Everything You Need To Know About Seitan

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The punchline of "so where do vegans get their protein?" is a moot one at this point in culinary history. The rise of plant-based food engineering and popular brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have triggered increased public investment in plant-based meats. Although some of these foods, like burgers that "bleed" when you bite into them, seem somewhat futuristic, all of these products are built on simple, plant-based foods that have been around for centuries — many of which have been enhanced with new flavors, textures, and modern technology.

Seitan (pronounced "say-tan"), like tofu, is one meat alternative integrated into many processed vegan meats. Although the name might suggest something nefarious, seitan is one of the most high-quality protein sources for vegans. It is also often recognized as one of the most meat-like vegan proteins because of its stringy, meat-like texture. Here are some of the most important things you need to know about seitan and how you can make it at home yourself.

The critical ingredient in seitan is vital wheat gluten. We should first note that seitan and vital wheat gluten are not the same things; you cannot substitute seitan for a recipe requiring vital wheat gluten. In essence, vital wheat gluten is like isolated gluten proteins. This gives the seitan its stringiness and elastic qualities. You can also use vital wheat gluten to add stretchiness to bread or transform your all-purpose flour into bread flour.

If you plan on making seitan at home, there are two potential avenues for getting your vital wheat gluten. The first is to purchase a bag of vital wheat gluten from an online retailer or a health foods grocer. The second is to do the same as the ancient monks did — wash your flour to remove the starches. The wash-the-flour method uses three parts of flour (bread or all-purpose) to one part of water. Then, the ball is washed for up to 12 hours — depending on how chewy you want the seitan. Seitan that has not been washed for too long will be softer and chewier, while seitan that has been washed too much will have the texture of rubber tires.

Steaming is vital to ensure your seitan is soft and ready to cook. Some recipes recommend baking the seitan or boiling it in stock rather than steaming, but steaming is the most widely accepted way to prepare seitan. Steaming seitan gives it a meaty, chewy, and soft texture. Boiling seitan makes the protein too spongy because water can infiltrate the loaf, while baking makes the surface dry and rubbery.

Depending on the recipe, you'll only need to steam your seitan for between 10 and 15 minutes to get a perfectly soft texture. Some recipes will call for leaving the entire loaf of seitan whole and wrapping it in foil or cheesecloth to steam, while others will ask you to cut up the pieces small before adding them to a steaming pot. If you're cooking a whole loaf, allow the loaf to rest before slicing to ensure the best possible texture.

Seitan is made with vital wheat gluten. You can't replicate the exact texture of seitan without using this critical ingredient — which is also a potential allergen for many folks. People with Celiac disease, gluten allergies, or gluten intolerances should avoid consuming seitan or processed food containing seitan.

If you don't eat gluten, there are other meat alternatives you can choose from. Tofu, which only contains soy allergens, can resemble a meaty texture with a simple step — freezing it. Since tofu has nearly 80% water, freezing a whole block of tofu means the water will turn to ice crystals in a few hours. Placing the tofu in the refrigerator afterward will draw out the ice and leave lots of holes in the tofu — which in turn means a spongier texture when you marinate or cook it. You can use this frozen tofu replacement for seitan to make homemade vegan nuggets.

If you've eaten certain processed plant-based meats before, you've likely had seitan. The elastic, spongy quality of the meat is perfect for mimicking the texture of real meat in foods like vegan sausage and plant-based burgers. Field Roast vegan sausage, one of our favorite plant-based sausage brands, is made with vital wheat gluten, eggplant, onions, and flavoring agents. It's the perfect pairing for pasta or a veganized version of a sausage and pepper sandwich.

Other products that contain vital wheat gluten include the Tofurky deli slices. These thin sheets of vegan meat come in flavors like smoked ham, peppered, and oven roasted. You can use these slices of Tofurky in your next wrap or club sandwich. The brand's famous roasts are also made with vital wheat gluten and tofu; you can include these as a replacement for turkey at your next Thanksgiving dinner.

Seitan has a neutral taste, so adding flavoring agents can help make this meat alternative a little more palatable. There are two ways to add flavoring to your seitan — by adding the ingredients directly to the dough or adding it to the water you steam your loaf with. We recommend the former because it is more likely to infuse the flavors into the dough.

One of the popular ingredients you'll see added to seitan is nutritional yeast. This yellow powder comes from the deactivated saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast and has a mild, cheesy flavor akin to parmesan. The nutritional yeast can bring an umami flavor to the seitan and a whole host of B vitamins. You can also add black salt to your seitan. It's an ingredient used often for vegan recipes because of its sulfuric, egg-like flavor. However, despite its name, black salt doesn't contain much sodium compared to table salt, so you'll have to add some salty ingredients like soy sauce or liquid aminos to lend a hand on the salty flavor front.

Many Asian cultures still enjoy seitan, so it's expected to see seitan sold at many Asian grocery stores and markets. You can buy canned seitan at these stores or online retailers like Amazon. Cha'i Pow Yu is Chinese braised seitan packaged in a salty, aromatic broth. Once you've removed the seitan chunks from the can, you can add the pieces to your stir fry or ramen.

Another canned seitan product is sold under Mun Cha'i Ya – Peking vegetarian roasted duck. When you remove the top of the can, you'll find that the exterior texture of the seitan is covered with a plucked duck appearance. The broth is also much more flavorful than Cha'i Pow Yu because it often contains MSG and soy sauce for flavor. To prepare this seitan product, you'll need to fry it in oil to help crisp up the edges; it is not meant to be eaten straight out of the can. Instead, you can add this mock duck to curries or serve it with stir-fried vegetables.

If you've gone vegetarian or vegan at any point, you can probably remember how devastating it was that you couldn't eat bacon anymore. And while we can't promise that the texture of seitan bacon will be 100% pork-like, you can play with the marinade flavors to add more bacon-like notes. After you've steamed and rested your seitan loaf, cut it into thin strips. A mandolin or a sharp knife are two tools that can be used for this critical step — it will make your seitan more crispy and bacon-like. Then, place your strips into a marinade with ingredients like soy sauce, tomato paste, liquid smoke, high smoke-point oil (like grapeseed oil), and garlic powder. Next, fry the bacon in a shallow pan with another splash of oil until crispy on both sides.

You can use other replacements for seitan bacon if you have a gluten allergy. For example, rice paper, carrots, and even banana peels can be baked into thin breakfast accompaniments.