Easy Vegan Tacos with Seitan

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Created On: June 17, 2022 | By Debbie | Leave a comment

These easy vegan tacos with seitan have become a staple in our rotation of easy weeknight dinner meals. This is a great recipe to try if you are new to seitan, even meat lovers will love this recipe.

In an effort to make meal planning during the week a little easier, we have been trying to do more themed weeknight meals. For weeks now, we’ve been loving taco Tuesdays. These easy vegan tacos with seitan are our go-to recipe for taco night. The filling is super simple to make and can convince even the most diehard meat eaters to give it a try. Some other simple weeknight meals we’ve been loving are: Mexican tempeh skillet casserole, vegan loaded sweet potatoes, and this teriyaki tofu sheet pan.

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

A simple 4 ingredient taco filling that can be made in one pan.
Great for meat eaters who want to make a plant-based swap as this filling tastes so much like traditional taco filling made with ground meat.
Takes 15 minutes or less to make so perfect for weeknight dinner.
Easily adaptable for different topping options!

What is Seitan?

Seitan is plant-based protein food made from vital wheat gluten. Although it is popular now among plant-based eaters, it has actually been around since the 6th century. Seitan was a common meat alternative for adherents of Buddhism in China. You’ll often find seitan used in vegan/vegetarian recipes in place of beef or chicken since it has a similar chewy texture.

You can make your own seitan at home with vital wheat gluten, water, and a bit of patience. (Here’s a recipe if you are interested!) However, we usually just buy ours at the grocery store; you’ll usually find it in the refrigerator with the tofu and other plant-based products.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

Seitan: we like to use ground seitan for these tacos, but you can purchase seitan strips and prepare them the same way in the skillet for a vegan steak taco.
Taco Seasoning: this kind of feels like cheating, but we have gotten into the habit of buying the envelopes of taco seasoning from the store. It’s so convenient and makes the seitan taste so good.
Water & Oil: it may seem odd to add these, but since we aren’t cooking with ground beef in this recipe you need to add some moisture.
Tortillas: can’t have tacos without tortillas! We like to use soft corn tortillas but you can use crunchy tortilla shells or flour tortillas if you’d like.
Taco Toppings: the options are endless for taco topping options. We like serving these with a bit of salsa (red or green), vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, pickled red onion, hot sauce, and cilantro.

How to Make Easy Vegan Tacos

ground seitan in pan with taco seasoning.

STEP 1: Add oil and ground seitan to large skillet over medium-high heat and sauté until golden. Stir in the taco seasoning.

ground seitan in pan with sauce cooked until thickened.

STEP 2: Pour in the water and stir. Bring to a simmer and cook until most of the water has cooked off and sauce has thickened. Then, assemble your tacos!

Recipe Notes:

You’ll want to use ground seitan for this recipe if possible. It is also sold as seitan strips which you could finely chop.
You can also use a plant-based ground meat produce like Beyond Meat or Impossible Meat rather than seitan. The cooking & seasoning method is the same, except you can skip the oil from the recipe.
We use a 1 oz standard packet of taco seasoning for these tacos. You can also use 3 tablespoons homemade taco seasoning.
Feel free to add up to 1/3 cup of chopped onion and/or chopped bell pepper to the seitan filling when cooking.
To make pickled red onion for your tacos: To a jar, add 1 thinly sliced small red onion, 1/2 cup hot water, 2/3 cup white vinegar, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 5-6 whole black peppercorns, and 1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar. Stir and refrigerate for at least 3 hours to overnight before use. I love adding them to tacos!

What to Serve with Seitan Tacos

We love to serve our tacos with a simple side of cooked zucchini and onion. To make the zucchini pictured in the post, we just thinly slice a couple of zucchini or yellow squash and a yellow onion. Toss with about 1 teaspoon each onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Bake at 400 until tender, about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. So simple! Other sides options include chips and homemade guacamole or a salad like this one with a delicious spicy cashew dressing.

You can also use the cooked seitan filling for this taco recipe in nachos! We were craving nachos one night and used the seitan taco meat from this recipe in this vegan nacho recipe. It made for a fun date night option of build your own nacho plates.

Want to serve these with a margarita? Try out my strawberry mint margaritas or my simple rosemary margarita recipe!

easy vegan tacos with seitan on plate with cooked zucchini.

Make Ahead and Storage

You can make the seitan taco filling in advance and store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave for a few seconds before using or add to a skillet and reheat on the stovetop (~5 minutes). The seitan can also be frozen after cooking. Put back in the fridge to thaw the night before using and then reheat in a skillet.

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