Tastiest Seitan Ever

I've tried a couple of seitan recipes, and was sort of unhappy with the amount of work that was required, and how inconsistent the end products were. I found this recipe here, on the Post Punk Kitchen forums. What first attracted me to this recipe was the fact that it doesn't need to be steamed; simple baking is all that's required. After I made it for the first time, I decided I would never again make seitan any other way. Not only is this recipe very easy, the flavor of the seitan is amazing.

I made a few changes to the recipe; it calls for some sweet spices in additional to the savory ones. I cut out the cinnamon and the all-spice. I've played with the spices a few times, and all attempts have been tasty.


1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp garlic powder


3/4 cups water
4 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp tamari or other soy sauce
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
*If you have some liquid smoke, substitute some of that for some of the soy sauce. Yum!

Preheat oven to 325°.

In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until well-combined. It's actually easier to use your hands, as it can be hard to incorporate all of the dry ingredients. Knead the resulting dough for a few minutes, to make sure everything is combined.

Roll it into a ~10 inch log and wrap tightly in foil, twisting the ends. The original recipe said to bake the log for 90 minutes, but I found that to be way too long. Mine cooked for about an hour, and I turned it over in the oven every 20 minutes. If you pull it out too soon, just wrap it back up and put it back in the oven. The end product should be pretty dense.

After removing from the oven, unwrap and let cool. Then you can cut it up any way you want! Slice thin for a tasty lunch meat substitute or cube it and throw it in a sauce or soup. If you were going to cook it for awhile in a sauce or a soup, I would recommend cooking it a little longer the first time, as it tends to get a bit squishy as it cooks in a sauce.