Skip to Content

Seitan Turkey Roast

Seitan Turkey Roast

This roast seitan turkey is literally the most perfect table centre piece for Thanksgiving, Christmas, a special occasion, or simply a fancy Sunday afternoon roast.

Alll seitan recipes need a little time and effort and this seitan roast is no different. There are several stages to this but don’t be put off by that as it really is the most excellent vegan seitan turkey roast recipe I have ever tried.

It’s always worth the time and effort for big occasions and special meals.

The most important ingredient you will need to make your own seitan is vital wheat gluten flour and much of the rest is pantry spices, flavours and stock!

Looking for more ways to make and use seitan? Check out the best seitan recipes!

Roast Turkey Seitan Recipe

The great thing about seitan is it can really satisfy our omni loved ones. It’s the perfect vegan compromise during the Holiday season. Likewise, maybe you have a vegan coming over for a meal and you want to do something special.

I can safely say any vegan that is served this seitan roast will be blown away and so chuffed with the effort. So what is seitan you may ask?

Well it’s essentially the gluten from flour. It’s separated from the main protein of wheat. It’s very fibrous once made into a dough and that’s the reason why it is such a good meat replacement.

Vital wheat gluten is completely tasteless so this is where all of the amazing flavours of spices and herbs come into play. Think rosemary, thyme, tarragon and sage for this particular recipe!

Anthony’s Vital Wheat Gluten, 4 lb, Vegan, Non GMO, Keto Friendly, Low Carb
  • Premium Vital Wheat Gluten – Keto Friendly
  • High in Protein, Improves elasticity and texture of dough
  • Made from Wheat Gluten, the protein found in wheat
  • The Nemesis of Gluten Free – A staple for making vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives
  • Main Ingredient in Meat Alternatives like Seitan. Great for baking keto-friendly pancakes, cookies, bread, and more!

You may not find vital wheat gluten in a regular grocery store but there are plenty of options on Amazon and health food stores. I have a big bag and it has lasted for several recipes. Check out vital wheat gluten prices here.

Turkey Seitan Recipe

The ingredient list is quite lengthy, however I bet you will have a number of them in your pantry!

For the dry ingredients you will need:

  • 2.5 cups of vital wheat gluten
  • 1/4 a cup of nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp of onion powder
  • 1 tbsp of garlic powder

For the wet ingredients you will need:

  • 1 cup of plant milk of choice ( I used oat milk)
  • 2 cups of white wine ( you can use non-alcoholic if you prefer)
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 a cup of canned chickpeas
  • 1/3 a block of firm tofu (approx 2/3 a cup or 110g)
  • 3 tbsp of Marmite ( yeast spread)
  • 1 tbsp of dried rosemary
  • One tbsp of dried thyme
  • 1 tsp of dried tarragon
  • 2 -3 sprigs of fresh sage

Stuffing

For the stuffing you can either get a pack that just requires you to add water or you can make this yourself. The main thing is to ensure the stuffing is nice and wet and features something sweet for example cranberries. Check out this stuffing recipe if you prefer to make it yourself.

Broth

When the seitan is prepared it’s roasted in a broth in the oven. To make this broth, you’ll need:

  • 1 onion
  • 2 cups of wine ( this can be non alcoholic if you prefer)
  • Fresh thyme
  • Fresh rosemary
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 4 cups of vegetable stock

Rub

You will need to roll the seitan in a rub made with a handful of spices and flavors. This prevents it from sticking to anything whilst it’s cooking.

  • 1 tbsp of cayenne pepper
  • One tsp of paprika
  • 1 tbsp of salt
  • One tbsp of dried rosemary
  • 1 tbsp of dried thyme

You can make the rub ahead of time and keep it in a jar for future recipes too, just double up the ingredients!

There are couple of other things you’ll need. Namely a muslin for cooking the seitan, it helps hold it together.

I actually didn’t have a muslin but I did have a small laundry net that I had never used before and it worked really well. Check out this Muslin.

You will also need some string to tie the seitan. I literally took this from my kids craft box and it worked perfectly. Buy cooking string here.

