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Vegan steak on a white plate.
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4.84 from 135 votes

Vegan Steak

Tender, juicy and flavorful vegan steak! Perfectly spiced and looking remarkably like the 'real thing' these vegan seitan steaks are deliciously textured, super high in protein and heaps of fun to make!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegan
Servings: 4
Calories: 402kcal

Ingredients

For the Vegan Steaks:

For the Marinade:

  • ¼ cup Soy Sauce (60ml)
  • 1 tsp Paprika
  • 2 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
  • tsp Liquid Smoke

For Frying:

For Serving (Optional):

Instructions

  • Add the chickpeas, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, coriander powder, oregano, soy sauce, tomato paste, paprika, black pepper, dijon mustard, liquid smoke and vegetable stock to the food processor and process until well mixed.
  • Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the vital wheat gluten. Stir in with a spoon briefly and then get in there with your hands, mixing it into a dough. Knead the dough for around 2 minutes, you want it to go from sticky and soft to firm and stretchy, so that when you pull it, it snaps back into place. See our full post for lots more info on kneading. Make sure you don't over-knead it because that will cause your steaks to become very tough.
  • As soon as you have a firm, stretchy texture, flatten it out and cut it into 4 roughly equal sized steaks. Use a potato masher to bash the steaks down a bit to flatten, but don't do this too much as it counts as kneading, and you don't want to overdo it.
  • Wrap the steaks individually in tinfoil and then steam them for 20 minutes. Don't wrap them too tight as they will expand while steaming. You can steam them in a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water, or in any steamer that you have.
  • While the steaks are steaming, prepare your marinade sauce by adding all the ingredients to a bowl and whisking them together. Let it sit for a little while and then whisk again. You want it to be nice and smooth and it can take a couple of minutes for the brown sugar to dissolve properly.
  • After steaming for 20 minutes, unwrap the steaks from their tinfoil and place into a square dish. Pour over the marinade sauce and use a brush to make sure the steaks are properly covered. Turn them over in the sauce a few times.
  • Heat a pan with a little olive oil (or other oil, 1 Tbsp is fine) and then fry the steaks (I found they all fitted into the same pan) flipping them regularly and brushing more marinade sauce on them every time you flip them, until they are nicely browned and caramelized.
  • Serve with a side salad, baked potatoes with vegan sour cream, and if you like sauces with your steaks, then a creamy mushroom sauce goes wonderfully with this!

Video

Notes

  1. I really recommend you weigh out the wheat gluten for accuracy. I couldn't find a 'standard' measure for a cup of wheat gluten, so just weighed it out and this is what I came to. But for accuracy, it would be best to weigh it.
  2. These steaks keep very well in the fridge for 5-7 days and leftovers can be sliced up and used for vegan steak sandwiches.
  3. If you want to make these in advance, you can make them up to the stage where they have finished steaming, and then unwrap them and place them in a sealed container for 3-4 days until you're ready to marinade them and fry them up. You can also place them in the marinade sauce and then leave them for a day or two in the fridge soaking in the marinade and then fry them up when you're ready. If they're already in the marinade sauce then a couple of days is fine, if you want to keep them a little longer (3-4 days) then don't put them in the marinade, just steam them, unwrap them and put them in a sealed container and only soak them in marinade when you're ready to make them.
  4. Nutritional information is for 1 vegan steak (of 4) without mushroom sauce.
  5. Recipe adapted from Bosh with The Happy Pear.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Vegan Steak | Calories: 402kcal | Carbohydrates: 34.8g | Protein: 58g | Fat: 2.7g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 1868mg | Fiber: 6.2g | Sugar: 13.5g