As you probably know, I am not a full vegan (at least until now), but I try to eat less meat and include as much as veggies on my daily meal. Whenever I remember about BBQ steak, I always remember Seitan.
A Youtube channel named AvantGardeVegan inspires this Seitan BBQ Ribs recipe, but I tried to make my own version. You can look at that sauce on the Seitan, doesn’t it look like that juicy pork ribs?
Though it does taste pretty different, I would say this is darn gosh awesome for a meat replacer. If anyone wonders why I am vegan and make meat substitutes, I actually do like the taste of meat, but for health reasons, I don’t eat it, but I love experimenting with vegan ingredients that make taste like meat.
I believe this is the first time I ever tried to make a BBQ sauce, and I love what I did!
For some reason, the combination actually does remind me of barbeque sauces I’ve tasted in the past. I don’t even know how that happened, but I’m so glad. I believe that using molasses works much better than sugars here, as it gives it a dark color and tastes great.
If you want the ribs a little firmer/harder, you can try adding less liquid and more vital wheat gluten. Of course, anyone with gluten intolerance should not be eating this, as I’m pretty sure that all of this is gluten.
Just a note, I used a grill pan as I had no grill. It worked just as well, though you may need to brush water on the ribs because it does dry out easily.
- 1 cup vital wheat gluten
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- A few sprinkles ground pepper
- ¾ cup vegetable broth (I used Nature’s Promise)
- 1 teaspoon miso paste
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- ½ teaspoon pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground mustard
- A pinch of red pepper flakes
- A few sprinkles freshly ground pepper
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
- In a large bowl, mix together the vital wheat gluten, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder and ground pepper. In a separate smaller bowl, mix the vegetable broth, miso paste, tahini and pure maple syrup together. Stir the liquid until the tahini and miso paste mostly dissolves. Drizzle the liquid in with the vital wheat gluten and stir with a spoon until the mixture starts to stick together.
- Grease a small oven pan with non-stick cooking oil and flatly lay the seitan on the tray, stretching it to cover most of the pan. (I used a 9 x 5 inch bread pan)
- Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small saucepan and bring it to medium high. Briefly cook for about 3 minutes until the sauce warms up and dissolves. Take it off the stove and set it aside.
- Prepare a grill or ribbed grill pan while you’re waiting for the seitan to cook.
- Once the seitan is ready, take it out of the oven and allow it to cook for about 15 minutes. Remove it from the pan and cut it in 8 equal pieces.
- Brush the sauce over the seitan ribs on all sides and place them on the grill (or a greased grill pan). Grill on medium high on one side until ridges appears on the bottom of the rib, which can take 4-6 minutes then flip them over and grill the other side. Brush a little more sauce on. If the sauce dries out, fill a small container with water and brush it over the sauce.
- Total cooking time should be about 10-12 minutes.
