Now if you really wanted to be a Level 5 hardcore vegan (or just don’t have access to vital wheat gluten/gluten flour) you would make seitan using the flour + rinsing method. This involves rinsing wheat flour until all the starch dissolves and you’re left with only the gluten part of the flour, but really, who has that much time? I certainly don’t and while I’ll probably try it once just for curiosities sake and to see if it tastes different, the more common (and much easier) method below works just fine and has tasted great for all of my seitan needs.
A friend asked me to do a post about how to make seitan, so here it is! Saying as most peoples’ reactions to any mention of seitan is “sei-what?!” it seems like a pretty good idea. For the uninformed, seitan is a fake meat made from the protein part (gluten) of wheat flour. The first time I ever made seitan was probably in the form of the infamous chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. Pretty sure I made that recipe every week for a long time, nommm.
As pictured above, all you really need is some vital wheat gluten and your veg broth and seasonings of choice. You need to simmer it for an hour, but it literally just needs to sit there during that time, so you can do whatever else you want while it simmers. Vital wheat gluten usually comes in a bag that looks like this and can be found in most natural food stores or ordered online:
In my case above are a saucepan full of veg broth with a soy sauce, garlic powder, olive oil and nutritional yeast. I use the “Simple Seitan” recipe from Veganomicon, but you can pick a recipe easily by just Googling “how to make seitan” are trying to use slightly different ingredients out of your cupboard. I’ve included the recipe off the PPK’s website, which is only different because it adds lemon juice and has a slightly different broth mixture, but it’s by the same author. Use what works for you! I’ve made a ton of varieties that include everything from tomato paste to vegan Worcestershire sauce, go crazy!
Simple Seitan
from the PPK website
- 1 cup vital wheat gluten
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 1/2 cup cold vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic (minced fine or use garlic powder)
For the simmering broth:
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 4 cups water
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
The first thing you want to do is prepare your broth and pour it in a big saucepan. What I do next is mix the wet and dry ingredients separately as shown, taking 1/2 cup of my saucepan broth for the wet ingredients mix:
Then you pour the wet into the dry and stir, at first it will look clumpy like this:
But after a while, it’ll look more like this, and then you start with the kneading.
Knead for about 3 minutes by hand. I do this part on the kitchen counter. This allows the gluten strands to form, which creates the texture of the seitan. After you’ve kneaded, break the seitan into 3 pieces, like so:
Then knead each piece by hand to flatten it out a bit and make it bigger. It should be pretty elastic, so it will tend to just spring back to it’s original position, but eventually you’ll get something like this:
Take your three pieces and put them in your veggie broth. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on the lowest setting for an hour. You want to make sure to catch the seitan AS SOON AS it boils, or else you’ll end up with a yucky rubbery mess. Nothing to stress over, just make sure you watch the mixture and lower the temp to a simmer as soon as it starts to boil. Happy seitan simmering away…
It will puff up and get bigger and start to look like this. Don’t worry, that’s normal.
After the hour, turn off the heat and let everything sit in the saucepan for 15 minutes. Then drain and let sit in the colander until it’s hot enough to touch. You’ll want to reserve the liquid for storage purposes, so pour most of it into a container first before draining. The drained seitan will look as so:
The finished product…and a cross section!
It might not look pretty, but think of it as a vessel for many culinary possibilities! If you don’t use all the seitan right away, put it into a container and cover it with the leftover broth. It should keep in the fridge for a week, though I’ve definitely kept mine in there for 10 days with no problem. Seitan ready for storage and extra reserved broth:
If my broth tastes good (this time I used some vegan chicken broth powder I made myself = yes), you can save it and use it for soups, or turn it into gravy.
Now what to do with your wheat meat?! I often fry mine up with some olive oil and Italian seasonings. You can put it on top of pizza or spaghetti like this. In fact, I literally just ate some of this very batch as such!
However, my favorite creation with seitan thus far as been BBQ seitan, which I put on top of nachos with Daiya vegan cheddar! Sooooooooooo effing good! I even finagled my own BBQ sauce, which was really easy and came out orgasmically! But that’s for another post…
Can’t find wheat gluten in your local store? Here are some you can buy online:
United States
- Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Flour, 22-Ounce Package
- Barry Farm Vital Gluten Flour, 1 lb.
- Vital Wheat Gluten (4lbs, for those who like to buy in bulk)
Germany
- Vantastic Foods Seitan Mix (250g)
- Vantastic Foods Seitan Fix Pulver (1kg)
- Golden Peanut Vital Weizengluten (5kg, for those in Germany who like to buy in bulk)
Seitan Master? Turns out there are cookbooks focused entirely on how to make seitan and mock-meats…
*** Quick note about this cookbook, it came out in 2015 and has been a bit of a game changer. Vegan turkey, ham, bacon, sausages, gravies, this has got you covered. Everything I’ve made from this has been well-received by vegans and non-vegans alike at parties. There’s also a companion Facebook group you can join to ask advice or get inspired here.
- Cooking with Seitan: The Complete Vegetarian “Wheat-Meat” Cookbook
- Mock Meat: 50 Vegan Meat Substitute Recipes to Soothe the Carnivores Within & Around You – Mock Chicken, Mock Beef, Mock Pork, Mock Fish, and More!
