This is a perfect everyday seitan recipe that’s delicious on its own or replacing meat in your favourite meal. I know that’s a big claim! This recipe is easy to follow and will hopefully become a weekday staple.
I love making seitan! It’s fast, easy and delicious. The best thing about seitan is that you can flavour it however you want, chicken? Easy! Beef? That too! Your imagination is the limit when it comes to this versatile dish.
I’ll be posting other dishes you can use seitan in such as burgers or to recreate other meats. Below I have added a basic seitan recipe. I would use this either on its own with some roasted veg as I have here:
Seitan with roast vegetables and mashed swede Seitan with roast vegetables and smoked beans
You could chop it up and replace it where meat would traditionally sit in a recipe. I’ve used this in tacos, pasta, on top of pizza and more! This really is the perfect everyday seitan. Let me know in the comments what you do with yours!
Seitan is also fantastic for meal prepping, it’ll keep for up to a week in an airtight container stored in its broth. You can also add it to your meal prep meals and it’ll be ready to go. The possibilities really are endless, as you can see I have a lot of love for this high protein vegan wonder food!
Key ingredients
The key ingredient to seitan is Vital Wheat Gluten, this is the flour that you will use to make the dough. There are many out there but I like to buy mine in bulk so I buy Wholefood Earth’s that I have linked below. (This is an affiliate link which I can earn commission from if you make a purchase) I like to buy this one because it is GMO-free, the packaging is plastic free and it’s in a large 3kg pack so I get a lot for my money! I also stock up on Engevita yeast flakes by buying the 6 packs here (affiliate link) which I find are the best value.
If you would like to see the steps with some photos so you know how your dough or broth should look, I have added those below the recipe!
Basic Everyday Seitan
Ingredients
Dough
- 260 g Vital Wheat Gluten
- 40 g Plain Flour
- 10 g Yeast Flakes
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Mixed Herbs
- 1 tbsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 tsp Liquid Smoke (Can be bought from Amazon)
- 2 tsp Light Soy Sauce
- 220 ml Water (approximate)
Broth
- 1-1.5 liter(s) Boiled Water
- 1 – Stock Cube
- 1 tbsp Gravy Granules (flavour of choice)
- 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
- 2 tsp Mixed Herbs
- 1 tbsp Yeast Flakes
Instructions
Dough
- In a bowl, add in all of the dry ingredients and mix well
- Add in all the wet ingredients apart from the water
- Slowly, add the water and mix the dough
- Add water until you have a soft but not wet dough and you can no longer see any flour
- Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is full incorporated
- Leave the dough to rest for 5 to 10 minutes
Broth
- Boil the water in a kettle and add it to a large sauce pan
- Add in all the ingredients, stir and bring to the boil
Cooking the dough
- Once the broth has boiled, turned the temperature down to a gentle simmer
- Place the dough into the broth ensuring it is almost fully covered
- Simmer the dough for 45 minutes to an hour, turning over once half way
- You'll know the dough has cooked when it has swollen to double or more in size and is firm to the touch
- Allow the dough to cool down in its broth, keep the broth if you don't plan on using the dough straight away
- Use the Seitan either in a recipe, slice it up to have with the items of your choice, or store in an airtight container in it's broth in the fridge for up to a week.
Nutritional information Per Portion (Minus the broth as this is hard to calculate):
Calories – 138
Carbs – 9.4g
Fat – 1.6g
Protein – 20.7g
Perfect Seitan recipe in picture format
First combine all of the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients (but not the water!)
Slowly add the water until you have a soft but not wet dough. Knead this for about 5 minutes, you don’t want to be able to see any flour in the dough and all the flavours will be well mixed. Knead the dough into a ball and leave it to rest. It should look a bit like the picture below.
Once the dough has rested and you have made your broth, pop the dough into the saucepan with the broth in. Make sure that the broth is covering most of the seitan and simmering gently.
The dough will be fully cooked in 45 – 60 minutes depending on the size of the dough. If you cut up the dough into smaller balls it will take less time.
The seitan will have swelled in size and be much firmer. This is how my seitan looked once I took it out the pan.
