Seitan substitute

Best substitute

Vital wheat gluten, made into seitan at home

1 cup vital wheat gluten plus about ¾ cup liquid makes roughly 1 lb of seitan

Best for stir-fries

Close match

If you are avoiding gluten, there is no true one-for-one swap, because nothing plant-based chews like pure gluten. The closest three are extra-firm tofu that has been frozen, thawed and squeezed dry, which comes out genuinely fibrous and spongy; soy curls or textured vegetable protein rehydrated in seasoned broth, which give the shredded, springy bite; and young green jackfruit for anything pulled or shredded. All go in 1:1 by weight and all need more seasoning than seitan does, because packaged seitan usually arrives already savoury. If you simply ran out and gluten is not the issue, make it: 1 cup vital wheat gluten kneaded with 3/4 cup seasoned broth and simmered 45 minutes gives roughly a pound.

Other seitan substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Extra-firm tofu, frozen and thawed
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The best gluten-free stand-in for seitan's texture, and the freezing is not optional.
What changes
Ice crystals push the curds apart and leave the block riddled with channels, so after thawing and squeezing you get something genuinely chewy and fibrous rather than soft and custardy. It is still noticeably tenderer than seitan and it breaks along the grain rather than tearing in long strands, and it soaks up marinade far faster, which is mostly an advantage.
Best for
stir-fries, curries and stews, skewers, pan-fried cutlets
Freeze the drained block overnight, thaw completely, then press hard between your palms over the sink until it stops dripping. Brown it well before adding sauce, since colour is where the savoury depth comes from.
3Soy curls or textured vegetable protein chunks
Different taste
Use the same amount by rehydrated weight, which is roughly 1 part dry to 2 parts liquid
Naturally gluten-free and the closest match for seitan's springy, shreddy bite.
What changes
Soak them ten minutes in hot seasoned broth with a splash of soy sauce, squeeze gently, then brown hard in a dry-ish pan. They taste of whatever you soak them in and almost nothing on their own, so a plain water soak gives you cardboard while a soak in mushroom broth gives you something people mistake for meat.
Best for
shredded fillings for tacos and sandwiches, stir-fries, stews and chilli, barbecue-style dishes
Both are soy, so they are no help at all for a soy allergy. Squeeze out the soak liquid properly or they steam in the pan instead of browning.
4Tempeh
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Firm, sliceable and satisfyingly dense, so it fills the same role on the plate.
What changes
It is nuttier and slightly bitter next to seitan's clean savoury blandness, and its texture is granular and crumbly where seitan is elastic, so it holds up beautifully in a stir-fry or a sandwich but will not tear into strands. Steaming it for ten minutes before you cook it mellows the bitterness considerably.
Best for
stir-fries, sandwiches and bahn mi, crumbled into ragu or tacos, grilling
Most tempeh is gluten-free but not all, since some brands include barley or wheat in the culture mix, so read the label if that matters. Marinate it after steaming, not before, or it will not absorb much.
5Young green jackfruit in brine
Different taste
Use the same amount by drained weight, for shredded dishes only
Nothing gets the pulled, stringy tear of shredded meat as convincingly, which makes it excellent for pulled barbecue, carnitas-style tacos and shredded sandwich fillings.
What changes
Two honest caveats: it has very little protein, so a meal built on it is not nutritionally standing in for seitan, and it carries a faint fruity tang that needs a strongly flavoured sauce to cover. It is also useless anywhere you wanted a slice or a chunk.
Best for
pulled barbecue sandwiches, tacos and burritos, shredded curries
Buy young or green jackfruit in brine or water, never in syrup. Rinse it, squeeze it dry, shred with two forks and brown it hard before saucing. Add beans, lentils or nuts to the meal to make up the protein.
6King oyster or portobello mushrooms
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume; expect to lose about a third of the weight to water in the pan
King oyster stems shred into thick strands that pull remarkably like meat, and portobellos slice into meaty slabs.
What changes
What they bring that no other option here does is deep savoury umami of their own, so they need almost no help flavour-wise. What they lack is protein and structure: they shed a lot of water, shrink noticeably, and go tender rather than chewy.
Best for
stir-fries and fajitas, shredded fillings, grilled slabs and steaks, noodle bowls
Cook them in a hot dry pan first and let all the water leave before you add any oil or sauce, or you will braise them into limpness instead of browning them.
7Chickpeas mashed with chickpea flour
Taste and texture differ
About 1 can drained chickpeas plus 3 tbsp chickpea flour replaces 8 oz seitan in patties
The honest least-bad option, and worth knowing because it is gluten-free, cheap and made from things people already have.
What changes
Mashed chickpeas bound with chickpea flour and baked or fried hold together well as patties, nuggets and meatballs and deliver comparable protein. What they cannot do is chew: the texture is soft and slightly pasty at the centre, nothing like seitan's springy bite, and they fall apart in a long braise.
Best for
burgers and patties, nuggets and meatballs, baked cutlets
Only for formed shapes, never for slices or stir-fry chunks. Chill the mixture 30 minutes before shaping and the patties hold together far better in the pan.

