To Make the Seitan

• Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add the vegan butter. Once hot and melted, add the onions. Stirring often, fry for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the sugar and fine sea salt and fry for another 5 minutes or until the onions are starting to caramelise and turn brown.
  40 g vegan butter, 150 g red onion, 1 teaspoon sugar, pinch fine sea salt
• Add the onions and any remaining butter in the pan to a blender along with all the other seitan ingredients except for the vital wheat gluten. Blend on the highest speed possible until you have a smooth dark sauce.
  400 g can of cannellini beans, 150 ml water, 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce, 2 tablespoon marmite, 2 x vegan stock cubes, 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast, 2 tablespoon vegan gravy granules, 1 teaspoon mustard powder, 2 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce, 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Add the vital wheat gluten to the blender or, if you need more room, transfer everything to a food processor. Blend on high-speed again until a wet dough has come together. Stop the blender and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Blend again for around 2 minutes until the dough becomes gummy and very stretchy. It should be visibly fibrous when stretched apart.
  300 g vital wheat gluten
• Note: If your blender or food processor struggles with the dough after the vital wheat gluten is added, remove half of the dough and process it in two batches.
• Remove the dough from the blender and transfer to a clean work surface. Push the dough into a rough circle and divide into either 4 or 8 segments, depending on how large you'd like your vegan steaks to be. Push and pull the dough segments into rough steak shapes.
• Wrap each steak individually in a layer of greaseproof paper/baking parchment followed by a tight layer of tin foil/aluminium foil. Do your best to keep the steak-like shape in tact.
• Turn on a steamer or place a steamer basket over a pan of boiling water. Place the wrapped vegan steaks in the steamer/steamer basket and steam for 50 minutes, flipping half-way through.
• Note: you may need to steam the steaks in two or three batches. Do not overcrowd the steamer or the steaks won't cook through.
• While the vegan steaks steam, prepare your marinade by whisking together all the ingredients in a medium bowl. When the vegan steaks are done steaming, unwrap carefully and submerge in the marinade while still piping hot. Leave to marinate until room temperature.
  200 ml boiling water, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 x vegan stock cube, 6 sprigs thyme, 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Note: At this stage you can either continue to grill the steaks or cover, place in the fridge and leave to marinate for up to 3 days. Alternatively, once refrigerated, transfer individual steaks to freezer bags with a little of the marinade and freeze for up to 3 weeks or even longer. Defrost before cooking.
• To grill or fry the vegan steaks, heat a grill pan, skillet or frying pan over high heat. Once ripping hot, drizzle with a little vegetable oil and cook the steak for around 3-4 minutes on each side. As the steak cooks, use a pastry brush to baste it with the remaining marinade multiple times on each side.
• Serve the vegan steaks with chips, vegan horseradish sauce or however you wish.