Seitan Bulgogi is pretty much a take on Korean Beef. It’s tangy, savory and delicious. Slice the seitan into strips, marinate it, throw it in a hot pan and serve it over rice. Voila.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and you can ask me where the beef is.

Seitan Bulgogi. It’s very fun to say and twice as fun to make.

SEITAN BEEFLESS BULGOGI

prep time: 20 minutes
cook time: 35 minutes

Say it. Bulgogi.

The first part of this recipe will be putting together your marinade. Then will come the rice and then cooking the seitan.

What you’ll need:

seitan
sesame oil
apple (or pear)
rice vinegar
garlic
gochujang
molasses
coconut aminos (or soy sauce/tamari)
liquid smoke
brown sugar
salt
pepper
white rice
olive oil
sesame seeds
green onion (or scallions)

Not pictured: brown sugar, apple, salt and pepper.

First, chop up some garlic and throw it into a bowl. Slice up an apple and throw that in there too. Pear if you have pear. Add about a third of a cup of coconut aminos/soy sauce into the bowl. Then add liquid smoke, sesame oil, and gochujang. About a little less than a tablespoon of each. Pour a healthy splat of molasses into there too. The molasses will give the seitan an underlying sweetness and add color as well. Add a heaping couple tablespoons of brown sugar into the bowl and mix all of that up. Add salt and pepper.

Transfer all the contents to a blender and pulse until smooth. Next you can slice up your seitan.

This stuff wasn’t exactly easy to slice out evenly so until I learn how to make seitan, you’re going to have to deal with it.

Next, take those super uneven seitan slices and throw them in a ziplock bag. Then pour your marinade in there too and let out the excess air. Stick that baby in the fridge and clean up that mess you just made. Marinade the seitan for at least an hour. An hour and a half is where I landed. Time to make rice!

Get out your white rice and make as much of it as you want to have. Just remember to salt your water! Add a little bit of olive oil to your rice so it doesn’t stick to the pot.

Next, assuming an hour and some has gone by, put some olive oil in a cast iron (or regular pan) and bring the heat up high. Get your seitan out of the fridge and remove the pieces with tongs and put them in a bowl so your marinade is now separate from the seitan.

This next part will require you to move quickly because you will be searing the absolute shit out of your seitan.

When your pan is hot, add your seitan strips in and they will start sizzling right off the bat. Let them cook out before moving them around so nothing gets messed up. Add a little bit of marinade periodically onto the seitan and it will reduce and cook out, ensuring you end up with delicious, sticky seitan.

The marinade will reduce fairly quickly, so keep an eye on it.

Once your seitan is all cooked, give that first bowl a wipe and throw them back in there to rest for a second. Get your rice ready and add your cooked seitan directly onto the rice. Cut up some green onion and top your seitan with sesame seeds and that green onion. You did it!