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Here’s the scoop on how to make seitan! This versatile “wheat meat” is like the Swiss Army knife of plant-based cooking. From hearty stews to crispy seitan wings and juicy grill-ready bites, it can do it all.
save this recipe!the Ultimate Vegan Meat
You can totally purchase pre-made seitan at the grocery store, but did you know that you can also make it from scratch right at home? No fancy tools are required—just a few key ingredients and the will to make some dough!
The whole process of making seitan is easy peasy, requiring only 15 minutes of prep time and one hour of simmering. Plus, making it from scratch means you can cut it however you want for any recipe (some of my top picks include seitan wings, seitan burgers, and seitan steaks!).
Reader rating
“This was a simple and easy recipe! I made no changes followed instructions and it came out perfect!” —Adrienne
Here’s What You’ll Need
This seitan recipe involves forming a dough and simmering it in a broth and vinegar combination. (Only 10 ingredients are needed in total!)
- Vital Wheat Gluten: Seitan is made directly from gluten, so this ingredient is a must. The strong gluten strands create a meaty texture (that’s why they call it “wheat meat!”).
- Chickpea Flour: To thicken it, we’ll include ¼ cup of chickpea flour. It can be store-bought or homemade.
- Nutritional Yeast: Add ¼ cup of nutritional yeast, which will bring a savory, umami-rich flavor that helps replicate the flavor of meat.
- Spices: Finally, add 1 tsp each of salt, garlic powder, and smoked paprika.
- Broth: As for the simmering liquid, we’ll start with 6 cups of vegetable broth (feel free to use low-sodium here!). We’ll then add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, which will add a subtle bite, and 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke to finish things off!
Vital Wheat Gluten
Vital wheat gluten is made from wheat flour that’s had most of the starch washed out, leaving behind the protein-rich gluten. You can usually find it in health food stores or online.
It’s actually so easy
Understanding how to make seitan is simple once you get the basics down pat (the trickiest part is probably creating the dough).
Step 1: Prepare The Dough
In a large bowl, stir together the dough ingredients until a ball forms. Transfer it to a clean surface and knead for 5 minutes until elastic and cohesive. Form it into a log shape, and let it rest for 5 minutes while you prepare the broth.
Step 2: Simmer In Broth
Add the broth ingredients to a large pot and bring to a simmer. Gently lower the seitan dough log into the broth. Partially cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Step 3: Slice Or Crumble
Remove the seitan from the pot and let it cool enough to touch. Slice it into slabs, crumble it into nuggets, or use it however you need it (it will depend on your recipe and desired use)!
How To Slice And Dice It
After cutting or crumbling the seitan, you may be wondering about your recipe options. Well, it all depends on the type of meat you’re substituting.
- Slabs: Cut it into slabs for seitan burgers and steaks (yes, with the right seasonings, you can give seitan a steak flavor!).
- Slices: Slices are great wherever you’d normally use chicken slices, like on a salad or in tacos and fajitas! They can also be seasoned and cut, like we do in our vegan pepperoni recipe!
- Cubes: Cubes are also great for salads, Buddha bowls, vegan chicken nuggets, or “steak” dishes.
- Crumbles: Crumbled seitan is perfect for tacos, chili, stew, or soup!
- Whole: Lastly, whole “loafs” of seitan make great pot roasts.
Easiest Homemade Seitan (Wheat Meat!)
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup vital wheat gluten, 120 g
- 1 cup water, 236 mL
- ¼ cup chickpea flour, 30 g
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast, 15 g
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika powder
Broth
- 6 cups vegetable broth, 1.4 L
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 30 mL
- 1 tsp liquid smoke, 5 mL
Instructions
- Dough: In a large bowl, stir together all dough ingredients until a ball forms. Transfer to a clean surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is elastic and cohesive (it will still be lumpy, but that's okay!). Form into a log shape. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes while you prepare the broth.
- Broth: Add all broth ingredients to a large pot and bring to a simmer. Gently lower the seitan dough log into the broth, ensuring the dough is covered by the broth (if not, transfer to a smaller pot). Partially cover and simmer for 1 hour.
- Serve: Remove from pot and let cool enough to touch. Slice into slabs, crumble into nuggets, or use however you need it (depends on your recipe and desired use!).
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
Does Seitan tolerate being frozen?
Yep, it freezes well! 😀
This was a FAIL. The dough was very sticky. I lowered it into simmering (not boiling) broth and it completely dissolved. What a waste.
I’m surprised to hear this, Karen! I’ve relentlessly tested this recipe (and it’s pretty similar to other traditional seitan recipes). Did you make sure to use vital wheat gluten (and not flour)? And how long did you knead it together for? If both of these were done correctly, a lot of gluten should have formed, which would be all but impossible to dissolve in water.
Same here. Not sure what else t wrong. It’s currently simmering, but it’s pretty much dissolved into several small pieces now.
Just made mine and it turned out SO GOOD! Even the meat eater in my house liked it 😀 curious, what is the serving size? How much of the seitan loaf and/or how many grams is included in your serving info?
Yay! So happy to hear it, Molly! It serves 4 😀
Is the liquid smoke a needed ingredient or can I skip that?
It adds a TON of flavor, but the texture won’t be impacted by leaving it out (and you could compensate with smoked paprika and spices).
What do you do with the remaining broth, after cooking the Seitan?
You can save it for future batches! It can even be frozen 😀
Recipe has worked great for me! Would it be reasonable to freeze and reuse the broth?
Absolutely!
Hi really easy, but I needed to add a fair bit extra flour to the mix to get it to be able to form a ball which I could kneed
Just to say, you can prepare seitan, using strong bread flour.
There is more work involved, but it’s possible.
I have made this twice now and on both occasions i have hade to add nearly double or triple the flour and besan and add extra nooch to get it to actually form a ball and not be a sticky mess, but once it is achieved it cooks no problems and tastes great, next time i will be only adding a bit of water at a time. Something is up with the ratios for sure
This was a simple and easy recipe! I made no changes followed instructions and it came out perfect!