These meaty seitan kebabs are the perfect meal for the grill. Seitan chunks with your favorite vegetables grilled to perfection and drizzled with flavorful teriyaki sauce. Serve these vegan kebabs over your choice of grain or on a bun. Swap out the seitan for tofu or more veggies for gluten-free vegan kebabs.
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❤️ Why make this recipe
Seitan kebabs are the perfect summertime meal for the grill! Cookouts can be hard when you are vegan. It's frustrating to find vegan meals that work well on the grill and taste great, but these vegan kebabs are the answer. You can even prep them a day ahead and just toss them on the grill whenever you're ready to eat.
🧾 Ingredients and substitutions
- Seitan - you can use store-bought seitan if you want to take out the step of making your own, but I always use my quick and easy seitan chucks for this recipe. You can also use extra firm or high-protein tofu or just use more veggies for a simple plant-based kebab. You can also make my vegan chicken recipe or vegan beef recipe and cut it into cubes.
- Bell Pepper - Yellow peppers, red peppers, and green peppers will make your kebabs colorful, but you can use whatever you have on hand.
- Onions - you can use any type of onion, but I like the beautiful color of red onions on these kebabs.
- Summer Squash - Zucchini and yellow squash work great for kababs, you can use one or the other, or both.
- Mushrooms - white mushrooms, crimini mushrooms (aka baby Bellas), or cut portabello mushrooms all work well.
- Teriyaki Sauce - you can use storebought sauce, but it's super easy to make your own with my vegan teriyaki sauce recipe.
- Grain of Choice - I like to serve these kababs over a bed of cooked quinoa, couscous, or rice. You can also eat them plain or take them off the skewer and serve them on a roll or bun too.
🔪 Helpful tools
- Skewers - you can use wooden skewers or reusable metal skewers.
- Copper Grill Mat - (optional) I love to use a copper grilling mat if we are going to a party or camping where I know meat has been cooked on the same grill. This way we can keep our vegan meals from touching meat drippings.
- A grill - for getting a charred flavor and cooking the kebabs.
🥄 How to make vegan kebabs
Step 1- Use my easy seitan recipe to make your own seitan chunks or use storebought seitan or tofu for the protein.
Step 2- Wash and cut up veggies in large chunks and place them on the skewers alternating different veggies and cooked seitan chunks until the skewer is full except for 1 inch at each end.
Step 3- Make the teriyaki marinade by adding all the teriyaki sauce ingredients except the starch in a small saucepan and bring it to a slow boil.
Step 4- Pour the teriyaki sauce slowly over the kebabs coating each one. Grill immediately or cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to grill.
Grill the kebabs
Step 5- Place the kebabs over a medium flame and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side until they are slightly chard. (Turn them every few minutes and brush them with some of the teriyaki marinade at the bottom of the dish.)
Step 6- Add the remaining teriyaki marinade back into a small saucepan and mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water to make a cornstarch slurry and mix it into the marinade. Simmer until it comes to a boil and thickens.
Step 7- Serve the kababs over a bed of grain of choice and pour the teriyaki sauce over the kebabs.
👩🏻🍳 Pro Tips
- You can make these kababs super easy by buying premade seitan and/or using premade teriyaki sauce.
- Use cubed tofu if you don't want to use seitan or simply leave out the protein and use all veggies.
- I like to use a thinner teriyaki marinade at first to allow it to soak into the seitan. I thicken the marinade into a sauce at the end of cooking to allow it to stick to the kebabs better.
- If using homemade seitan, you must simmer it before adding it to the skewers. The raw seitan dough will not cook enough on the skewers.
❓ Frequently asked questions?
Yes, you can make up these vegan kababs a day ahead and keep them covered in the fridge until you are ready to cook them. You can also toss the seitan and veggies in the teriyaki marinade overnight and then place it on skewers before cooking.
Make these teriyaki kababs gluten-free by swapping the seitan out for extra firm tofu. You will also need to be sure to use gluten-free soy sauce like Tamari or Bragg's Liquid Aminos in the teriyaki sauce or purchase gluten-free sauce to flavor the kababs.
🥡 Storage and reheating
Refrigerate: These seitan kababs will keep well in the fridge for 3 - 5 days in an airtight container.
Freeze: Left-over kababs can be stored in an airtight freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
Reheating: Reheat the vegan kababs in the microwave for about 2 minutes or brush them will more teriyaki sauce and place them back on a grill over low heat until they are warm.
🌟 More vegan meals for the grill
📌 Be sure to follow me on Pinterest for new vegan recipes!
📋 Vegan Kabab recipe
Seitan Kebabs
Equipment
- 10 skewers
- a grill
Ingredients
Kebabs
- 4 cups seitan chunks
- 2 cups summer squash
- 2 cups bell peppers
- 2 cups mushrooms
Teriyaki Sauce (or use store-bought)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup brown sugar or any other sweetener of choice
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (or Tamari or Bragg's Liquid Aminos)
- 2 tablespoons vinegar (either white or apple cider vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1-2 cloves garlic minced
- 1-2 teaspoons fresh ginger root grated
- 1 teaspoon garlic chili paste (aka Sambal Oelek or Srirachaoptional for a spicy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon corn starch ( or potato starch)
- 2 tablespoons water (to make the cornstarch slury)
Grain
- 2 cups rice (quinoa, couscous, or a bun)
Instructions
Make the grain
- Cook grain of choice like rice, couscous, or quinoa according to package directions.
Make seitan
- Use my easy seitan recipe to make your own seitan chunks or use storebought seitan or pressed extra-firm tofu for the protein.
- Wash and cut up veggies in large chunks and place them on the skewers alternating different veggies and seitan chunks until the skewer is full except for 1 inch at each end.
- Make the teriyaki marinade by adding all the teriyaki sauce ingredients except the starch in a small saucepan and bring it to a slow boil.
- Pour the teriyaki sauce slowly over the kebabs coating each one. Grill immediately or cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to grill.
To grill the kebabs
- Place the kebabs over a medium flame and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side until they are slightly chard. (Turn them every few minutes and brush them with some of the teriyaki marinade at the bottom of the dish.)
- Add the remaining teriyaki marinade back into a small saucepan and mix 1 tablespoon of corn starch with 2 tablespoons of water to make a cornstarch slurry and mix it into the marinade. Simmer until it comes to a boil and thickens.
- Serve the kababs over a bed of grain of choice and pour the teriyaki sauce over the kebabs.
Notes
- You can make these kababs super easy by buying premade seitan and/or premade teriyaki sauce.
- Use cubed tofu if you don't want to use seitan or simply leave out the protein and use all veggies.
- I like to use a thinner teriyaki marinade at first to allow it to soak into the seitan. I thicken the marinade into a sauce at the end of cooking to allow it to stick to the kebabs better.
- If using homemade seitan, you must simmer it before adding it to the skewers. The raw seitan dough will not cook enough on the skewers.
Nutrition
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Click the stars above or leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you!
Gwen says
These were delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Monica says
You're welcome. Glad that you liked it.
Lana says
I’ve never used seitan before do you put it on the kabob and let it cook or do you cook it first
Monica says
You will need to simmer the seitan first according to the recipe directions before putting it on the skewers. 🙂