Simple Vegan Fajitas with Seitan
Today I’m sharing with you one of the best and easiest recipes I make a lot- seitan vegan fajitas. They are so simple, so quick and completely delicious. They’re garlicky, with freshness from peppers and onions, with some optional spice, but the best part is the umami flavor coming from the seitan that joins with the soy sauce to become the sauce in this dish. Plus, it’s easy to customize and add other vegetables to bulk it up and use what you’ve got.
Skip the Post, Click for a Print-Friendly Recipe
Choosing Your Seitan
I make a lot of recipes for making my own seitan, but I don’t have a lot of recipes for making food with pre-made seitan. In fact, at present I only have one recipe like that. This one. Seitan is sometimes nicknames “wheat meat”, since it’s a great textured and flavored meat substitute made from the protein in meat. And the real secret to making amazing fajitas is to start with a delicious seitan. My absolute favorite store-bought is Sheffield’s seitan, which is amazing, flavorful, and has a great texture. I first had it when I was living in Vermont, and even though I’ve moved from the area I still get special deliveries from my mother. The stuff is just too good to give up! However, the real problem here is that it’s not exactly readily available. I don’t think I’ve ever found it outside of the one store I get it from (Hunger Mountain Co-op, if you’re a Washington county local!). There are, of course, other brands out there, but lately my go-to is just to make my own. I have a simple simmered seitan recipe that I actually developed just for these fajitas that are pretty simple to make, and you can get done the night before and have it in the fridge waiting for you.
Looking to Make More Seitan? Try one of these Vegan Seitan Recipes!
- Simple Simmered Seitan Recipe for Stir Frying
- Tandoori Seitan Kabobs with Cucumber Yogurt Salad
- Stuffed Seitan Vegan Holiday Roast
- The Best Vegan Sausage Recipe: Seitan Sausage
- Vegan Meatballs (Beetballs) Seitan and Beet Meatballs
The Secret’s In the Soy Sauce
A lot of people think of soy sauce as being an ingredient in different Asian cuisines, and they’re not wrong. Soy sauce does originate in China, and is pervasive in many different Asian cultures, most notably China, Japan and Korea. But it has applications beyond bringing the flavors of those cultures into your food. But just to clarify, that is no way a knock on Japanese, Chinese, or Korean food. I love all of those cuisines, and am so grateful for the amazing contributions they’ve made to what I eat. From soy sauce, to tofu, to seitan, miso, kimchi, and beyond, many of my favorite ingredients to cook with have their roots in East Asia. But back to soy sauce. Soy sauce brings saltiness and umami (the flavor of amino acids) to dishes. I use it all the time when I’m trying to give a dish more of a “meaty” flavor, since it has some of the same flavor qualities meat does. I know that soy sauce and Mexican fajitas may not seem like a natural pairing, but I assure you it really is. Give it a shot, and you’ll see what I mean.
Tips for Making Vegan Fajitas
The body of the fajitas are made up with peppers, onions, and the seitan in a simple sauce. You can easily add other vegetables to them- I added broccoli to this batch, but adding mushrooms is one of my favorites. With most vegetables, you can just throw them in when you add the seitan and they’ll have plenty of time to cook. The one notable exception would be if you want to add a particularly delicate green, like spinach. In that case, throw them in the skillet right at the end, and just let it wilt. They are also accompanied by a cashew cream, that has a strong garlic presence- if you decide not to make cashew cream, make sure to add a little garlic to your fajita mix- just mince a few cloves and add them in with the onions.
The entire meal shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to make, and can feed a family of four (or two, if you eat as much as we do). Serve the fajitas in tortillas, and feel free to add your favorite toppings- salsa, guacamole, or avocado.
Simple Vegan Fajitas with Seitan
Ingredients
- 1 lb. seitan (store-bought or homemade)
- 3 medium sized bell peppers
- 1 large onion
- Optional: 1 jalapeno pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
- Optional: other vegetables, like zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, etc.
- 1 cup of cashews (preferably not roasted or salted)
- Salt, to taste
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Medium sized tortillas (around 9)
- Salsa of choice
- Fresh limes
- Optional: Avocados or guacamole
Instructions
- Set the cashews in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Boil the cashews for at least 10 minutes to soften them. Alternatively, you can soak them in room temperature water overnight.
- In the meantime, cut the peppers and onions into half-moon pieces. Cut the seitan into strips, about two inches long. Seed and dice the jalapeño if using, and chop any other vegetables you want to incorporate.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, peppers, and jalapenos, and stir for about five minutes until they have become more flexible. Add the seitan, soy sauce and vinegar and stir. If you are using other vegetables, you can add them at this time too. Cover and let cook for around 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Prepare the cashew sauce by draining the water from the nuts. Add the remaining ingredients, along with a half cup of water, and blend until smooth.
- Finish the seitan mixture with a squeeze if fresh lime juice. Serve with the cashew cream and any other desired toppings with tortillas.
Click for a Print-Friendly Recipe
Like These Seitan Fajitas? Pin it!
2 thoughts on “Simple Vegan Fajitas with Seitan”