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Pork Seitan

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How to make vegan pork from bread flour!
This high protein, meaty, yet tender seitan has a delicious pork flavor that is perfect for ramen, fried rice, or any recipe that calls for pork.

The flavor and texture is so authentic that you and your family will have a hard time believing that this is vegan!

How to make tender, meaty, flavorful seitan from bread flour! This high protein vegan pork is the most meat like of any seitan you'll ever try. You'll be wishing you made more! This step-by-step guide will help you make the perfect vegan pork that's packed with umami goodness.
a pot filled with seitan pork in broth

The Best Seitan Pork Recipe

The texture and flavor of this seitan is unbelievable!
I learned this technique after speaking with various Vietnamese, Taiwanese, and Chinese chefs that make pork seitan. (Another reason I love living in Seattle, the International District has so much to offer!)
Since Buddhism is common in these cultures, they are masters of making plant-based proteins!

The main difference is the restaurants use Vital Wheat Gluten and this recipe uses organic bread flour. Because of we are skipping the vital wheat gluten, the flavor is far superior! And it doesn’t upset your gut like vital wheat gluten often does.

This recipe is a variation on my flour washed seitan chicken recipe. The main difference is between these two recipes is the chicken style one has you make the gluten, fry the entire loaf, then simmer it. This one on the other hand, has your make the seitan, shred it, fry it, then simmer it again.

Seitan is naturally fat free, which is great for lean proteins. But when you want to make a richer type of meat like pork, you’ll have to add in fat to get that rich flavor. That’s why after you simmer the seitan you shred it to bits, then fry it. It helps evenly distribute the fat and making it chewy and meaty, yet rich and tender. All the bits that get hard and crispy rehydrates into this lovely fatty texture that really has a mouthfeel of pork.

Thank you, vegetarian Buddhists, for figuring this out and being willing to share this trick!

What to Expect- The Timeline

This recipe takes three of days to make but creates the best vegan pork!
Save money by making your protein at home rather than buying the premade frozen veg meats!

  • Day 1: Mix flour and water together to form the initial dough.
    Let it soak in salt water overnight
  • Day 2: Wash the starch away from the gluten, create your broth, simmer your seitan in your broth
  • Day 3: Shred your seitan pork into chunks, deep fry them, simmer in broth to rehydrate, strain and let rest in the refrigerator.
    Grill, pan fry, or roast before serving.

Making Flour Seitan Taste Like Pork

The simmering broth is deliciously pork flavored loaded with naturally occurring glutamates balanced with sweetness from brown sugar.
Smoked dulse is a great ingredient recommended for this broth because it helps add a smokey depth to the recipe. Dulse is high in naturally occurring glutamates, this helps add umami and a meatier flavor.

Other key ingredients is a premade vegetarian ham broth, but I’ve found that mushroom seasoning can be a great swap in a pinch. Ensure you use dried mushrooms as they are also high in glutamates that adds depth of flavor. You can add additional fresh mushrooms to the broth but try to add dried mushrooms as they are much more potent in flavor.

Be sure to save this broth for your favorite soup, it is incredible for ramen! It’s also fantastic if you reduce the broth, add a little bit of butter and flour, and you’ve got a delicious gravy.

onions garlic and dried mushrooms on a cutting board


Getting Started

The first step to this recipe is to add about 7 cups of water to 5lbs of bread flour. Then you knead it into a dough and cover it in salt water. The addition of salt during this stage is beneficial for several reasons:

  1. Salt enhances the hydration of gluten proteins, making them more elastic and cohesive.
  2. Salt reduces the presence of free sulfhydryl groups (SH) in gluten proteins, which are responsible for breaking and reforming disulfide bonds (S-S) that link different protein chains together. This stabilizes the gluten network, preventing it from breaking down easily.
  3. Salt increases the beta-sheet structure of gluten proteins, a secondary structure that provides strength and rigidity.
  4. Salt promotes the macromolecular aggregation of gluten proteins, leading to the formation of larger complexes.

