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Prosciutto crudo is a cured, air-dried ham that's normally sliced so absurdly thin you can nearly read a newspaper through it. It's got two distinct textures: silky fat and dense, rosy meat, running side by side in little marbled streaks. That texture is the whole reason non-veg buttheads pay stupid bucketloads of money for it. This vegan prosciutto recipe builds that same marbling from scratch, out of plants so we can keep piggies where they belong - wearing hats and sweaters and sipping hot chocolate in the forest with their homies.
Recipe tips tailored to what matters most to you:
Sorry, but nearly 3 cups of vital wheat gluten hold this whole thing together, so it's a hard pass for you. Don't even bother trying to modify the darn thing.
Make the log a day or 2 before your party. It keeps 6+ days in the fridge and slices best cold anyway.
Grab vital wheat gluten in a big bag, like the cheap Anthony's stuff, and skip the titanium dioxide since it's only there for looks.
Some people worry about titanium dioxide having some negative health effects. So skip it if you are worried about that.
A whole mess of finely shredded raw beet can stand in for the beet powder and the red yeast rice powder, and the titanium dioxide can be skipped with zero change in flavor.
Roll each rope with thick and thin spots on purpose. Perfect ropes give you neat stripes, and lumpy ones give you real-deal marbling.
The 30-minute chill firms up the fat dough so it rolls and twists without turning into a sticky mess. The 2-hour chill after baking is what lets you slice it paper thin instead of warm and crumbly.
Warm prosciutto slices come out thick and crumbly, and that suckkkkks. Slice it fully chilled, or partially freeze it for about 1 hour if you want it crazy thin.
Oodles more tips, step-by-step recipe photos, info on weird ingredients, and FAQs are all still here. I just tucked 'em out of the way so you can start cooking sooner.
If you've ever put in the work to make my vegan corned beef or marbled seitan bacon, this vegan prosciutto is a project on that exact kind of level. We're making 3 doughs: a pink one, a deeper red one for the meaty streaks, and a white "fat" dough made from coconut oil and tofu that stays more tender once the seitan's cooked.
Bake it low and slow, chill it hard, crust it in rosemary, thyme, and black pepper, then slice it thin enough so that on your salad or pizza, the salty little shreds nearly melt in your mouth. Fan it on an antipasto board with melon and crusty bread, and watch your normally hyper-anti-vegan Italian aunt go dead silent.
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Why you'll adore this vegan prosciutto recipe
🥓 Real Marbling, Not a Pattern Printed On: 3 separate doughs get twisted and folded together by hand, so you get actual streaks of fat running through every slice. Not some uniform pink brick of solidified meat paste that looks like it came off a 1990s cafeteria tray.
🌹 Rosy Color From Beets, Not Artificial Colors: Beet powder and red yeast rice powder give this its deep, meaty color, not a drop of artificial colors involved.
🔪 Slices Paper Thin When It's Ready: A full bake, a cooling rest, and a hard 2-hour chill firm this bad boy up enough to shave into translucent, drapey slices.
Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of my vegan recipes, this one was improved upon with feedback from well over 1,000 recipe testers.
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Vegan Prosciutto Ingredients
Vital Wheat Gluten
I usually just grab the cheap Anthony's stuff in the big bag, because there's no need to spend extra on gluten with a fancier outfit on. I've tested it out with VWG from Bob's Red Mill too. Pretty much any brand of gluten flour will work.
Red Yeast Rice Powder and Beet Powder
Instead of using food coloring, red yeast rice powder and beet powder handle the rosy, meaty color. The darker dough gets an extra dose of both, so those marbled streaks come out a deeper red.
Son't want to get one or the other? A whole mess of finely shredded raw beet works great too. It's what I use in my vegan pot roast and roast beef seitan, and it'll turn your cutting board into a crime scene, but there's worse things that could happen in your kitchen, I think.
White Miso
There's a damn good reason there's not much regular salt in this recipe. In addition to saltiness, miso brings a savory, fermented backbone to the meat dough. If you don't have white miso, you can use whatever kind you have. I just recommend white because it's versatile enough to use in a ton of other recipes.
Mushroom Powder
Make sure to grab a mushroom powder with porcini in it if you can. Even 100% porcini is cool to use.
