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A vegan version of my favorite Chinese take out! This Mongolian “Beef” is tender, saucy and perfectly savory. All of the flavor and you can feel good about eating a great plant based meal!
When I decided to go plant based, I decided that instead of trying to substitute my meat proteins with foods that imitated meat proteins, I would eat different foods that were fulfilling but were not trying to be something they were not. Because let’s be frank… it’s pretty hard to create a medium rare NY strip out of anything other than…well a NY Strip.
Let’s be frank here, meat protein substitutes has gotten a really nasty rep. Even poor tofu is treated like an ugly red headed step child. And I get it. It’s tough to make this stuff taste good. And it’s easier to just take a piece of meat, cook it up and call it a day.
But sometimes just a tad of creativity and determination can go a very long way.
See while I am plant based, my hubs is not. And he does not plan to be. Unless, I trick him…for hubs it’s all about taste. If it tastes good and it’s healthy he is open to it. When I first went plant based, he saw me chowing down on a veggie burger with chipotle and black beans and requested I make him one too. He was so in love with it that he actually requests it for dinner. HA! I win! Small victories make me smile.
A few months ago I was planning on making my Skinny PF Chang’s Mongolian Beeffor dinner for the hubs. And as it cooked, I tasted the sauce…inhaled the incredible aromas and practically cried…because I knew my love affair with Mongolian Beef was over.
I sighed and went into the fridge to grab some scallions for the dish and that’s when I saw it. There stashed deep in the back of my fridge was an unopened package of seitan.
Seitan is a meat substitute made of vital wheat gluten. Yes THAT gluten. The one everyone and their grandchild claims to be allergic to. (I am sure some of you are. I know Celiac disease sucks because I have many people I have worked with who suffer tremendously from it. But overall…sorry to say…gluten-free is a trend.)
Simply put, gluten is a protein. It’s THE protein in flour that gives our bread that chewy, spiderweb like appearance. And this wheat gluten is transformed to create a meat substitute. And it has a great deal more protein than animal products. Almost triple the amount. There is a great deal more detail about this on the web, however for now we are going to stick with these details.
Moving on… I had bought the seitan the week prior with huge plans for it. And naturally, as I often do, I forgot I bought it and lay there staring at me blankly.
So I did what I do best, I decided to trick the hubs. I prepared the seitan in EXACTLY the same way as I did the beef. And then before giving it to him, I had him taste a piece of beef. He liked it and requested I make him a plate. So I did…I made him a plate of mostly seiten Mongolian “Beef” with a few pieces of real beef thrown in.
He inhaled it! Said it was great and asked for more. When I told him that he just had a mostly vegan meal that had more protein in it than beef…he stared at me blankly and called me a con artist.
Con artist or not…this is the ultimate meal for a meat eater and non-meater alike.
I tested it the next day again with my very favorite friend Laura. I let her taste it and she was in love.
“I would never EVER think this isn’t meat Mila. You rock!”
I guess I do rock…as will you when you throw this dish into your repertoire.
PF Chang’s Vegan Mongolian “Beef”
- Author: Mila Furman
Description
A vegan version of my favorite Chinese take out! This Mongolian “Beef” is tender, saucy and perfectly savory. All of the flavor and you can feel good about eat a great plant based meal!
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 pounds of seitan
- 6 large green onions (sliced on the bias)
- 1 cup of low sodium soy sauce
- 1.5 cups of water
- 1 tbsp of minced ginger
- 5 cloves of garlic (minced)
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp of corn starch OR 3 tbsp of flour
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- Vegetable oil for sauteeing
- Cooked rice
Instructions
- Combine soy sauce, water, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, corn starch and sugar in a bowl. Set aside.
- Over high heat, add vegetable oil to a large sautee pan or wok. Allow oil to heat up, about 2 minutes.
- Slice seitan into 1 inch slices.
- Add seitan slices and sautee for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned.
- Add soy mixture to seitan and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add in scallions, toss everything together and serve immediately over rice.
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: Asian Vegan
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Oh, I’ve never heard of seitan, Mila, but I’d definitely be interested in giving it a try. I agree with you on the gluten-free trend. Marketers have good job of convincing people that gluten-free means healthy -.uhh…not so much! Hopefully, that will get straightened out at some point.
This dish looks fantastic and I love your creativity. Great shots, too!Reply
I learned about it years ago!!! And it has managed to infiltrate my recipes more and more lately. Damn the gluten free trend! It’s all processed crap! Eat more fruits and veggies and you will heal your stomach!!! I cannot stand that everyone is looking for a quick solution. Less processed crap + less pills+ more fruits and veggies= Happy healthy bodies. Rant over 🙂
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That is so interesting that your husband couldn’t tell it wasn’t beef! I have never heard of seitan, but sounds great how it has even more protein then beef as well. Beautiful photos too, and the marinade sounds gorgeous – quick and healthy stirfrys are my favourite!