In simpler terms, salt helps strengthen the gluten network. This results in a higher yield since less gluten is broken down during the washing process. When people notice their dough falling apart while washing the flour, it can be attributed to insufficient resting time, or omitting salt during the resting period.

Seitan ripped in half

Key Points to Making the Perfect Seitan Pork

I included a full length Youtube video going over details on how to have the most success with this recipe.
With the help of the video, any beginner can thrive with this recipe!

Here are a few takeaways from that video that will help you succeed.

  1. Use a bread flour and not all-purpose flour. (All-purpose flour works but will take more washing with a smaller result. It is more advanced to use AP flour, only do this if you’ve made seitan from bread flour previously)
  2. Use a lot of salt when initially soaking the dough ball in water overnight. This helps strengthen the gluten making it easier to remove the starch and increase your yield.
  3. Tightly wrap your seitan in a stock sock or cheesecloth when you simmer it. This helps improve the texture and prevents it from becoming too soft.
  4. Use a slow cooker on the lowest setting or an instant pot on slow cook at the lowest setting. If you made your vegetarian pork broth right before you assembled the seitan, let it cool off before adding the seitan to the broth. Too high of a temperature will cause the seitan to expand, become soft, create air bubbles, which will result in a spongy seitan pork.
  5. Slow cook your seitan for at least 5 hours, a full 24 hours is recommended. While you want a low temperature to prevent it from expanding, if it is not cooked enough, you will have a doughy textured bacon. You can slow cook your pork seitan up to 72 hours in the broth.
  6. When frying your seitan, think of it as dehydrating it. Seitan is naturally fat free, frying it is how we give our ‘pork’ a more realistic mouthfeel and texture. Most of the oil you fry your seitan will separate into the broth when you rehydrate it. The cool is part of that is the oil that separates becomes a vegan lard! It’s perfect for making refried beans.

Optional Short Cuts

This recipe errs on the side of caution to help ensure success and to make the entire process simper. I recommend only trying out these optional short cuts if you are short on time and really want your seitan sooner.
The downside is you way have a harder time washing the starch from the flour, a smaller yield, and you may be left with an undercooked seitan. Those are your potential risks! However, I see other recipes that do this so know that it is an option.

  • Many other recipes for making seitan from bread flour do not have you soak your dough ball in salt water overnight.
    You can wash out the starch from your dough ball in as little as two hours after you combine it with water. If this is the direction you want to go then really knead your dough or even use a stand mixer to knead your dough to help build up the gluten. Expect to have a smaller amount of washed gluten as a result because time helps develop gluten.
  • Instead of simmering the seitan in the broth overnight, you can simmer it in as little as 4 hours. Make sure you are flipping your seitan to get an even cooking. There is a risk that the center will be under cooked. That’s less important for this recipe because it the seitan will be cooked further after you shred it. However, an uncooked seitan is harder to shred. Using two forks to shred your seitan should remedy that. If you cook your seitan thoroughly, you can easily shred it with your hands without it ‘mushing out’.


Looking for More Seitan Recipes From Bread Flour?

a pot filled with seitan pork in broth

Pork Seitan

How to make tender, meaty, flavorful seitan from bread flour! This high protein vegan pork is the most meat like of any seitan you'll ever try. You'll be wishing you made more! This step-by-step guide will help you make the perfect vegan pork that's packed with umami goodness.
Print Recipe
CourseVegan Staples
CuisineAmerican
Prep Time12 hours
Cook Time1 day

Equipment

  • Slow Cooker I use my Instant Pot on slow cook setting, but any slow cooker will work
  • Stock Sock or Cheese Cloth

Ingredients

Gluten

  • 5 LBS Bread Flour Can substitute with All Purpose Flour, but you will have a smaller yield
  • 1 tbs Red Rice Yeast Powder Optional, adds a slightly pink hue that makes this pork look more realistic
  • 7 Cups Water

