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Making Seitan at home is SO simple and makes for a delicious and versatile meat substitute! It’s high in protein and can be used in so many delicious dishes. I can’t wait for you all to try this one!
I can’t tell you HOW excited I was to se homemade Seitan blowing UP on tiktok over the past week. It’s most certainly not a new recipe (it’s been around for many centuries) but I’m thrilled to see more people trying it.
I have a good friend who swears by seitan and bugged me to finally try it for quite a few years before I finally gave in. My first introduction to it was a store bought seitan but I was thrilled to see how easy it is to make at home as well.
What is Seitan?
Seitan is often referred to as “wheat meat” since it’s a meat substitute that is made out of wheat. Fun, huh?
It is a chicken/ meat like substance that is made by washing flour to remove the starch graduals, leaving behind a high concentration of PROTEIN. As such, used in many ways to make different kinds of vegan meats. It’s very versatile and takes on the flavor of whatever it’s mixed with (seasonings, broth, soy sauce, etc).
BUT FIRST! Let’s go over something:
If you’re here because you saw the video of flour being washed in water then you’re only KIND OF in the right place. Let’s break this down.
Vital Wheat Gluten vs. the “washed flour” method: The first video to really blow up making seitan on TikTok is using the “washed flour” method. This takes PLAIN flour (such as all purpose flour) and washed it to remove all of the starch and leaving behind just the protein.
My video and THIS RECIPE that I’m sharing use VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN. This is essentially flour that has ALREADY been washed. So, it contains 70-80% protein already. As a result, when you’re using vital wheat gluten, you DO NOT need to wash the dough as you’re making your seitan.
What is Seitan made of?
As mentioned, Seitan is made of vital wheat gluten, flour, and water and then boiled in broth. To give the seitan some flavor, spices and other seasonings are added depending on how you’re going to serve it. It’s very versatile and can take on many different flavors!
Seitan Nutrition:
There are TWO things that people immediately want to know when it comes to the nutritional info of seitan: how much protein and how many carbs. Let’s quickly break this down (more nutritional info below in the recipe card!):
These numbers are based on my recipes that makes 2 large servings. Imagine 2 large chicken breasts and that’s about the equivalent here.
Seitan protein: 1 serving (half of the recipe written below) has 47.8g of protein
Seitan carbs: 1 serving (half of the recipe written below) has 26.7 total carbohydrates
See my video on how to make Seitan:
Seitan (Tiktok Viral!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup of vital wheat gluten
- ¼ cup of flour, all purpose, wheat, or even chickpea flour
- 1 cup of lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon of chicken/ poultry seasoning
- ½ teaspoon of paprika, or smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil
- 4-6 cups of vegetable broth
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the vital wheat gluten, flour, chicken seasoning, and paprika. Stir in the water until a dough forms. Knead for 1 minute, form into a ball and then leave in the bowl. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes.
- Knead for another minute and then divide the dough in half. Working with one piece at a time, twist the dough into a tight twist and then tie it into a knot. This gives the seitan texture similar to chicken and makes it more shreddable (if that’s what you’re going for). You can also skip the twisting and just put it directly into the pan as it is.
- In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Once hot, Add in the dough knots and sear on each side for 3-4 minutes or until a nice crust forms.
- Add in the broth so that the seitan is about 1/2-2/3 covered. Bring to a boil, lower to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour. No need to stir but I like to check mine to make sure it’s not boiling at all (just maintaining a very gentle simmer).
- Once done, you can east immediately or keep for later. If storing in the fridge, I suggest pouring the broth over top and storing it in the liquid.
I tripled the recipe, didn’t have poultry seasoning, so I added lowery’s seasoning salt, paprika & cayenne. Hint: if you are making 3+ batches at once, make all the knots THEN put them in your heated pan at the same time. Some of mine got a little overly cooked because I was working on making knots for about 10 minutes. I flipped my knots twice while cooking. They ended up with almost like “fatty” bits, like you’d see with pulled pork or chicken. We used it for tacos just shredded, didn’t add any additional spices. Then I put the other 4 knots in a storage container with the liquid I simmered them in. A couple days later I took them out, shredded them and put them in my instant pot with about 1 cup of their liquid & a bottle of BBQ sauce (and some brown sugar). I had buns for them as a pulled seitan BBQ sandwich. They were a HUGE hit at our swim team banquet. I even saw some meat focused parents enjoying them. Two huge thumbs up for this recipe.
Excellent. My favorite seitan yet, and super clear instructions. I ended up using it for our vegan cheesesteak (national cheesesteak day, but make it vegan!!). Soooo yummy! Thanks for writing a great recipe.
Hi
My seitan came out mushy and not shreddable. Did I not kneed it enough? Or maybe need to cook longer? Not sure how to get the “chicken” texture. Thank you!
oh no! I’ve never had mine come out mushy. I think it probably just needed to be simmered a bit longer is my guess so that it firms up more
I can’t believe how easy this was to make. I’ve been wanting to make seitan for a while and I’m so glad I found this recipe, not intimidating and it turned out delicious!
Oh my! That is a horrible amount of sodium!
There’s got to be another way to do this!!
it’s mostly coming from the poultry seasoning so you can adjust that or leave it out and just season with garlic powder and a few spices