I use it to sneak meaty umami into a ton of my seitan recipes, like my vegan carne asada and maple mustard glazed vegan ham.
Titanium Dioxide
This one's totally optional and purely cosmetic, just for anyone chasing a bright white fat streak instead of an off-white, tannish one. Don't get too scared, but it's not allowed as a food additive in the European Union, so it's def an order-online kinda thing if you live in the US and really want that bright white look.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
How to make seitan prosciutto
Fair warning: this is the arts and crafts portion of the program, so channel your inner kindergartner who ate the schoolyard paste. Follow the photos and tips below, or scroll down to the recipe card if you just want the numbers and none of my nonsense.
Step One
Fat Chance:
In a clean food processor bowl, blend the tofu, melted coconut oil, vinegar, water, and salt until smooth and completely white.
Step Two
Gluten for Punishment:
Add the gluten, tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, and titanium dioxide (if using). Pulse for 20-30 seconds until a loose white dough forms, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
You'll make the meat doughs while this chills so there's no time to waste!
Step Three
Puréebraham Lincoln:
In a food processor, puree all the meat-dough wet ingredients for 90 seconds until completely smooth.
Step Four
Dough You Want Me Baby:
Add the meat-dough dry ingredients and process for another 90 seconds until the dough turns thick and stringy.
Step Five
Red Rum:
Remove ⅓ of the meat dough and set it aside in a medium bowl. Add the additional beet powder and red yeast rice powder to the dough still in the processor and process for another 60 seconds.
Step Six
Rope V. Wade:
Divide and then squeeze and stretch the doughs into ropes about 12 inches (30 cm) long: the pink dough into 2 strands, the red dough into 3 strands, and the fat dough into 3 strands. Keep the ropes deliberately uneven, thick in some spots and thin in others.
I like to hold each rope with one hand and squeeze and stretch the rest of the strand with my other hand, using gravity to my advantage.
Step Seven
Crudora the Explorer:
Lay the ropes side by side in this order: pink, fat, red, pink, fat, pink, red, fat. Twist the whole bundle 4-5 full turns.
Step Eight
Marble Studios:
Fold the bundle in half, squeeze and stretch it again, and twist 4-5 more turns. Fold it in half once more. Give it a final turn or two and shape it into a long log, no thicker than 4 inches.
Step Nine
Gangster Wrap:
Lightly oil a sheet of parchment paper and wrap the seitan tightly inside it. Wrap the package again in foil, keeping it bound tightly.
Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C) and bake the wrapped seitan for 70 minutes, until it is somewhat firm to the touch from the outside.
Step Ten
Fennel Fantasy:
Unwrap the seitan and brush it all over with olive oil. Mix together the pepper, rosemary, thyme, and ground fennel, then press it firmly onto the top and sides. Return the crusted seitan to the oven for an additional 15 minutes
Step Eleven
Stabby Stabby:
Place the seitan into a container and chill for at least 2 full hours, or overnight. Slice cold, as thin as your slicer allows, about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm). Optionally, drizzle the slices with extra virgin olive oil before serving at room temperature.
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Serving Ideas
Rock this as the sexy pinnacle of your vegan charcuterie board, next to some coins of grilled vegan Italian sausage, vegan pepperoni, olives, artichoke hearts, and a whole pile of crusty grilled-up sourdough bread. Your non-veg guests are gonna hover over it like it's the last slice of pizza at a 7th-grade sleepover.
Or mess with the classic move and wrap thin slices around cantaloupe or fresh figs. Got mad leftovers that you don't want to just freeze for the future? (I don't believe you.) Drape 'em over a hot pizza with arugula, and thank me later.
Top tips
- Keep the Ropes Deliberately Uneven: Roll each rope with thick and thin spots on purpose, like you've never rolled a rope before in your life. Perfect ropes give you weirdly neat stripes, and lumpy, messed up ones give you real-deal marbling.
- Don't Skip Either Chill: The 30-minute chill firms up the fat dough. The 2-hour chill after baking is what lets you slice it paper thin instead of warm and crumbly.
- Slice Cold, Not Room Temperature: Warm prosciutto slices come out thick and crumbly, and that suckkkkks. Slice it fully chilled, or partially freeze it for about 1 hour if you want it crazy thin. Owning a meat slicer helps, and you would be surprised how cheap some are on Amazon.