G2PLUS 328ft White Cotton Twine – Natural Bakers String for Wrapping Gifts, Arts, Crafts and Home Decor
  • White String Material: String line is made of 100% cotton, strong and durable. Great as cooking twine, butcher’s twine, and kitchen twine.
  • Twine String Size and Package: The cotton baker twine is 2mm in diameter. Each roll string length is 328 feet / 100 meters.
  • Kitchen String: Soft and sturdy cotton string can be used as cooking string, butcher twine, and kitchen string. Twine string is used for roasting turkey, making roast meat, soufflé ring, bacon wrapped filet mignon, curing, and smoking meat, and making sausage. The cooking string is made of white pure cotton string, it can be safely used in the oven and away from flames.
  • Easy to use: The cotton twine is neatly wound, easy to find the end, and does not tangle during use, making it easy to store. You can cut out the length you want as you please. White string is thin and sturdy, making it a good choice for crochet, gardening, and gift packaging. You can use it to make beautiful gift packaging, gift card strings, photo strings, crafts, and many other DIY projects.
  • Multi-functional String: Natural string is perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas Gift wrapping, Arts, crafting, hang tags, tying meat for roasting, gift wrapping packages, outdoor decoration, dream catcher making, gardening projects, tags, bouquet ties, hanging pictures, tying dried flowers, fixing a kite string or decorative accent for booksand many other home projects.

Turkey Seitan Recipe

So what you are going to do first is mix together your dry ingredients in a large bowl! This is your vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, onion powder and garlic powder. Make a well in the centre ready for the wet ingredients, set to one side.

Next you are going to blend all of your wet ingredients until smooth, This includes, the plant milk, wine, garlic, chickpeas, tofu, marmite, sage leaves, dried rosemary, thyme and tarogan.

Add the wet ingredients to the well in your big mixing bowl to make the best seitan turkey recipe.

You are going to fold the ingredients together with your hands until you create a big ball of dough.

Seitan Roast

Knead the dough for a few minutes. if you prefer a more meaty texture keep kneading for a little while. This will make the dough firmer and more elastic.

If you prefer a softer texture, don’t knead for too long. You really need a bit of elbow grease to knead and roll the seitan out.

turkey seitan

I personally kneaded for about 4 or 5 minutes as my hubby is not vegan and felt this seitan turkey roast would be a good replacement for what he is accustomed to eating during the Holidays.

Once you’ve kneaded the dough to your desire, roll it out into a rectangle keeping in mind the size of your roasting dish. You’ll want a decent sized roasting dish to hold the broth and roast. Check out this roasting dish.

Homikit Lasagna Baking Pan, 9 x 13 Inches Stainless Steel Deep Baking Dish, Large Metal Roasting Tray Pan for Oven Toasting Turkey Cooking Casserole, Rust free & Heavy Duty, Nonstick & Dishwasher Safe
  • Healthy material, deep lasagna baking pan is well made by high quality pure stainless steel without any chemical coating, rustproof and durable, healthy and safe for use, a great replacement of ceramic or glass oven pans
  • Perfect size, 12.6 x 10 inch large baking dishes with large capacity and 3.2 inch deep full straight side to hold more food and prevent the juice or sauce from splattering or spilling, with excellent heat conduction for evenly baking
  • Sturdy baking pan, heavy duty roasting pan with solid structure for heat and deforming resistant, no warping or burnt during baking, oven safe up to 466°F, ideal for home kitchen restaurant buffet, easy to clean and dishwasher safe
  • Nice crafted, metal serving lasagna tray for oven features one piece seamless design, sleek brushed finish surface and round inner corner to provide quick food release and reduce sticking, smooth widened rimmed edges for secure grip and easy transfer
  • Multipurpose, rectangle baking tray pan great to bake and serve lasagna, casserole, cakes, brownies or toasting turkey, beef, vegetables, will meet all your cooking needs, perfect for catering, housewarming, gathering, holiday parties and more

You will want the seitan to be approximately 1-1.5 cm thick (1/2 an inch). Place your premixed stuffing in the centre width way edge to edge.

Seitan Thanksgiving Turkey

Next roll the seitan into a cylinder as tight as your possibly can. You will need to work the edges to connect. Spread your rub on the work surface and roll the seitan in the rub, make sure to massage it in to get good coverage all over.

Next, wrap it in your cloth eg. muslin or mech as tight as possible. Both my hubby and I did the rolling steps together so we could make sure someone was holding it tight while the other did the rub and got the cloth ready.

vegan seitan roast

Tie the pieces of string around the cloth at 4 points across your stuffed seitan turkey. Set to one side whilst you prepare the broth.

