The start of your very own vegan Pu Pu Platter.
You no longer have to live without a good ole pu pu platter. These vegan Chinese style ribs are spot F%$^&ing on. These incredible ribs are so darn easy, you can be having an amazing all vegan Chinese meal in no time. You bake them first, then you can either finish them in the oven or on a grill or grill pan. The perfect entree, or as an appetizer to go with fried rice, and my vegan walnut tofu, my vegan sesame tofu dumplings, or my vegan sweet and sour tofu!
You can have yourself a Chinese feast, which is frankly all I want to do with the rest of my life! That is probably all anyone really wants to do.
So the ribs are a seitan base with hoisin and Chinese 5 spice powder mixed in to give it incredible flavor. This is a quick seitan recipe that is just baked though, no boiling or anything. The whole thing only takes about 35-40 minutes from start to finish. Including prep. Everything is just mixed, pressed out on to a sheet pan and baked.
The texture is wonderful, the seitan ribs by themselves are outrageous, but this Chinese style BBQ sauce, holy crap. Super easy, made while the seitan is baking and the most perfect thing ever. Slice the seitan, brush on the sauce, bake again or grill. Holy crap for real, again. Vegan Chinese style ribs for the win!
I have had them 100% baked and baked then grilled and they are wonderful either way. If you don’t have a grill or grill pan, never fear. I promise, you will have a hard time sharing these vegan Chinese style ribs. So plan ahead.
Vegan Chinese Style Ribs
Ingredients
Chinese Seitan Ribs
- 1 1/4 C. Vital wheat gluten
- 2 Tbsp. Nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp. Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. Chinese 5 spice
- 3/4 C. Vegetable broth
- 1 Tbsp. Tahini
- 1 Tbsp. Soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp. Hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp. Liquid smoke
Chinese Style BBQ Rib Sauce
- 1/2 C. Hoisin sauce
- 1/4 C. Soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp. Agave nectar
- 1/2 tsp. Chinese 5 spice
- 1/2 tsp. Garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp. Ginger powder
- Natural red food coloring, optional ( I used Watkins food coloring)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Now, make the ribs. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and 5 spice powder.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the veggie broth, tahini, soy sauce, hoisin and liquid smoke.
- Next add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and start stirring. Once it starts to get hard to stir and starts to become doughy, begin to knead together with your hands.
- Knead together for just a minute until is forms a nice dough ball.
- Next, spray a sheet pan with non stick spray, then press the rib dough onto the sheet pan in a flat rectangle. About 1/2-1 inch thick. If the dough is hard to press out, I like to use another sheet pan, and press it down as hard as I can on top of the ribs. It will not take up an entire sheet pan, so just fill as much space as you can.
- Now bake at 350 degrees for about 23-25 minutes, flipping the rib slab halfway through.
- While the ribs are baking, make the Chinese BBQ sauce. In a small sauce pan, whisk together all the sauce ingredients, adding as much food coloring as desired(or none at all). Heat on low and simmer for just a minute or two until everything dissolves. Then remove from heat.
- Once the ribs are brown and firm, remove from the oven, cut into about 1 inch strips, then cut those in half if they are too long. You should get about 12-14 ribs.
- From here, you can either brush the ribs on each side with the Chinese BBQ sauce and bake for another 10 minutes, flipping after 5 minutes, or you can brush them on each side with sauce then grill for a few minutes on each side. Serve with rice and veggies or just solo!
Notes
Wow!! You are a rockstar!
I am EXCITED about making these!
I have yet had a home made seitan that I like. THIS!!! Omg this was so good and everyone said it was the best replica of old time favorites that we have made to date. Definitely making this again! Thank you!!!
I have yet to make a seitan batch that I am pleased with. How long do you recommend kneading the dough for before baking? I don’t want it to have the texture of a sponge. Any suggestions?
I usually knead for 2 or 3 minutes until it is nice and smooth and not sticky. Since this is baked, and not steamed or boiled, it gets pretty firm. I don’t think it has ever been spongy when I make it. I hope that helps!
Too much liquid makes it spongey. I’ve just made a batch and I think I used a little too much stock, I believe the key is ensuring it isn’t sticky before baking. I should have added a little more vwg or plain flour to dry it a little more, the first batch I made were perfect, Going to try baking for another 4 mins to see if I can recover it. Great recipe nonetheless.
Could you use beet powder in place of the red dye?
Absolutely! I use beet powder in a lot of Asian dishes I want to be red!
Have this in the oven right now!!!
Wow thanks for the recipe! Just made them for dinner tonight paid with some homemade fried rice, it was a hit. I didn’t end up using any food coloring, and I found them to be slightly too salty but that could have just been the brand of hoisin I got. I have made seitan many times but never baked it, I really enjoyed the texture this gave it. Already sent the recipe to a few of my friends after they saw pictures of it. So good 😊
This was amazing. Vegan girlfriend really missed Chinese ribs and she was over the moon. I was very impressed too.
The recipe worked well but they were a bit spongey. Maybe I didn’t knead it enough?!
Question – I used a veggie stock cube for the broth, and made it with boiling water. Should I have let the water cool down before adding it to the mix?
You may want to let the broth cool before adding, I have not tried that, but it could be the culprit.
I LOVED these. I may have over baked them a tad so they were a bit tough which my husband wasn’t over the moon about. But I was over the moon! Haha. I love extra chewy “meat” and this was so perfect. The flavors were great but that crazy, chewy, super satisfying texture is why I’m going to make this over and over again.
Terrific recipe – I loved this vegan alternative. Easy to prepare and to cook. Personally, I will add more 5 spice to the seitan, but I like a lot of spice.
Could you use a stand mixer to mix together the seitan or would it be best to just use your hands?
Yes, we think you could use a stand mixer although we haven’t tried it!
The flavor profile was excellent. Really robust and layered. The texture tho was also spongey. I grilled them after baking – is there such a thing as cooking them for too long?
These look amazing!! But I don’t have tahini. Is there anything you might swap it with e.g seseme oil? Or should I just leave it out?
Had a dinner party last night and made a selection of your Asian dishes. So happy I found your page they were all so delicious . I’m having round 2 next weekend , I have made quite a big batch of the barbecue sauce , would it keep for a week or freeze? If not il work my way through it this week which isn’t the end of the world!
These are fantastic!!!! The perfect balance of flavors and the texture is spot on. It’s now become a weekly recipe for my family and my ten month olds go wild for it.
Is the 1/4 cup wheat gluten to 3/4 cup broth correct? For me it was way too much water.
The recipe calls for 1 AND 1/4 cups. I double checked the recipe to make sure that is what it says and that is what is says. I hope that helps!