- Das Seitan-Kochbuch: Gemüse ist mein Fleisch (German)
- Wurst und Käse Vegan: Einfache Rezepte für Cashew-Brie, Tofu-Bratwurst & Co. (German)
Some recipes I’ve used or would like to use involving vital wheat gluten:
From Vegan Nom Noms:
- Vegan Sausages with Soy Flour
- How to Turn Bread Flour Into Meat: Seitan, the Old-Fashioned Way
- The Seitan is Sold Out! – Using the Vegan Nom Noms Cook App to Make Seitan for Large Groups
From Elsewhere Online:
- Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon
- Seitan Chops Smothered in Apples and Ginger from the PPK
- Homemade Sausages from Vegan Dad
- Veggie Lunch Meat from Vegan Dad
- Yummiest Seitan Ever! (Baked)
– Gentle Chef Seitan Recipes
Pin This How to Make Seitan Guide For Later:

Thanks for the recipe!!! Love it
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it greatly increase tissue regeneration
That’s such a helpful post! I have contemplated making my own seitan for a while, so thank you for taking the time to write this x
Wow, looks wicked cool! I’m one of the sei-what? crowd, but will definitely have to try this out someday soon!
I’m not hardcore enough for this. I’m too lazy of a vegan, haha. But it’s good to know how to make it!
By the way, thanks for following The Vegan ABC’s. I’ll be sure to reciprocate. 😀
This looks pretty good…I might try it. Check this out, Nicole: http://seitanickitchens.wordpress.com/ This is my friend’s business.
Awesomes! I just googled “making seitan” and you were the second entry. Fame and Glory, baby!
@Gulliver – I’m really surprised at how popular this post has become!
Is water taken from room temp to boil with seitan dough in it or is water near boil when you add?
@kazankota
It’s pretty forgiving either way honestly. The only thing that you don’t want to do is boil it a long time. It’s usually just slightly warm from making the broth or room temperature. You want to bring it to a boil with the seitan in there, but then immediately turn it to the lowest setting, cover and let it simmer. You can also bring it to a boil, put in the seitan and then immediately turn it down. Does that make sense?
Ahhhhh, thank you so much! It kills me that seitan is soo expensive in the shops and it is so easy to make! Never again will I buy it pre-packaged!Cheers! X
Your recipe is the best on the net! Thank you soo much….I’m embarrassed though, as a decade long vegetarian, this is the first time I’ve attempted to make my own seitan. Your recipe, my Dear…is fool-proof. We are so happy! No more store bought seitan at those ridiculous prices! Cheers to you! xx
“Nothin’ left to do but smile, smile, smile….”
@Estimated Eyes – Thanks so much for the compliment! I’m happy you like the recipe! 🙂
I’ve played with Seitan and have found a perfect recipe;
Dry:
1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
1/4 cup Plain Flour
1 tbsp Dry Oregano
1 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tbsp Onion Powder
2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp Table Salt
Wet:
3/4 cup Cold Water
2 tbsp Peanut Oil (or other oil)
1 tbsp Peanut Butter + 1 tbsp Miso Paste mixed into paste with 1/4 cup boiling water
Mix wet ingredients in a jug (wet measuring cup). Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Form a dough.
Kneed for 3-5 minutes. Leave for 10 minutes. Form a square loaf 1 inch thick. Cut into 4 mini-loafs.
Bring 1 pint/500ml of vegetable stock to a boil. Add each of the mini-loafs to the water. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn over the mini-loafs and simmer for another 15 minutes.
Meanwhile heat the oven to 180C/360F. Remove the boiled mini-loafs and lightly drain, then bake on an oiled baking tray from 30 minutes, turning half way through.
Cool mini-loafs and treat as you would cooked meat in wraps, pasta, salads and stir fry.
Enjoy
can u make a video of ur recipe ?
i’m pretty new to this
thx!!
@Adey – Peanut butter and miso paste…genius! Two things I rather quite enjoy, thanks for sharing! On my list of recipes to try!
@Nicole – Its 1000ml not 500ml of vegetable stock – my bad. Enjoy!
All ingredients can be halved.
what is the recipe for the BBQ sauce?
@Ang – Oh wow, let me try to remember, it was a mixture of ketchup, smoked salt, brown sugar and whatever spices sound good to you (onion powder, garlic powder, etc.). Maybe some apple cider vinegar too. I didn’t measure anything, just added ingredients slowly until it tasted right, but maybe I should put a BBQ sauce recipe up here one of these days?!
I have used this recipe many times, always turns out great. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the nice comment, happy it’s been useful! 🙂
Hey, Was just wondering if you or anyone knew what would happen if i didnt add the nutritional yeast? is it there for nutrition or texture or what?
Thanks! =)
It should be fine without the nutritional yeast, it’s just there for flavor!
I have gluten issues. Is there a suitable substitute for the vital wheat gluten flour? Thank you.
Unfortunately gluten is the main ingredient, so anything else would be an entirely different recipe! Perhaps look up Burmese tofu (made from chickpea flour) instead? A quick google also just led me to Happy Herbivore’s gluten-free seitan recipe (here: http://happyherbivore.com/2014/03/gluten-free-seitan-recipe/) and to a collection of gluten-free seitan recipes here: http://www.meatandeggfree.com/gluten-free-seitan.html. Maybe something there will serve your needs better!
I am a new vegan mom. I wish you were here to hold my hand as I make this. Here goes nothing!!
Good luck, you can do it! If you do the smartphone thing, I do have a “how to make seitan” app and it has pictures of every single step of 10 different recipes. You can have a look if you click “How to Make Seitan App” in the bar above ^^^. Almost like me holding your hand!
I would definitely recommend downloading the app, I downloaded it planning on deleting it after use but it’s actually really useful and user friendly- it has timers and swipe through pictures, and its much easier to keep your phone on the kitchen counter than your laptop.
(seitan is currently simmering so no word on how it’ll come out yet but I put marmite in the broth and it smells delicious!)
Thanks for your feedback! Marmite is genius!
That’s interesting. My mum started making Sietin when I was a tiny tot (I’m 60 now) but we call it gluten steaks. They are very nice especially with homemade plum sauce. Keep up the good work.