Just add all of the broth ingredients to the roasting dish and gently place the seitan turkey loaf in the broth. If it doesn’t submerge completely, don’t worry. Spoon some of the broth over the top and turn it half way through cooking for the perfect vegan turkey roast!

Cover the roasting dish with tin foil. Put it into a preheated oven on 200c / 400 f for around 80 minutes, turning the roast half way through.

Roasted Seitan Turkey Thanksgiving

Once the cooking time is up, simply take the roast out of the oven and take the mech / muslin off carefully.

If you are not ready to serve at this point allow it to cool down, you can store it in the fridge for a couple of days wrapped tightly in cling film.

Having the ability to put it in the fridge until later gives you the freedom to make the seitan a couple of days in advance. Holiday cooking can be hectic at the best of times so simply heating it up will work wonders to free up your time.

If you plan to serve straight away, put the seitan back in the oven for around 25 minutes on a 180c / 390f heat in a dry lined roasting tray. This will crisp the outside slightly and brown it to make the perfect table centerpiece.

Don’t forget to keep the broth to one side, you can easily make this into a gravy.

Just blend it until smooth and heat in a pan. You can add a spoon of cornflour if it doesn’t thicken but mine worked fine without.

You can also store the gravy in the fridge for 3 to 4 day in an air tight container.

Serving Suggestions

We always gobble this recipe up with a generous portion of roast potatoes or patatas bravas, a selection of vegetables such as brussel sprouts, gravy made from the broth and of course a dollop of cranberry sauce.

If you have lots of leftovers, pop the roast seitan in a sandwich with salad and cranberry sauce.

Interested in more seitan recipes? Check out:
Yield: 6-8

Roast Seitan Turkey

turkey seitan recipe

Try this insanely succulent roast seitan turkey, perfect for special occasions, Sunday Roast, Thanksgiving or Christmas. Featuring a fully flavored outer layer, meaty textured centre encapsulating scrumptious cranberry stuffing. This vegan roast is incredibly moreish and will have you wanting to make it all through the year, not just on the holidays!

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Additional Time 20 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2.5 cups of vital wheat gluten 
  • 1/4 a cup of nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp of onion powder
  • 1tbsp of garlic powder

Wet Ingredients

  • 1 cup of plant milk 
  • 2 cups of white wine (can be non alcoholic)
  • 3 cloves of garlic 
  • 1/4 a cup of canned chickpeas 
  • 1/3 a block of firm tofu 
  • 3 tbsp of marmite 
  • 1 tbsp of dried rosemary 
  • 1 tbsp of dried thyme 
  • 1 tbsp of dried tarragon 
  • 2-3 sprigs of fresh sage 

Seitan rub

  • 1 tbsp of cayenne pepper 
  • 1 tsp of paprika
  • 1 tbsp of salt
  • 1 tbsp of dried rosemary
  • 1 tbsp fo dried thyme 

Broth

  • 1 onion cut into quarters 
  • 2 cups of white wine (can be non alcoholic)
  • Fresh thyme
  • Fresh rosemary 
  • 3 cloves of garlic peeled 
  • 4 cups of vegetable bouillon 

Stuffing

  • 1/2 a cup of cranberries 
  • 4 cups of breadcrumbs
  • 1 sautéed onion 
  • 1 tbsp of flax seed ( flax egg when activated with water)
  • 1/2 a cup of butter 
  • Salt and Pepper 
  • Dried rosemary, thyme and tarragon 

