The best vegan shawarma is stuffed with homemade seitan strips, veggies, hummus and tzatziki. Easy to make and perfect for lunch or dinner.
Well, ever since making our vegan steak I have been thinking of other uses for that homemade seitan!
And what better place to put strips of seitan than in a vegan shawarma.
Add some hummus, vegan tzatziki, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber, and you have a feast.
A shawarma is basically a meat sandwich or wrap. So using some homemade vegan meat seemed like a really good idea to me.
And the result is really divine! It’s SO worth it to make this you guys! And it all stores really well too so it’s great for meal prep as well.
You’ll also LOVE our vegan gyros!
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Homemade seitan strips. So our recipe walks you through making these from scratch. They are SO delicious. Of course if you want to save time then you can fry up any store-bought veggie meat strips instead.
Vital wheat gluten. This is the main ingredient in the homemade seitan strips. You might have to order it, or you might be able to get it from a health food store or a Whole Foods if you have one near you. It’s basically pure gluten powder, super high in protein (75g protein per 100g of vital wheat gluten) and is the core ingredient in seitan, also known as ‘wheat meat’.
Pita breads or wraps. Usually you would make a shawarma in a pita bread, but honestly the ones we get here are so small, I am not a big fan, you can hardly fit anything in them! So I used wheat tortillas for the wraps, but you could use pita breads or flat breads.
How To Make Vegan Shawarma
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
Add chickpeas, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, ground coriander, oregano, soy sauce, tomato paste, paprika, black pepper, vegetable stock, dijon mustard and liquid smoke to the food processor and process until well mixed..
Transfer that to a mixing bowl and add vital wheat gluten.
Stir it in briefly with a spoon and then get in there with your hands and knead it a few times until you end up with a nice piece of dough like you see below. I kneaded this just a few times, just until the dough stopped being sticky and started to firm up. Pat it down into a sort of ‘steak’ shape.
Wrap it in foil and steam it for 20 minutes in a steamer basket placed over a pot of boiling water or in any kind of steamer that you have.
While the seitan is steaming, make up your hummus and vegan tzatziki.
When the seitan is finished steaming, unwrap it from the foil.
Cut the seitan into strips and add to a frying pan.
Mix up a marinade sauce of soy sauce, paprika, maple syrup, tomato paste, olive oil and liquid smoke and pour it over the seitan strips.
Fry the seitan strips in the marinade, turning over regularly, until all the pieces are nicely charred and crispy on the outside.
Serving Suggestions
Spread hummus onto a pita bread or wrap. Add shredded lettuce and sliced cucumber and tomato, top with seitan strips and finish with a dollop of vegan tzatziki.
Make Ahead and Storing
Make ahead. Most of the ingredients for this can be made in advance and the vegan shawarmas assembled when you’re ready.
The seitan can be made up to the steaming stage and then after steaming you could cut it into strips and place into a container in the fridge where it can stay for 3-4 days until you’re ready to fry it in the marinade sauce.
The tzatziki and hummus can be made in advance and then when you’re ready, fry up the seitan strips, and assemble your vegan shawarma.
Storing: Leftover ingredients can be stored in separate containers for 3-4 days in the fridge and assembled when needed.
More Delicious Vegan Recipes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Shawarma
Ingredients
For the Seitan Strips:
- ⅓ cup Canned Chickpeas (55g)
- 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast Flakes
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Onion Powder
- ⅛ teaspoon Cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground Coriander
- ¼ teaspoon Oregano
- 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
- ¼ cup Tomato Paste (65g)
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- ⅛ teaspoon Black Pepper
- ⅓ cup Vegetable Stock (80ml)
- 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- ⅛ teaspoon Liquid Smoke
- 1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten (150g)
For the Marinade Sauce:
- 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- 2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
- 1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- ⅛ teaspoon Liquid Smoke
For the Shawarmas:
- 6 Pita Breads or Flat Breads or Wraps
- Shredded Lettuce
- Sliced Tomato
- Sliced Cucumber
- Hummus
- Vegan Tzatziki
Instructions
- Add the chickpeas, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, ground coriander, oregano, soy sauce, tomato paste, paprika, black pepper, vegetable stock, dijon mustard and liquid smoke to the food processor and process until well mixed.
- Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the vital wheat gluten. Stir in briefly and then get in there with your hands, kneading it a few times in your hands until it goes from soft and sticky until it’s just starting to get firm.
