I just want to let y’all know how super easy making a batch of vegan pepperoni can actually be. Seriously! Mix the ingredients, roll it up in some foil, bake, and you are eating delicious homemade vegan pepperoni before you know it! Put it on a cracker, put it on a pizza, eat it all by itself because its that good!!
Don’t be intimidated by making seitan if you have never tried you hand at it. Working with vital wheat gluten is as easy as working with regular flour. Making seitan is really just making dough! You can steam it, boil it, or bake it. For this recipe we are steaming it in foil to achieve a pepperoni like texture!
I often make vegan pepperoni when making a cheese plate for parties, or for just snaking on with vegan cheese and crackers for my kids. I have over 30 cheese recipes on the site, so find one you love and make up a batch to go along with your vegan pepperoni!
This recipe makes two logs of pepperoni, so if you don’t think you will use both very quickly, you can freeze the second for up to a a few months. Just drop it in a freezer bag and thaw when you are ready to use it.
I often top our vegan stuffed crust pizza with this pepperoni! Its made with an easy vegan homemade mozzarella cheese sauce and is so easy and so tasty!! Its one of my kids favorite dinners.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup tapioca or corn starch
1 tablespoon soy sauce or amnios
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
2 teaspoon light miso paste
1 teaspoon vegetable Better than Bouillon
3/4-1 cup water
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Food processor instructions: Add all ingredients to the food processor and mix for about a minute to allow a dough to form and knead.
Hand mixing instructions: Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until a ball of dough has formed. Transfer the mixture to a clean countertop or cutting board and knead the dough for a few minutes. Start with 3/4 cups water but If the dough seems too dry or isn’t coming together, add a few tablespoons more until you have a soft, but well formed dough.
Divide the dough in half and form each half into a 10 inch log shape.
Spray a good sized piece of foil, maybe 7 tot 8 inches long, with some cooking spray. Place a log of pepperoni at one end and begin rolling the pepperoni into the foil. Twist the ends and repeat with a second piece of foil. You need the foil nice and tightly wrapped and the ends good and sealed. The pepperoni will bake in a water bath so you don’t want any liquid getting in.
Repeat the same processes with the second pepperoni.
Fill baking dish with about a half inch of water and place both foil wrapped pepperonis into the water.
Bake for 30 minutes then turn each pepperoni and bake for another 30 minutes.
Carefully remove foil wrapped pepperonis from the baking pan and transfer to a plate. Leave pepperonis wrapped in foil and allow to cool for about 20 minutes before attempting to unwrap them. Once they have cooled and you can handle them, unwrap the foil and let pepperoni cool uncovered in the fridge for an hour. The pepperoni will firm up more and slice easier if you leave it over night to rest! I typically make a batch the day before I want to use it! But it can be eaten as soon as it cools.
Store in an airtight container or zip lock bag in the fridge.
Serve on pizza, with vegan cheese and crackers, or by itself!
*giving credit where credit is due…Pepperoni was the first vegan meat I ever made using the recipe by Robin Robertson from Veganize It! cook book. I have adapted and changed the recipe over the years to suit my taste and pantry staples, as most seitan pepperoni recipes are pretty similar…but I woulnd’t know know the first thing about most things vegan cooking if not for this particular woman’s cookbooks when we first became vegan. I can not recommend her cookbooks enough! She’s a vegan genius.