Vegetarian Pork Flavored Broth

To Fry

Instructions

Create Gluten

  • In a large bowl, combine 5lbs of bread flour and mix in the red rice yeast powder.
    Pour in your 7 cups water and mix into a dough
  • *Optional*
    Stretch and fold your dough every 30 minutes for about 2 hours. This helps build up the gluten, increasing your yield, and will make washing out the starch from the dough easier. It doesn't have to be exactly every 30 minutes for 2 hours, it can be a single stretch and fold whenever you walk past the kitchen.
    You can skip this step and still have great results, but I have noticed it is significantly easier to wash the dough if it is well kneaded (stretched and folded)
  • Add roughly 3-5 tbs of salt to about 5 cups of water and pour it over your dough ball. Let this rest overnight, it can be left at room temperature or placed in the refrigerator

Wash the Flour

  • You can either wash the dough with the salted water or you can pour off the salted water to begin. If you washed the dough with the salted water, your saved wheat stach will be salty. If you wash the dough with the salted water it speeds up the process and makes it slightly easier to wash, salt helps strengthen gluten.
  • Gently knead/massage the dough under cold water until the water is thick with wheat starch. Pour the starch water into a large bowl to save for other recipes.
    Repeat this process until the water begins to become clear. You don't want to over wash your gluten by removing every single bit of starch, otherwise the texture will be squeaky. Rather wash it until almost all of it is gone. When you run water over the dough there should be slight cloud of starch where the water is transparent yet has some minor clouds of starch in it.
    This process takes about 20 minutes.
  • Set gluten aside in a bowl or inside a large container and place in the refrigerator. The gluten will drain some of its water as it rests.

Create Vegetarian Pork Broth

  • Crush and chop your garlic and roughly chop your onion
  • In either an instant pot or large stock pot, bring to medium heat and add about a tablespoon of oil.
    Sauté the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes, then add the dried mushrooms and dulse and continue to cook for 2 minutes
  • Then add your brown sugar and vegetarian ham seasoning and allow to caramelize. Then pour in your water and mix well.
    If using an instant pot, change the setting to slow cook low.
    If using a large stock pot, pour the broth into a slow cooker.

Shape your Gluten

  • Stretch out the gluten into a long thin rope, slightly twisting it. Knot the dough repeatedly, tucking the ropes of the dough into itself, until it is one knotted loaf.
    Place the knotted gluten a stock sock.

Simmer the Seitan

  • Place the gluten into your broth and allow that to slow cook overnight, rotating it every few hours.
    Once it is cooked it will expand and become firm

Shred and Fry

  • Remove the seitan from the broth.
    Strain out the other solids in the broth (onions, mushrooms, ect) and return the broth to your slow cooker/instant pot.
    Remove the seitan from the stock sock and let cool for about 10 minutes, or until you can handle it.
  • Tear the seitan into chunks. The smaller the pieces, the richer the 'pork'. For a lower fat version tear into larger chunks.
  • Preheat a pan with your coconut oil on high. Fry the all chunks of seitan until they are golden brown and very crispy. Think of this as 'dehydrating' the seitan in the oil. To ensure they are all evenly cooked, do this in batches. Add more oil to your pan as needed.
  • Add the crispy fried seitan back into your broth. Let this simmer for about 10- 15 minutes, or until the seitan has softened again.
    Strain the seitan from the broth. It is ready to serve now, however if you refrigerate it overnight (or a few hours) the texture will firm up and be even more pork like.
    Pour your broth into jars.
    Once your broth cools the coconut oil will solidify at the top. The coconut oil will be pork flavored from frying with the seitan and can be used as a vegetarian lard.

To Serve the Pork Seitan

  • Once your seitan is made you can marinate it as you wish, or simply pan fry it and add it to your favorite recipes.
    It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 year.

Notes

See article above for optional short cuts and tricks.

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By on January 31st, 2025

About Jessica Flowers

Jess Flowers is a multimedia specialist who creates vegan recipes using local and wild ingredients. Being plant based for over a decade, it is her mission to share delicious recipes that are made without animal products!

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1 thought on “Pork Seitan”

  1. 5 stars
    I made this recipe after having good success with your seitan chicken recipe last week. It came out even better, and the broth and texture is amazing. I’m planning to use the seitan and broth tonight in a ramen-esque soba noodle soup. Thanks for the recipes!

    Reply
5 from 1 vote

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