Homemade Seitan Steak with Onion and Red Wine Sauce

This is the Sunday dinner my family asks for. Homemade seitan steak, simmered and sliced, in a sauce of slow-cooked onions and red wine. Next to it: red cabbage with chestnuts, boiled potatoes and a bean salad.

Everything is made from scratch. No oil, no sugar, nothing from a box. The whole plate comes to about 48 grams of protein and 19 grams of fiber, with almost no fat.

Part 1: the seitan

Seitan is wheat protein. You start with vital wheat gluten, the protein of wheat dried into a powder. Blending in a few beans makes it tender and meaty instead of rubbery.

Time: 20 min + 60 min steam Makes: about 1.4 kg (3–4 logs)

You need

• 640 g vital wheat gluten

• 320 g cooked beans, drained (black, kidney or chickpea)

• 480 g liquid: broth, soy sauce and wet seasonings (420 g for firmer)

• Half batch: 320 g gluten, 160 g beans, 240 g liquid

Make it

1. Blend the beans into the liquid until smooth, holding back the last 40–50 g of liquid.

2. Mix into the gluten; add the held-back liquid only if there are dry patches.

3. Knead 3–5 minutes, rest 15 minutes, then stretch and twist or knot for grain.

4. Split into 3–4 logs no thicker than 6 cm. Wrap tightly in parchment, then foil.

5. Steam 60 minutes. Chill overnight before slicing.

My way: I often simmer the wrapped logs gently in a pot of broth instead of steaming them. Either way, keep them wrapped tightly so they stay dense.

Part 2: the onion and red wine sauce

Slice two or three large onions and cook them slowly in a splash of water or broth until soft and brown, adding a little more liquid when they stick. Stir in a spoon of tomato paste, a glass of red wine and about two cups of broth, then simmer until it thickens. Season with pepper, a little soy sauce and a bay leaf. Slice the seitan and let it warm through in the sauce.

Part 3: on the plate

• Red cabbage, cooked from scratch with no oil or sugar, with a few roasted chestnuts

• Boiled potatoes

• A green bean and kidney bean salad with a vinegar dressing, no oil

• The seitan steak with plenty of onion sauce

The whole plate, roughly: about 710 calories, 48 g protein, 115 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat and 19 g fiber. These are estimates; your portions will change them.

One note: seitan is pure wheat protein, so it is not for anyone with celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity.

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Priska is a nurse with 20+ years of experience in the US and Switzerland and holds a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition. Recipes here are for general education, not medical advice.