Homemade Vegan ‘seitan’ Steak Recipes

Seitan is vital wheat flour (so not for gluten allergies) that makes the best vegan steaks. It’s not that easy to find in shops, so you can also make steaks from easier-to-find mushrooms if preferred.

Elephantastic Vegan is a simple recipe made with vital wheat gluten flour (the flour is washed with water to remove the starch). The steaks are marinated, grilled and served with vegan herb butter, roast potatoes and BBQ sauce.

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (don’t feed leftovers to pets, garden birds and wildfowl – due to salt, onion, garlic, spices, mushrooms etc).

This vegan seitan steak (It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken) is another simple recipe to try. Marinated with soy sauce, mustard and vegan Worcestershire sauce, then sweetened with maple syrup.

Sam is so expert at making vegan meats, she even has an online course: Seitan School will stop food waste, as you will no longer be throwing out rubbery seitan steak attempts!

Unfortunately in the world world, there are a lot of unappetising named foods: nutritional yeast, tempeh, quinoa and seitan. If I could rebrand I totally would. But what can you do? Sam Turnbull

Why Choose Vegan Steak?

Red meats are hard to digest and very high in saturated fat. Steak and mince are not good foods to eat for anyone with issues like heart disease or high cholesterol. And red meats are also linked to certain cancers.

The benefits of real steak and mince (protein and flavour) can easily be replicated both in recipes and artisan food products. Some say they are ‘not natural’. But neither is steak before it’s been seasoned. So you may as well do the same with plants. Far kinder, healthier and no factory farms involved.

Steak and mince are popular foods, often served as part of dishes like spaghetti bolognese or shepherd’s pie. But in a country of 60 million people, we don’t have enough land for everyone to eat free-range. So even if you eat meat, most of the time it’s going to be factory-farmed, unless stated otherwise.

In fact, cows near the end of their lives are ‘fattened up’ by cramming them into pens so they can’t exercise off any calories. It’s heart-breaking if you’ve ever accidentally come across this, while out walking near a farm.