This homemade seitan recipe using gluten flour provides an easy and economical route to a great DIY plant-based protein. Be sure to see the step-by-step guide in this post on how to make seitan. You’ll also find a link to a roundup of delicious vegan recipes for using it.
Store-bought seitan can be quite good, or it can be shoe-leather tough, to use a non-vegan metaphor. And while it’s not ridiculously pricey, it isn’t as much of a protein bargain as beans, or even tofu. That changes when you make it at home.
I’ve been tweaking this simple formula for years, and though you’ll find a number of variations in books and around the web (incorporating chickpea flour, nut flours, flavorings, beans, etc.), it’s good to nail this basic recipe first, to get the feel of how to make seitan. Then, by all means, experiment as much as you’d like.
A traditional Asian food long used as a meat substitute: You may have had seitan in dishes like Buddhist’s Delight or Mongolian “Beef” in Chinese restaurants.
Protein dense and pleasantly chewy: This product of cooked wheat gluten is one of the most protein-dense plant foods available. Of course, seitan isn’t for anyone with gluten intolerance or sensitivity or who is celiac. Steer clear!
Here’s my little secret: I believe that adding a mere teaspoon of baking powder to the dry mix makes all the difference when it comes to the texture. If I ever forget to add it, boom! It’s back to shoe leather toughness. So I make sure not to forget any more.
Nutrition info: It’s tricky to analyze homemade seitan, but see this helpful article for an overview of average nutrition facts.
Seitan’s meaty texture lends itself to many preparations. It’s great as a substitute for beef chunks in stews, stir-fries, fajitas, and kebabs. It’s fantastic on the grill, too, with traditional barbecue sauce.
Homemade seitan doesn’t require much effort. You just need a little patience for the few hands-on steps, resting time, and cooking. If you follow the steps outlined, this homemade seitan recipe can yield a more tender and flavorful result than the store-bought variety.
It freezes well: When I make this, I often freeze half after it has been cooked and cooled (in an airtight container with some of the broth. Pack it firmly into the container, the less air space, the better.
17+ Hearty Seitan Recipes —
Plus a Guide to This High-Protein Plant-Based Food
For lots more ways to use seitan, this epic post on 100 Vegan Seitan Recipes includes recipes for both pre-made and homemade seitan. It includes various seitan styles, including deli slices, pepperoni, chick’n style, etc.
For a visual view of the process, make sure to see the photos following, prior to the recipe box. They’re not exactly pretty, but might be helpful for your first couple of attempts.
1 Gluten flour, baking powder, and optional nutritional yeast go into one bowl; a specific amount of water plus soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos go into another. No, this isn’t a commercial for Bragg products, though they are good!
2 Once the wet and dry mixtures are combined, they’re kneaded for 2 to 3 minutes and allowed to rest for 15 minutes.
3 I like to divide the dough into two parts and stretch into two mini-loaf shapes. It’s not easy to shape and cut this springy dough, so use your muscles and a sharp knife to form, then slice into 1/2-inch-thick (at most) segments. Using kitchen shears works even better! Don’t make the pieces too large, and don’t worry about the shapes too much, it will come out well even if the pieces are irregular.
4 In the meantime, a soup pot is filled with water, which is flavored with vegetable bouillon, more soy sauce or Bragg, and ginger, then brought to a slow boil. The slices of dough are gently dropped in one by one.
5 The dough pieces puff up like crazy at first. Use a cooking spoon to push down into the water; they’ll settle down after a while. The dough, which we can now call seitan, is cooked for 30 minutes. Don’t drain the broth; you can use it for other purposes (like as a soup starter) and to moisten the seitan when you store it in the fridge or freezer.
6 Scoop the seitan out of the liquid and cut into strips when cool enough to handle, to use in recipe. You can freeze half of the batch, since this recipe makes a generous amount.
7 Squeeze as much of the liquid out as you can before starting to cook. Here, I’ve started to amp up the flavor by cooking the seitan strips in a little oil and teriyaki sauce.