Instructions

  1. Pre mix your seitan rub. This includes the cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, paprika, dried rosemary and thyme. Add it to a jar or small bowl and set aside for later.
  2. If you are going to use packaged stuffing, prepare it now, set to one side and jump onto step 4. If you are making your own stuffing, here is what you need to do.
  3. Sautee one onion in a pan with a little oil. Add the butter towards the end for melting purposes. Blend your bread until you have fine crumbs. Add the rest of the ingredients, namely the sauteed onion with melted butter, fresh sage, the flax dissolved in 1/4 a cup of water, rosemary and thyme. You will end up with a wet consistency. If this is too dry, add warm water. Add the cranberries in by mixing them in with a fork or spoon. Do not blend the cranberries. Set your stuffing mix to one side ready to put in the centre of your stuffed vegan roast.
  4. Mix the vital wheat gluten, onion powder, garlic powder and nutritional yeast together in a large mixing bowl. When the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed, make a well in the centre and set to one side ready to mix the wet ingredients.
  5. In a blender combine all the wet ingredients until smooth, This includes the plant milk, wine, marmite, chickpeas, tofu, garlic cloves, dried rosemary, tarragon and thyme.
  6. Add the wet ingredients to the centre of the dry ingredients, fold in the mix with your hands and begin to knead as the dough forms.
  7. Transfer the dough to a surface where you can further knead. The longer you knead the more fibrous and elastic the dough becomes. If you prefer a softer texture do not over knead the dough. Likewise, if you want a really 'meaty' texture knead for a little longer. I kneaded my mix for around 5 minutes and achieved a happy medium of succulent.
  8. Next you need to roll the dough into a rectangle approx 1/2 an inch thick evenly throughout. Add your wet stuffing mix width ways in a cylinder type shape. Keep in mind the size of your roasting dish.
  9. Next you are going to roll the dough with the stuffing in the centre into as perfect as possible cylinder shape. You need to roll as tight as physically possible. I got a little help with this part from my hubby. He held the dough in place whilst I worked the two ends together making it seamless. I also used this opportunity to rub in the pre-mixed seitan rub all over the dough. This prevents the seitan from sticking to the meche / muslin.
  10. Next tightly wrap the muslin around the stuffed seitan roast. Using cooking twine / string tie it in position at 4 points to ensure it stays secure for cooking. Set to one side whilst you prepare your broth and pre heat the oven to 180 c / 350 f
  11. Add all of your broth ingredients to the roasting dish. You will need a relatively deep roasting dish to hold the fluid.
  12. Carefully place the seitan into the broth. Don't worry if it's not completely submerged. Spoon some of the broth mix over the top of the roast. Cover in tin foil and put into the oven for approx 40 minutes. Take it out turn the roast over and give it a further 40 minutes.
  13. At the end of cooking, strain the broth and add to a blender, blitz until silky smooth. This will become a delicious gravy, a perfect condiment with a roast! You can store the gravy in the fridge in an air tight container for 2 to 3 days.
  14. You can either let the seitan cool down completely at this point if you don't plan to serve it straight away. You will need to remove the meche / muslin when it is cool. Wrap the seitan turkey roast in cling film and heat up in the oven within 3 to 4 days at 180 / 300 f for around 35 minutes, ensure it is piping hot through to the centre.
  15. If you plan to serve immediately, pop the seitan back in the oven on a dry tray to crisp the outside on the same temperature for around 25 minutes.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

7

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 451Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 1327mgCarbohydrates: 24gFiber: 4gSugar: 1gProtein: 70g

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. By using them, we will get a small commission of the sale at no extra cost to you. It’s the little things like this thats keep us afloat. We never recommend something we don’t believe in, always tired and tested too.

Sharing is caring!

Lani

Friday 25th of November 2022

Made this for Thanksgiving. Some observations:

The Marmite was GENIUS!

It's a good thing I have made seitan many times as the Liquid:Dry Ingredient ratio was way too high and I had to add about another 1 -1 1/12 cups VWG to get a dough I could work with.

I used a good white wine and the general consensus was it was too boozy. The kids did not like it at all. I will make it again but use broth.

I wrapped in cheesecloth - big mistake. Despite the rub, the cheesecloth stuck horribly and ruined the presentation. Next time I will wrap in parchment first or use muslin.

Tracey Lee

Saturday 26th of December 2020

JUST WOW! So easy to make and REALLY bloody tasty. I have frozen seitan before, so have thrown half of this roast in too. I am sure it will defrost absolutely fine. Seitan was a bit wet, so I should have added a bit less or more gradually. Therefore it was difficult to roll, but I did it! Thanks so much for this awesome recipe. I shan't be waiting for next Christmas before I make this again! Happy New Year!

Tracey Lee

Friday 18th of December 2020

This looks amazing! I am making this for Christmas. Thanks so much. Does it freeze well? Would it then be better to defrost and heat slices of it or bake the whole thing again?

yumveganlunchideas

Tuesday 22nd of December 2020

Hey Tracy, Thanks for your message. In truth I have not tried to freeze this but I kept it in the fridge for several days and it was still really yummy. You can definitely heat slices from the fridge without issues. I will try freezing it and update the recipe soon x

Skip to Recipe