Is vegan beef possible? Vegan Beefy Beefless Seitan is! This hearty seitan has a dense bite and a fibrous texture which makes it perfect for stewing, grilling, stir-frying, roasting, or simply slicing up for sandwiches. Does it taste exactly like beef? Nah. It has a hearty flavour from mushroom stock and marmite that is reminiscent of beef but filled with plant-based nutrients. So this “vegan beef” can stand in for the cow-based stuff in many recipes. You don’t have to dump all your old favourite recipes when going plant-based; just sub in some beefy beefless seitan!

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Video Tutorial for Vegan Beefless Seitan

Why Make “Vegan Beef”?

If you’re new around here, you might wonder why vegetarians and vegans bother with “fake meat.” To me, it’s not fake. It’s plant-based delicious food that is high in protein. In this case, the main ingredient is wheat. With this seitan, I can use lots of my old favourite spice mixes, sauces, and cooking techniques that were once associated with meat in a cruelty-free way that’s delicious and full of essential nutrients. Plus, the high protein content is essential for making a meal that keeps you full! Try my Vegan Ginger Beef!

A Special Beefy Ingredient: Marmite!

If you’re not familiar with Marmite, it’s a yeast extract that, when mixed with water, tastes a lot like beef bouillon. If you don’t have Marmite, you can also use soy sauce or miso paste instead. Some viewers have told me Vegemite works like Marmite as well.

How to Make Beefy Beefless Seitan

This beefy seitan is super easy to make. All you do is blend all the wet ingredients together, mix with some vital wheat gluten flour to make the dough, then steam it for an hour.

This produces the dense, hearty “raw” seitan. Raw is in quotes as it’s clearly not uncooked. However, I really mean raw in the sense that it’s meant to be an ingredient to be further prepared in other ways. Sliced thinly for sandwiches or to top crackers, it’s still tasty, but this seitan can be made more tasty after a bit of searing or grilling.

What to make with your “vegan beef”

My absolute favourite thing to make with my Beefy Beefless Seitan is Vegan Ginger Beef! The recipe uses tender homemade beefy beefless seitan, coated in a crispy fried batter, and dressed with sweet ginger beef sauce. It’s super delicious; just like Chinese take-out ginger beef (AKA ginger fried beef or deep fried shredded beef in chili sauce).

It’s great for stews too. Sear it well first, then drop into a flavourful stew and simmer just to heat up or for longer to let the stew’s flavours into the beef-style seitan.

For this sandwich, I seared the seitan first, added a couple spoonfuls of my vegan not-honey garlic sesame sauce and chopped red onion, tossed that in the hot pan and stuffed that into a fresh made fluffy flax roll.

Or you can keep it simple, season with salt and pepper after pan-frying and add to a noodle bowl like this one.

The possibilities are endless. Let me know in the comments what you would do with this beefy seitan!

Printable Recipe for Beefy Beefless Seitan