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Vegan Steak | No Seitan and Perfect Texture!

If you crave a delicious, healthy, no-gluten vegan steak, this is the recipe you’ll want to make! It has a great texture and delicious barbecue steak taste! 

I first heard of seitan, and how awesome it is, about a year ago. Just around that time I also found out that gluten is not my friend…those were really sad news. I almost gave up, thinking I’ll never be able to eat fake meats again, and that my veggie burgers (which are pretty awesome!) will have to be enough. Everything changed a couple of weeks ago when I had this awesome idea of making vegan steaks, gluten-free style!

In order to make a good vegan steak, you’ll have to think about three things: SHAPE, TEXTURE, and TASTE.

Giving it the shape was easy. The idea for vegetarian steak recipe this came when I saw how gluten-free pasta becomes all sticky and gluey if you leave it too much in the water, and especially if you leave it in the fridge as well. I thought this would be a perfect substitute for gluten and that I can transform it into gluten-free seitan! 🙂 It could be the best ingredient for all kinds of vegan meat recipes and gluten-free vegan meat.

Want to grow oyster mushrooms at home? Check out this mushroom farm kit!

But, how do I get that fibrous, chewy texture real steak has? That was the real problem. I didn’t want to turn this into a mushy patty, so what better substitute for meat, than oyster mushrooms?! They have the perfect texture! Marinated oyster mushrooms are incredibly good and gave this vegan steak both texture and taste.

Making it taste as meat does was even easier. Meat has a taste because we use plants to make it good. Raw or unspiced meat is just plain horrible. I made an awesome steak mix with lots of great spices and gave this vegan taste the absolute, perfect, BBQ meat taste! 🙂

Vegan Steak

Yes, this vegetarian steak recipe will keep you in the kitchen for at least an hour, but it’s totally worth it! I usually make a whole batch of vegan steaks, place them in separate Ziploc bags and store them in the freezer. When I feel like eating a ‘steak’, I just take one out and cook it! 🙂

 

I really hope you’ll try this veggie steak recipe, even though it may seem complicated at first, but trust me, it’s not! …and it’s definitely worth it and in my opinion, it is the best vegan steak you can make at home! 🙂 Plus, you can use this gluten-free seitan recipe to make other types of vegan meat recipes, not just meatless steak. 

I’m looking forward to hearing how this gluten-free and soy-free vegan meat recipe turned out for you! 🙂

Vegan Steak

Yield: 8

Vegan Steak | No Seitan + Perfect Texture!

Vegan Steak recipe Friptura Vegana

If you crave a delicious, healthy, no-gluten vegan steak, this is the recipe you'll want to make! It has a great texture and delicious barbecue steak taste!

Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 150g (3/4 cup) gluten-free, corn-based pasta (I used GF penne by Schar)
  • 500g (2 cups) large Oyster mushrooms
  • 2 Tbsp carob powder
  • 1 Tbsp vegan barbecue sauce
  • 4 Tbsp sunflower oil
  • 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • sea salt, to taste
  • Steak spice mix
  • ⅓ tsp allspice
  • ½ tsp thyme
  • ⅓ tsp coriander, ground
  • ⅓ tsp pepper, ground
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika, optional, but recommended
  • ½ tsp mustard seeds, ground
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 bay leaf, ground
  • ½ tsp caraway seeds, ground

Instructions

  1. Put pasta in a medium pot and boil it for 15 minutes, until it's really soft. Remove from heat, drain it and leave it in the pot. It will get sticky. This is normal.
  2. Rinse the oyster mushrooms very well. Remove the stems from the caps. Choose the larger caps, and set aside. Slice the stems/hard parts. Leave the caps whole.
  3. Prepare your steak spice mix by mixing all the spices mentioned above, together. If you have whole ingredients, it is best to just put them all, just as they are, in a blender, and process them all at once. Divide the spice mix into two.
  4. Place the mushrooms in a large bowl. Add one-half of the spices, 2 Tbsps oil and season with salt. Add 1/2 cup of water and vinegar.Mix well. Ideally, you should let them marinate overnight, but you can cook them right away too.
  5. Meanwhile, place the pasta in a food processor or a blender. You'll see that the pasta is all sticky and gluey. This is just perfect! Add the other half of the spices mix over the pasta paste, carob powder, and season with some salt. Process until a sticky, dough-like consistency is achieved. Store it in the fridge for 30 minutes, so it will cool and harden a bit.
  6. Heat 2 Tbsps of oil in a large pan. Place the mushrooms in the pan. Cook the mushrooms on medium-low heat for 30 minutes, while being covered with a lid. Add barbecue sauce, remove the lid and cook them while stirring for another 5 minutes.
  7. Now, the assembly part. Separate the cooked sliced mushroom stems from the whole mushroom caps. Mix the sliced mushroom stems with the pasta dough.
  8. Take ~2-3 Tbsps of pasta dough and cover a whole mushroom cap with it. The mushroom cap should be like a "filling" and the pasta dough is the "crust". Do this for all vegan steaks.
  9. You can then grill these or lightly fry them, for a crunchier texture. I chose to fry them.
  10. Grease a non-stick pan with some oil and fry each vegan steak for 3 minutes on each side.
  11. Serve with mustard or any other sauce you like! 🙂

Notes

1. I usually make a whole batch of these and then store them in the freezer, packed separately. When I want a vegan steak, I just take one out and cook it! 🙂
2. I used my Optimum 9200 blender for this recipe.

Nutrition Information

Yield

8

Amount Per Serving Calories 180Total Fat 7gCarbohydrates 23.8gProtein 5g

I strive to keep the information as accurate as possible but make no warranties regarding its accuracy. I encourage you to make your own calculations using your preferred nutrition calculator.

Did you make this recipe?

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Vegan Steak

Lori

Wednesday 13th of April 2022

Oyster mushrooms are hard to come by. Can I use another kind?

Ruxandra

Thursday 11th of August 2022

Hi Lori. I haven't tried it with any other kind of mushroom.

Lori

Wednesday 13th of April 2022

This sounds fantastic! Exactly what I am looking for for my GF vegan family!

Shawn E

Saturday 14th of August 2021

Was wondering if using shredded king Oyster mushrooms might work? The cluster Oyster mushrooms in your recipe are hard to find in any good size around here, they're always puny, so the caps are rediculously small, which wouldn't make for a steak.

Ruxandra

Thursday 11th of August 2022

Hi! They have similar textures, you can try with king oyster mushrooms as well.

Rachel

Wednesday 7th of July 2021

I don't have a gluten issue. Would wheat/whole grain pasta work with this?

Ruxandra

Thursday 11th of August 2022

Sure!

Polly

Saturday 6th of February 2021

Hi. I looked at every variety of SCHAR pasta and all were made with corn and rice flour. I can’t find any GF pasta made of just corn. Suggestions?

Ruxandra

Friday 12th of February 2021

Hi Polly! You can use the Schar pasta. Even if it's rice+corn it works very well. I've tried the recipe with pure corn pasta and Schar as well and it is the same result.

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