Recipe FAQs
Naurrr (as my Australian friend says). A sharp knife and a steady hand will get you pretty dang thin slices. But a meat slicer or a mandoline (with the hand guard, please; I want you keeping all 10 fingers) makes it way easier to hit that true paper-thin 1/16 inch (1.5 mm).
Yep, skip it if you don't want to get some, or are afraid of it. It's purely cosmetic, and the flavor and texture stay exactly the same, your fat streaks will just be a little more off-white than snow white.
Kinda. A stand mixer with the paddle attachment (not the dough hook) can develop the gluten just fine. But you'll for sure need to blend the wet tofu mixture smooth in a blender first, because a stand mixer will just bash tofu around turning it into lumpy cottage cheese from hell (TBH, all cottage cheese is from hell).
🧊 In the Fridge
Store sliced or whole prosciutto in an airtight container for up to 6 days.
❄️ In the Freezer
Wrap the whole log tightly in parchment, tuck it into a freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months inside of a freezer bag. Slice it after it's thawed and chilled again, not before freezing.
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Vegan Prosciutto Crudo Recipe
Equipment
- Meat slicer (optional)
- Mandoline (optional)
Ingredients
For the Meat dough:
- 14 oz. extra-firm tofu drained
- ⅔ cup cold water
- ¼ cup white miso
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon molasses
- 2 ⅓ cups vital wheat gluten
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- 4 teaspoons mushroom powder
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons red yeast rice powder
- 1 teaspoon beet powder
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the Deeper Red Meat:
- 1 teaspoon beet powder
- 1 tablespoon red yeast rice powder
For the Fat Dough
- 7 oz. extra-firm tofu drained
- ⅔ cup refined coconut oil melted, and cooled to room temperature
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ⅓ cups vital wheat gluten
- 3 tablespoons tapioca starch
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon titanium dioxide optional, for whiter fat
Instructions
Make the Fat Dough:
- In a clean food processor bowl, blend the tofu, melted coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, cold water, and salt until smooth and white.
- Add the vital wheat gluten, tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, and, if you are using it, the titanium dioxide.
- Pulse for 20 to 30 seconds, until a loose white dough forms.
- Refrigerate the fat dough for 30 minutes. While this is chilling, you can make the meat doughs.
Make the Meat Doughs:
- In a food processor, puree the tofu, water, white miso, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and molasses for 90 seconds.
- Add the vital wheat gluten, tapioca starch, mushroom powder, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, red yeast rice powder, beet powder, white pepper, ground nutmeg, and salt. Process for another 90 seconds, until a thick, stringy dough forms.
- Remove ⅓ of the meat dough and set it aside in a medium bowl. This is your lighter pink meat dough.
- Add the additional beet powder and red yeast rice powder from the "Deeper Red Meat" list to the meat dough left in the food processor. Process for 60 seconds.
Marble the Doughs:
- Divide and squeeze and stretch the doughs into ropes, each about 12 inches (30 cm) long: the red meat dough into 3 strands, the pink meat dough into 2 strands, and the fat dough into 3 strands. It's ok if the fat dough comes apart a little at this stage. Not a problem.
- Lay the ropes side by side in this order: pink meat, fat, red meat, pink meat, fat, pink meat, red meat, fat. Twist and stretch the whole bundle 4-6 full turns.
- Fold the bundle of twisted ropes in half, squeeze and stretch it again, and twist 4-5 more turns. Then fold it in half once more, giving it a final couple of twists to hold it together in a long log shape.
- Lightly oil a large sheet of parchment paper and wrap the seitan in it. Wrap that package tightly in aluminum foil, shaping it into a log no thicker than 4 inches (10 cm).
Roast It:
- Preheat your oven to 325°F (165°C).
- Bake the wrapped seitan for 70 minutes, until somewhat firm to the touch from the outside.
- Unwrap the seitan and brush it all over with the olive oil from the "Herb crust" list.
- In a small bowl, mix the black pepper, rosemary, thyme, and ground fennel seed. Press the herb mixture firmly onto the top and sides of the seitan. Return to the oven to bake for 15 more minutes.
- Place the seitan in a container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Slice it cold, as thin as your slicer allows, about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) and then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil to taste before serving.
Notes
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