Vegan Korean Bulgogi Style Seitan Recipe

A couple of people asked about the recipe for bulgogi style seitan, so here it is!!

I often use tempeh for bulgogi as it is so quick and easy, but when I want a chewier bulgogi texture, I use my bulgogi style seitan. It really works well for both soy sauce bulgogi and pepper paste bulgogi! So try it out; it’ll be very different, almost like a Kalbi (Korean ribs) texture! [Korean ribs use pretty much the same sauce as soy sauce bulgogi, adding a bit more agave nectar/sugar.]

Vegan Korean Bulgogi Style Seitan Recipe
(Makes about 6 loaves: One loaf for 2 servings of bulgogi)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup tightly packed dried Shitake mushrooms, (Soak overnight in around 3 cups of water and squeeze out water. Make sure to squeeze them well, or your seitan will be too soft. You can use the mushroom soaked water later if you don’t have vegetable broth. Vegetable broth tastes better though!)
2/3 cup dried soybeans (Soak them overnight)
2/3 cup nuts (mix of cashew/almonds/peanuts/walnuts/ground flaxseed)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 medium sliced onions (or a selected mix of the following: potatoes, radish, green onions, carrots, beets)
3 garlic cloves
1 Korean or small Jalapeno pepper (sliced)
around 3 cups of vegetable broth (to barely cover the ingredients)
1/2 Tbsp ground black pepper
4 Tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp of soy sauce
2 tsp of salt
around 23-27 oz of vital wheat gluten

Directions:
1. Soak the mushrooms and soybeans overnight.
2. Squeeze the mushrooms well.
3. Pulse the nuts in a food processor until fine and then add all the remaining dry ingredients, except gluten.
4. Add liquid ingredients, including enough of the vegetable broth so the other ingredients are barely covered. (Do not put too much broth, as it will make your seitan too soft!) Blend until very fine.
5. Mix gluten and the blended ingredients in a bowl (just make sure the ratio of gluten to other ingredients is about 1:1), and transfer to a wooden cutting board to knead. You need to knead enough so it’s chewy. If it’s too dry, add some water. If it’s too watery, add more gluten. [Obviously, it would be nice to have a dough blade in your food processor.]
6. When it is done, shape into small bread loaves. It usually makes six for us.
7. Take a loaf and slice into half inch slices and cook on an oiled skillet until brown on both sides.
8. Put a splash of water into the skillet and cover, turn down the heat and cook for several more minutes. Remove lid and stir for a while so that they are not soggy. [If you fee like your seitan is too soft or soggy, skip Step 8.]
9. Remove from heat, cool, cut and use for bulgogi.
10. Freeze the leftover loaves for future use. Just thaw and slice and cook again.

Seitan ingredients. There are several gluten brands and they all work pretty well, but we definitely prefer Bob’s Red Mill to this Hodgson brand, which we are now trying to use up. We also think cashews are a yummier alternative to the other nuts and I sometime add beets, carrots or potatoes if I feel like it. So be creative and experiment with different ingredients for your seitan!

Blend till it’s very, very fine.

The blended seitan mix – without the gluten yet!

Add the gluten, and make sure to knead for a while so it gets a nice texture!

It usually makes around six small loaves for us. We use one loaf for about two generous servings of bulgogi.

Slice the seitan loaf!

We cook the slices in a skillet and cut them into small pieces before we use it for bulgogi, yummy!