You may also enjoy this recipe …
for Easy Homemade “Chicken” Seitan
Easy Homemade Seitan Recipe
Here's an easy homemade seitan recipe for this high-protein plant-based meat alternative.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce, tamari, or Bragg Liquid Aminos
- 1 cup water
- 2 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten; I like Bob's Red Mill®
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, optional
- 1 to 2 tablespoons seasoning or spice blend (good options: BBQ seasoning, jerk seasoning, vegan poultry seasoning or rub spices), optional
Broth
- Water
- 1 large or 2 regular-sized vegetable bouillon cubes
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce, tamari, or Bragg Liquid Aminos
- 3 to 4 slices fresh ginger or a good squeeze of bottled ginger
Instructions
- Combine the soy sauce with 1 cup of water in a small mixing bowl and stir together.
- Combine the gluten flour, baking powder, and optional nutritional yeast and/or seasoning blend in a medium mixing bowl.
- Gradually add the liquid to form a stiff dough, stirring with a spoon at first, and then working together with your hands. Drizzle in a little more water if need be; you want all the dry ingredients to be moistened, while making sure the dough remains stiff.
- Turn out onto a floured board (you can use additional gluten flour for this) and knead for 2 to 3 minutes. It’s not going to be completely smooth, but really work it!
- Return the dough to one of the bowls you used, then cover with a clean tea towel. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, fill a soup pot about 2/3 full with water. Add the bouillon cubes and ginger. Start heating.
- Once the dough has rested, divide it into two more or less equal pieces and pull into long, narrow loaves the shape of miniature French breads. This dough isn’t easy to work with; it tends to spring back to whatever shape it’s in, but do the best you can — it will come out fine.
- With a sharp, serrated knife, cut each section of dough crosswise into slices no thicker than 1/2 inch.
- When the water comes to a slow boil, gently drop in each slice of dough. Within a couple of minutes, the dough is going to puff up and look like it’s threatening to escape the cooking pot! It will settle back; keep pushing the pieces down into the water. I like to reach in with kitchen sheers and cut pieces that have expanded crazily, but this is optional.
- Simmer gently and steadily for 30 minutes. Scoop out pieces of seitan to use in recipes (usually about a third to a half of the amount made with this recipe is what you’ll need for an average recipe). Set on a plate or cutting board until cool enough to handle, then cut into smaller slices or chunks.
Notes
Transfer whatever portion of seitan you won’t be using right away to a container, then pour in enough stock to cover. Use within a few days or freeze. Seitan freezes very well, thaw out on the counter or in the refrigerator before using.
Save any of the tasty stock that remains to use in soups, stews, and gravies.
Sample seitan recipes on this site
Vegan Mushroom and Seitan Stroganoff
This is so good. I really enjoyed the recipe. It is now my go to seitan recipe. I’ve battered and breaded small prices and baked in the oven for chik’n nuggets. And made made chik’n burgers with the bigger pieces just pan fried. Such a good simple recipe. Thanks!
Thank you for your kind comment, Sara Lee. I’m glad this works so well for you!
do you know how many calories in a serving?
Libby, it would be tricky to analyze homemade seitan, but this helpful article from Healthline has what would likely be average nutrition facts. I hope this helps! https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/seitan#nutritious
I used your recipe but not to a t and calculated about 90 calories per 100 gram serve. You can add in the ingredients into something like my fitness pal, then add in the total weight after boiling to get the calorie info.
Just a FYI for people who want nutritional info.
Thanks so much, Arnette, I’m sure this info will be useful to a lot of people!
Made this today and came out absolutely perfect, though I did have to use slightly more water (I used to spoon/level method for the flour). I seasoned it with some basic things like salt, pepper, basil, cumin, paprika, and garlic powder. The recipe really does yield roughly 2LBS of seitan, which is so budget-friendly compared to store-bought! Thank you!!
So glad you liked this, Kayla! I alternatively need to add a tiny bit more water or flour, depending on how exactly I measure. But it all seems to work out. I most often put half of it in the freezer, so I enjoy this generous yield as well.
