirements who are trying to follow a vegan diet.

Vegan diets also tend to be higher in carbs. Whole food sources of vegan protein tend to come packed with carbs. While these are healthy carbs, some people feel better with fewer carbs and more protein so this might be a good option for them.

Shouldn’t I Avoid Gluten?

Unless you have Celiac disease or a diagnosed intolerance to gluten (from a medical doctor), both of which are quite rare, there should be no harm in consuming gluten. As mentioned above, gluten can be a great source of protein on a vegan diet.

Is Gluten Flour a Balanced Source of Protein?

Gluten is extracted from wheat which tends to be quite low in the amino acid lysine. Vegan diets may be lower in lysine if high-lysine foods aren’t eaten throughout the day. If someone relies on gluten or seitan as their main protein, low intake of lysine could be a problem.

The solution is to focus on eating a variety of plant-based protein sources through the day, including some foods high in lysine. Variety is always important for a balanced diet.

Also, as vital wheat gluten is a processed product, it may not be the most optimal protein source to use as a staple in your diet. It can certainly be consumed, but whole-food protein sources tend to provide more balanced nutrition with additional vitamins and minerals that lack in processed food like vital wheat gluten or seitan.

This recipe calls for a can of beans! Beans and legumes are an excellent plant-based source of lysine, which helps balance out the fact that gluten is low in lysine.

Flavoring for an Easy Seitan Recipe

As noted above, flavor the seitan however you prefer. The herbs and spices suggested below are just that; a suggestion.

Why So Many Ingredients?

Gluten flour has no taste, so spices and herbs need to make up for that. I like food to be really flavorful, so I go all-in with the flavoring for this recipe. The ingredient list might look long but keep in mind this makes quite a large amount of vegan meat. Lots of flavor is needed for the whole piece of seitan.

You can substitute all of the spices and herbs as you prefer, or based on what you have on hand. The important concept to keep in mind is maintaining the correct ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients. If you significantly increase or reduce the amount of wet or dry ingredients, the texture of the seitan won’t be correct.

I hope you enjoy trying out this easy seitan recipe and gain the confidence in your skills making vegan meat! I was quite hesitant to give it a try but I’m so happy I did, and I’m sure you will be too!

Note: this recipe calls for Herbamere which is a sea salt, vegetable and herb blend. If you don’t have Herbamere you can sub for ½ tsp salt + ½ tsp of a herb blend (Italian seasoning works well).

I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you make it, please rate and comment below so others benefit from your experience.

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