11 Easy Vegetarian and Vegan Seitan Recipes

Generations of Asian cooks have prized seitan, a vegetarian meat substitute, for its versatility. You can use it in countless ways, from cutting it into steaklike strips for fajitas to stir-frying it, to mimicking barbecue. You can cook it on the grill, pan-fry or deep-fry it, braise it in the oven, simmer it in a slow cooker, and more.

Essentially wheat flour with the starch washed away, leaving only the protein-packed gluten, seitan tastes a bit like mushrooms. But its ability to absorb flavor makes it a neutral palette for an endless array of recipes, while its truly meatlike texture gives it an edge over tofu and tempeh for replicating meat-based dishes such as barbecue. You can purchase packaged seitan at health food stores and many well-stocked grocery stores, or make your own. For even more plant-based cooking inspiration, look at other vegetarian recipes you could adapt for seitan or explore other vegetarian meat substitutes.