3 Easy Seitan Recipes That Taste Better Than Real Meat

To be totally transparent, I do enjoy a good burger with a side of fries every now and then. That said, in my day-to-day life, I’m not really much of a meat-eater. While I’m not a vegetarian, I do enjoy dabbling in meat alternatives every now and then, and I’ve got favorite recipes utilizing tofu, tempeh, etc. New to me, though, are seitan recipes, but after about fifteen cooking videos hyping up seitan showed up on my TikTok For You Page, I decided to give the ingredient a whirl.

What is seitan, you ask? A vegan delight, that’s what! It’s basically a protein created by rinsing the starch from wheat dough. If you’re thinking it tastes bread-y, though, think again—it’s actually quite savory, with a texture more like meat. Because of this, it’s become pretty popular in the vegetarian and vegan world as a meat substitute. Although it does take quite a bit of flavoring to amp up, the results are pretty much always worth it.

Sorry to all you gluten-free babes, but you’ll have to pass on seitan, as it’s quite literally a mass of gluten. For the rest of you, though, there are quite a few different ways to create mouth-watering seitan dishes. Because it’s fairly bland on its own, it’s actually the perfect base to get creative with, so you can flavor it a number of different ways for a totally different taste each time.

The first seitan video to catch my eye was posted by TikTok user @desperatelyseekingseitan, whose shreddable seitan chicken I bookmarked instantly. From there, I’ve seen been served tons of seitan videos on my For You Page, from @texykitchen1’s KFC vegan fried chicken to @futurelettuce’s 15-minute seitan chicken with sweet chili sauce and sesame oil.

I’ve done my fair share of research on easy seitan recipes I can master at home, and the below are the top three I plan on trying for myself this weekend. If you’re ready to fall in love with your new favorite meat substitute, read on for directions to whipping up your own seitan dumplings, seitan kelp noodle Japchae and a tasty buffalo seitan sandwich.