- Flatten it on a work surface and pat it down into the shape of a large steak. Wrap it in foil (not too tight as it needs room to expand) and place into a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water to steam for 20 minutes.
- While the seitan is steaming, make up your hummus and vegan tzatziki.
- After steaming, remove from the foil (be careful not to burn yourself) and then cut it into strips and place into a frying pan.
- Mix up the soy sauce, paprika, maple syrup, tomato paste, olive oil and liquid smoke for your marinade and pour it over the seitan strips.
- Fry the seitan strips in the marinade sauce, turning over regularly, until all the pieces are nicely charred and crispy on the outside.
- Spread hummus onto a pita bread or wrap. Add shredded lettuce and sliced cucumber and tomato, top with seitan strips and finish with a dollop of vegan tzatziki.
- Repeat for the rest of the shawarmas and serve.
Notes
- Vital wheat gluten – should ideally be weighed on a food scale to be really accurate with this recipe.
- Make ahead: If you want to prepare certain elements for this meal in advance you can do so. The seitan can be prepared up until the point it has come out of the steamer. Then you can cut it into strips and place into a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days before bringing it out and frying it up with the marinade sauce. The hummus and tzatziki can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a couple of days.
- Storing: Leftover ingredients can be stored in separate containers for 3-4 days in the fridge and assembled when needed.
- Nutritional information excludes the hummus and tzatziki. Full nutritional information can be found on those separate linked recipes.
I just made this recipe for our dinner tonight (I had a packet vegan shawarma on standby!). Needless to say I won’t be buying ready-made again. The texture and flavours were perfect. Thank you so much!
Brilliant! Thanks so much for the great review Pete!
The seitan in this recipe is amazing. Easily the best I’ve made!
That’s awesome! Thanks so much Kristy!
Hi Alison, I made this again today without wrapping it in tinfoil and it seemed to still turn out quite well. What role does the tinfoil play in the steaming process? Thanks!
The taste is close to traditional and imo the hummus was the star. Loved it and will try again and will look into more of this author’s recipes!
I’ve made seitan before with mixed results. Followed this recipe exactly and that was wonderful. Easily the best sitan I’ve ever had, let alone made! Cheers \o/
Yay! So happy to hear that!
Hey,
Should there be a lid on the steamer or does it not matter?
Thank you
Yes there should be. 🙂
I followed this to the letter despite my gut feeling that it was underdone after 20 minutes steaming. The flavour was absolutely delicious, but I should have trusted my instinct on the steaming, because for me the texture was just not right – too doughy. Would definitely make again but would probably steam for an extra 15 minutes, or maybe cut into smaller pieces before simmering. Wouldn’t change anything else though!
Thanks for sharing Aislinn!
This recipe is ridiculously good. Thanks Alison! I’m making this for the second time this week ????. Also using the marinade for soy curls. Yummy!
Awesome Joe! Thanks for sharing and the wonderful rating! 🙂
This is so good 🙂 🙂
Oh my. This was yummy. Although I found that it was necessary to fry the seitan and marinade. Just pop the two into a container, give it a good stir and let the marinade perinate and soak into the seitan for a few hours before eating.
I recently bought some seitan from the store and I’ve been excited to try it, as I’ve never cooked it before. I was wondering if I’d be able to use that, instead of making it, and just start with steaming or if you would suggest kneading it first? I’m sure making it from stretch would be better, but since I already bought some, figured I’d try that first.
Hi Sydney, I have never bought it, only made it from scratch, so I’m not sure at all what form it’s in right now. If it’s already pre-made, then I would imagine you could just fry it up with the marinade sauce. 🙂
I make this all the time !
So happy to hear that! Thanks Isabella! 🙂
Hey,
Thank you for shawarma recipe, I really really like the way you explained it, Me and my family like shawarma when we ate it in asian restaurant so i’m going to try this one in upcoming weekend where we set together once in a week so this will be amazing can you please tell me if i use persian saffron in it? this will be perfect or not give me some suggestion
Thanks
Debra
One word: delicious! I just used pita breads and added some olive oil to my hummus. a real success! Seitan is just right, a nice surprise!
Excellent, so happy to hear that Anne! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
What a change from the norm! Delicious
I would make the argument that, not only CAN you make the seitan ahead, but you should! The loaf, left in foil in the fridge over night (or for a few hours ahead, at least) will firm up and be nicer to cook with than freshly made.
Regardless, these look delicious!