Hey! After a long break I worked up the courage to attempt to cook seitan again! I found that the seitan is quite wet and soggy. Should I be squeezing out the excess water for recipes? It reminds me a bit of TVP.
Hi Tam, I’ve not experienced the seitan being soggy, but it is a tender rather than a “leathery” texture. I would say yes, you can squeeze out the liquid for recipes. It will help the seitan to become firm in recipes and to brown in a skillet or stir-fry. I’ll add that note to the recipe!
I make this weekly and frequently recommend it to others. It’s so easy and versatile to make and use; this is easily my favorite of all the seitan recipes I’ve made.
Thank you so much, Kristina — I’m glad you enjoy this. I make it frequently, too … in fact I’m due to make a batch tomorrow!
I made this, and it was amazing!!! After getting through my batch, I bought some seitan from the store out of laziness, but it didn’t match up to your recipe at all! 😛 Highly recommend!!
Wow, what wonderful feedback, thanks so much! I admit that I’ve done the same, but stopped — can’t beat the texture of this homemade seitan, not to mention the economy of DIY.
Best seitan recipe ever!! We pan fried it after your instructions to make a burger patty and it was so so so delicious! I loved that we could chew it without the leathery texture.
Thanks so much, Pree; I’m glad you like this easy way to enjoy (non-leathery!) seitan.
Can I mince the seitan pieces once cooked and put it in a chilli or bolognese?
Absolutely! It’s nice and tender, so it would be perfect for that.
Thanks much Nava Atlas. I never knew there is a way to do home made Seitan. Now, this is what I will do.
I hope you’ll enjoy it, Asja!
Oops! My name is Asha.
This is gorgeous!
Hello atlas
This a wonderful article
But do you have any guide of how to bake it
Thanks, Malcolm! Once you have your seitan made, following this recipe, you can blot it well and coat it with your favorite BBQ sauce and roast in the oven at 400º or 425ºF for about 25 minutes, stirring once or twice. If you want to use it in recipes that are baked in the oven, see this roundup; scroll down to the section that’s under In the Oven: https://theveganatlas.com/17-hearty-seitan-recipes-plus-a-guide-to-this-high-protein-plant-food/
I made this last night and it turned out great. I substituted the broth with a char sui (Chinese roast pork tenderloin) marinade that was slightly watered down. It was really flavorful. Then after the seitan cooled, I stored them in a bowl covered with liquid that consisted of 1 part marinade and 3 parts water (the marinade would have been too salty at full strength). Absolutely delicious and so easy to make.. I will definitely make this again. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Thank you so much for this recipe….I have tried multiple recipes for seitan and this is by far the best! The seitan came out perfect! I am going to air fry some of it and see how that is with some hot sauce…I ate it last night with sauteed veggies for dinner and it was delicious!
Thank you so much, Roberta! I’m glad this turned out so well for you.
This is the best seitan I have made so far. Could you please give me some suggestions for the perfect seasoning? I tried 1/4 tbsp onion granules, 1/2 tbsp garlic granules 1/4 tbsp Paprika, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp white ground pepper. All I could taste was the pepper. Maybe I’ll try it without next time. Texture was great though!
Could you please also advise if it freezes OK without the stock? I have frozen some in stock but it would be easier to portion from frozen without it.
Many thanks
Hi Chloe — I’m glad you enjoyed this seitan! In the dry ingredients I did suggest the following seasonings: 1 to 2 tablespoons seasoning or spice blend (good options: BBQ seasoning, jerk seasoning, vegan poultry seasoning, or rub spices. Truthfully, the perfect seasoning is what tastes best to you! And the finished seitan does take on flavors that it’s being cooked, sautéed, or stir-fried with.
As for your other question, since this is a pretty big batch, I often freeze half of it. I pack it tightly in a container with not much liquid, since it’s a pretty moist seitan. The broth leftover is good as a soup starter!
It smells great, I’m presently at the puffed up trying to escape stage. Lol! Going well so far!