What is Seitan?

Seitan is Seitan, also called wheat meat or wheat gluten and sold in Chinese and Buddhist cooking as mock duck, is a dense, chewy, savoury protein made by washing the starch out of wheat dough or by hydrating vital wheat gluten, so that almost nothing is left but gluten.

Cooking tips

Seitan is chew and protein, not flavour. On its own it tastes of very little, which is why every recipe simmers it in seasoned broth or soaks it in marinade. Whatever you substitute, budget the same seasoning: swapping in plain unseasoned tofu or plain rehydrated soy curls and expecting the dish to taste the same is the commonest disappointment.
Never boil seitan or homemade gluten dough hard. A rolling boil forces water into the gluten network and gives you a spongy, holey, faintly rubbery texture. A bare simmer, barely trembling, gives dense sliceable seitan.
Homemade seitan swells by roughly half again while it cooks, so leave real room in the pot and cut your pieces smaller than you want them to finish.
Slice seitan thin and across the grain for sandwiches and stir-fries. It has a real grain from the kneading, and cut with it rather than across it, the pieces come out stringy and hard to chew.
Seitan keeps absorbing salt from whatever it sits in, so if you are storing it in its cooking broth for a few days, make that broth slightly less salty than tastes right, or by day three it will be too salty to use.

Frequently asked questions

Is seitan gluten-free?

No, and it is important to be blunt about this: seitan is essentially pure wheat gluten. It is the single worst thing on a vegetarian menu for anyone with celiac disease or a wheat allergy. If you need a gluten-free version, frozen-and-thawed tofu, soy curls, textured vegetable protein or tempeh are the routes to take, and none of them will chew exactly the same.

Can I just leave the seitan out?

In a stir-fry, curry or stew, yes, provided you replace the protein with something else, such as chickpeas, lentils, beans or tofu, or the meal becomes a plate of vegetables. In a dish where seitan is the centre of the plate, like a seitan roast or a mock duck, there is nothing to leave out and you need a real substitute.

Can I make seitan from ordinary flour instead of vital wheat gluten?

Yes, and this is the original method. Make a stiff dough from high-protein bread flour and water, rest it an hour, then knead it under cold running water, changing the water repeatedly, until the starch has washed away and you are left with a stretchy grey mass. It takes an hour or more of patient work and gives a chewier, more interesting result than the shortcut, but vital wheat gluten gets you there in five minutes.

Is mock duck the same as seitan?

Yes, essentially. Mock duck, sold in cans in Chinese and Thai groceries, is seitan that has been braised and shaped, usually with soy sauce and star anise, so it arrives already flavoured and quite soft. Use it wherever a recipe calls for seitan, but taste before you add salt, and expect it to break up more readily in a long braise.

Which substitute is closest to seitan's texture?

For chunks and slices, extra-firm tofu that has been frozen, thawed and squeezed dry. For shredded and pulled textures, soy curls or textured vegetable protein rehydrated in a strong broth, with young green jackfruit close behind for the pull. None of them reaches seitan's genuine elastic chew, because that comes from gluten and only gluten does it.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Seitan substitute

Other seitan substitutes

2Extra-firm tofu, frozen and thawed

3Soy curls or textured vegetable protein chunks

4Tempeh

5Young green jackfruit in brine

6King oyster or portobello mushrooms

7Chickpeas mashed with chickpea flour