Vegan Baked Seitan Pepperoni Recipe

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

I'm hoping this recipe will be another big step in our Get Real progress. Vegan pepperoni is one of the fake meats I buy occasionally for recipes (though I have had a little success with Zucchini Pepperoni). The spices in the infamous Seitan o' Greatness recipe seem kind of pepperoni-y to me (and yes, pepperoni-y is completely a word...in my head). Now if this works out I'll just need to find a good baked chickeny seitan recipe to use for our favorite chicken dishes.

Baked Seitan Pepperoni

Adapted from Seitan o' Greatness.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons paprika

1/4 teaspoons cumin

1-2 teaspoons pepper

1/8 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoons all-spice

3/4 cup cold water

5 tablespoons (3 ounces) tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon minced garlic

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large mixing bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix the rest of the ingredients (liquid ingredients) in a smaller mixing bowl. Whisk well until mixed.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well. I start out with a spoon and then switch to my hands. Knead for several minutes.

Form into a log 6 to 10 inches long (depending on desired slice circumference), wrap tightly in foil, twisting ends (I actually ended up wrapping mine more like a burrito). Bake for 90 minutes. Place it on a baking sheet or additional foil if you're worried about leakage.

Unwrap and leave out to cool completely. Wrap in foil or plastic and refrigerate. Slice it to use as you wish. I highly recommend using a bread knife for the slicing. This seems to work best for seitan in my experience.

The Results

This was incredibly easy. I am completely in love with the baking process. I've only ever tried boiled seitan and slow cooker boiled seitan before (of which I loved the slow cooker process ever so much more). The baking is incredibly simple. Squish the stuff up, pop it in the oven and walk away for an hour and a half. Win!

This did come out a little bit too salty for my tastes to eat on its own. It reminded me a bit of that Hillshire Farms sausage log they used to give out in samples at the mall when I was a kid, but not as sweet. Next time I'm going to try cutting the soy sauce down to 1 tablespoon and see where that brings us.

This post is shared with Real Food Wednesday, Whole Food Wednesdays, Recipes I Can't Wait to Try, What's Cooking Wednesday, What's on Your Plate?, What's on the Menu Wednesday, Let's Do Brunch, Works for me Wednesday, These Chicks Cooked, Recipe Link Party, Foodie Wednesday and Bake with Bizzy.

The Super Easy Vegetarian Slow Cooker Cookbook

Want vegetarian and vegan recipes you’ll love? Check out my first cookbook! I’m so excited about it and I hope you’ll love it. You can find more information about it right HERE.