Seitan, seitan, seitan, the power of the dark arts of seitan can be intimidating.
Interestingly enough, making seitan is a lot like making dough. With this recipe, we are going to make a vegan “pepperoni” that is a very nice replacement for the pork version. Once you master the process of making this pepperoni it will be easy to create a seitan “chicken”, “sausage” and so on.
This recipe should give you an end product that anyone, vegan or not will enjoy on their pizza.
WTF is seitan?
Welp, seitan is made up of vital wheat gluten. Vital wheat gluten is not technically a flour, vital wheat gluten is a flour-like powder that contains nearly all gluten and minimal starch. It’s made by hydrating wheat flour, which activates the gluten protein, and it’s then processed to remove everything but the gluten.
It’s then dried out and ground back into a powder again. This magic dust is what gives us the chewy chew chew we are looking for when replacing textures we have grown up eating.
The vegan pepperoni options that are out there right now are not it.
I am going to be 100% honest. I’d rather eat vegetables than chow down on fake meat replacements.
Don’t get me wrong I’ll def slam an impossible burger here and there, BUT, this pepperoni recipe is bomb. I eat it raw. It’s one of my proudest creations and I am excited to share it with you.
HEADS UP YOU WILL NEED A STEAMER FOR THIS RECIPE. DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU!
Vegan Pepperoni
What You'll need
- Steamer
- Kitchen scale
Ingredients
DRY
- 11.5 oz Vital Wheat Gluten
- 40 grams Nutritional Yeast
- 7 grams Cayenne (reduce if you don't like heat)
- 2.8 grams Chili Flakes (reduce if you don't like heat)
- 12 grams Onion Salt
- 8 grams Brown Sugar
- 6.5 grams Anise
- 11 grams Granulated Garlic
- 14 grams Paprika
- 11 grams Mustard Powder
- 8 grams Fennel
WET
- 40 grams Tomato Paste
- ¼ cup Liquid Aminos (or use soy sauce if you dgaf)
- 2 ¼ cups Veggie Broth
- 1 ½ tbsp Liquid Smoke
- ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
- Mix dry spices in bowl with wheat gluten.
- In a sperate bowl mix wet ingredients with whisk until tomato paste is dissolved.
- Add wet ingredients to dry bowl and kneed with your hands for 2 minutes make sure all dry ingredients are absorbed but you don’t want to over work the seitan.
- Let the mix rest for 5 min.
- Then grabbing 10oz slaps, roll up in about 14-20 inch foil strips, tightening each end by twisting.
- Put in steamer and let steam on low to medium heat for 1 hour 20 minutes.
- Check your water around half way to make sure you don’t burn your pans or start a kitchen fire.
- Unwrap, put in freezer for the 2 hours or until cold all the way through and then cut with a very sharp knife.