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Thank you so much for all the wonderful words Claudia 🙂
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Ugly red headed step child..
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I do not get seitan here and even if it is available it will be too expensive. Will work around and get something that mimics beef. Thanks a lot
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Hi there!!! I hope this helps…here is a homemade seitan recipe 🙂 http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/fast-easy-homemade-seitan-1220052
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Hi there!!! I hope this helps…here is a homemade seitan recipe 🙂 http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/fast-easy-homemade-seitan-1220052
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Hi There i just saw you said you cant find seitan where you are located. If you can order Bobs Red mill wheat Gluten you can make your own and its very easy to do. best of Luck
★★★★★
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Thanks for the tip !!!
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There are recipes to make seitan at home. Try Google
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Thank you!
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Wow, this looks so delicious. I could use a big bowl of this now. Pinned to make this weekend.
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Thank you so much Celeste!!!
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I’m trying to eat healthier and more plant based. Any idea how much the flavor would be impacted by lowering the sugar? I don’t know the nutrition information but 1 cup of brown sugar seems like it might put my personal serving figures over the top. Thanks!
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Hi honey! K so do this: If you are reducing the sugar you have to reduce all the other ingredients of the sauce to keep the flavors really well balanced. It took me awhile to find the right balance in flavors and that’s one of the most important pieces of any Mongolian “beef” dish 🙂 So keep the seitan, onions and scallions measurements the same…just reduce the sauce ingredients. This will decrease the amount of sauce you have but it will still be delicious and will certainly cut on your sugar intake 🙂 I expect a full report back from you! Stay well!
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Pingback: Vegan Chinese Food - Jillian Harris
This was delicious
★★★★★
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Thanks for commenting such nice words Eva! I am so glad you liked it!
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Where is this Seitan sold?
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Hi Cynthia! It is actually sold in most stores now. Whole Foods will have it 100%!
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I awakened this morning after having a mild failure with developing a Bolivian-inspired quinoa dish (don’t ask…a lot more experimentation is needed with that one) with a massive craving for Mongolian “beef”, and yours was the first recipe I came across.
It sounds positively wonderful, and I had all of the ingredients on-hand except the pepper flakes. “Oh well,” thought I, “I need to take a trip to the market anyway.”
Thus armed, I’m getting ready to make a quarter-portion (que Unkarr Plutt’s comment to Rae on Jakku…yes, I’m also a Star Wars geek) since it’s just for me, and found a wonderful (and free) online recipe portion converter if anyone else is interested in a quick and easy way to adjust the measurements.
Copy the recipe above (or from any other site) and paste into the box, then enter the multiplier. If you’re adjusting by 4, for example, meaning that you want to reduce it from 4 people to one, enter “4” in the multiplier and click on the “Divider” button. If you want to increase from the recipe’s 2-4 servings to serve a banquet for 16, then enter “4” and click “multiplier”.
Here’s the link: http://mykitchencalculator.com/recipeconverter.html
That being said, I’m about to fill my sailboat’s galley with some wonderful aromas! Thanks, Mila! (PS: No brown sugar, so combining a little molasses into some raw vegan sugar, just until it’s “pack-able”. 😀 )
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HOLY…WOW!
Here I am, full and happy tummy but…SWEATING!!!
I had to make some adjustments to my recording of what I was doing and tone it down a notch – and I like spicy food! Wow…but oh, so good!!!
★★★★★
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Good I’m so glad you liked it!!!!!!
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Wow!!!! Quinoa experiments and all huh? Enjoy sir!!! I think you shall be quite pleased 🙂
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Hello! How many servings is this recipe? Sounds delicious!
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I would go with 4
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My daughter is vegan and I am always looking to add recipes to our repertoire! My husband and I will eat vegan, though we don’t like tofu at all, and are not very well versed in other meat substitutes. I made this recipe tonight–it came together quickly and was delicious! I had about half the quantity of seitan (which is readily available at our local grocery) so I halved the recipe for the sauce. While I tried to cut the seitan uniformly, some slices were thicker than others; and we found the texture a little rubbery. Next time I think I would slice the seitan much thinner. The dish got a thumbs up from the three of us! I’ll definitely make it again–the sauce is so flavorful! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
★★★★
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Yay!!!! So glad this recipe could please the whole family 🙂
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Hi, What kind of seitan do you use? Something like soy curls that need rehydration? Or more like a canned version made by Loma Linda? Thanks!
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I always use the one that is in the refrigerated section. I’m not sure about the loma Linda one but it definitely doesn’t need rehydrating,
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