What's the Deal With Seitan?

December 14, 2007

There are so many meat alternatives out there, which is wonderful for vegetarians. There are tofu turkey, tempeh bacon, and seitan chicken nuggets. Tofu and tempeh are both made from soybeans, but seitan is actually made out of wheat gluten. It's sometimes referred to as the vegetarian wheat meat.

When cooked, seitan has more of a chewy texture than tofu or tempeh, making it a popular meat substitute. Many vegetarian restaurants use it to make mock steak strips, mock chicken in stir-frys, and I've even had mock eel made out of seitan.

Since people eat meat alternatives as a source of protein, I was curious to see how seitan compared to tofu and ground beef? To find out read more

	3 oz. Nasoya Chinese Spice Seasoned Firm Tofu	3 oz. LightLife Teriyaki Seitan	3 oz. 85 percent Fat-Free Ground Beef
Calories	90	110	181
Total Fat	5g	0g	12.6g
Saturated Fat	1g	0g	4.9g
Cholesterol	0mg	0mg	57mg
Sodium	220mg	380mg	55mg
Carbs	3g	6g	0g
Fiber	1g	1g	0g
Sugar	less than 1g	4g	0g
Protein	8g	19g	15.6g

Check out the difference in protein! I'm totally amazed that seitan has 19g and is only 110 calories. It even has more protein than ground beef. Very impressive. If you're looking for new ways to get your daily protein, give seitan a try. Since wheat gluten doesn't have a very strong flavor, you can flavor it any way you want. It'll give your dishes the chewy consistency you get from meat, but without all the cholesterol and saturated fat.

11 Comments

3 years 9 weeks

I assume the high sugar and sodium in the Seitan comparison are because it's "teriyaki" flavor? Would raw Seitan have that much sodium?

oatmeal_bliss 5 years 14 weeks

My husband and I love seitan! We make it from scratch by using vital wheat gluten. It is so simple to make and comes out perfect every time. We have a recipe that requires less than 30 seconds of kneading... whereas some of the recipes require 10 minutes or more. Yum!

Linz81 5 years 22 weeks

As a meat eater, I find seitan to be the most edible of the meat alternatives (my roommate and many of her friends are vegan, so I try to be open to trying foods they might be eating)

Erin214 5 years 22 weeks

Seitan is literally poison for someone with celiacs disease.

cranbarry828 5 years 22 weeks

Do you have any recipes for this? I am trying to become a complete vegeterian, right now I eat only chicken and fish. But I am a horrible cook so I am trying to broaden my horizons!

marygrace 5 years 22 weeks

home-made seitan is better than store-bought, in my opinion. that said, since i've been vegan for so long, i have kind of come to be repulsed by the meaty texture of seitan. it reminds me of beef. i prefer tofu. still, if it gets curious omnivores to eat less meat, i'm all for seitan.

machineangel 5 years 22 weeks

I love seitan, it's so great to see it getting some press here. You can make your own really cheap using powdered wheat gluten, water, and whatever flavoring you want. A basic recipe is at http://www.recipezaar.com/149322 .

Spectra 5 years 22 weeks

You can make your own seitan using regular bread. Just get the bread wet and start squeezing it. Keep squeezing it until the water running off of it is clear (it will shrink a lot; you're washing away all the carbohydrate and leaving just the gluten). I do it sometimes when I have a lot of bread to use up and need a good meat substitute for stuff like chili or tacos.