Great, I hope it comes out well for you; let me know!
Well heck, after 30 minutes of simmering the pieces were spongy, watery, and floppy. I tried letting some cool, no good. Am simmering more now. very careful to keep a very low simmer. Seared in a pan it’s pretty good, but as one site said, if improperly done it tastes like meat jelly. Bingo.
Frank, I’m sorry this didn’t work that well for you; as you can see, this seitan recipe is a reader favorite on this site, and has never come out like jelly for me! Can you think of any step in the recipe where it may have gone off course? I’d really like to help you out!
And finally, to make a short story long, I think my first batch got too hot, ie., too long in the low boil. The second batch I just made i but only added pieces to a simmering pot. These are much better. Lesson learned.
Anyway, thank you for your patience.
That makes sense now. The seitan pieces have to hit the simmering water. I hope you enjoy your second batch!
Can the seitan be canned or pressure canned?
Hi Jon, I sometimes buy “veggie duck,” which is basically seitan, so I know it’s possible, but I wouldn’t know how to advise you on the how-to’s. I hope you”ll be able to find some specifics online!
Thanks, I will see what happens 😁
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! I used it to make vegan “chicken” tikka masala, “chicken” nuggets, and a “chicken” noodle soup! It is such a delicious and versatile recipe, and so simple to make!!
Thank you so much!! I recently added a baked “chicken”-style seitan as well:https://theveganatlas.com/easy-homemade-chicken-seitan/ — it could probably use a little more perfecting, but it’s another form of seitan to experiment with. Thanks for your comment!
Sounds delicious! I’ll have to check it out!
This recipe is amazing! I am a long time seitan lover but this was my first time making it, and I rate it higher than store bought stuff. Plus this is very easy, quick, and very cheap for making such a generous amount. I have frozen most of it because it made so much! Thank you!
Thank you, Elle — I’m delighted it worked so well for you on your first try! It does freeze very well, with no change to the texture. Just squeeze out well when it’s thawed.
Okay…. This is probably a stupid question! What is “vital gluten”? Just flour? Or some special kind of flour?
Jenna, “vital wheat gluten” is a flour that sounds just like what it is — the gluten part of the flour. Before this product was widely available (a widely available brand is Bob’s Red Mill), seitan was made at home by taking unbleached white flour, making a dough, and then rinsing and rinsing it until all the starch is washed away, leaving the gluten. Doing it this way is a serious pain in the neck! Starting with vital wheat gluten flour makes the process so much faster and easier.
Hi, Nava. I’m excited to try this recipe this week! Is it better to boil all the strips before freezing them, or should we only boil them when we plan to cook them? Thanks!
Maureen, this is a great question! You should make the recipe all the way through. The cooked seitan freezes very well. Then once you thaw it out, it’s perfectly ready to use.
Thank you for letting us know this amazing recipe I wish absolutely try. Just I have to ask you: don’t you need to wash the dough under the water many times, as usual making seitan? Does it depend on the flour you used, may be? Thank you very much, Daniele
Daniele, there’s no washing of the dough, since we’re starting with pure vital wheat gluten flour. That’s what makes this recipe so easy! In the “old days,” before this kind of flour was available, it was necessary to make a dough with regular flour and rinse it many times to wash away the starch. That was quite a mess! This recipe eliminates that tedious step.
I just finished simmering my first batch and they are beaitiful, tender and delicious. I grew up on these. (I’m now 78) My mother was a strict Seventh Day Adventist so there was no meat in our house. We made them the old fashioned messy way, of course. These were so easy, the broth is delicious and they are the most tender choplets (that is what we called them) I’ve ever had. Can’t wait to dip some in flour and fry to a golden brown. Thanks for a great recipe.
Thank you for your kind comment, Susan. So glad these worked this well for you; enjoy!
Hello I want to try this but I don’t have nutritional yeast can I omit that? Or are there other substitute? Thanks
Edina, the nutritional yeast is listed as an optional ingredients, so the recipe works fine without it.