Fiery Vegan Steak Tacos
Prep and cook times are estimates — every kitchen moves at its own pace. Plus 1 hr pickled onions and 30-60 min marinade.
These are the beer-marinated tacos from the Fiery Vegan Steak Tacos video — thin strips of seitan steak soaked in a malty marinade of hoppy beer, fresh cilantro, red onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes, seared hard in a cast-iron skillet, then piled into warm tortillas with fresh pico de gallo, quick-pickled pink onions, a creamy avocado cheese sauce, and a spicy jalapeño cream sauce (the one from the video's ingredient card).
Short on time? Skip the homemade seitan and use store-bought vegan steak chunks or your favorite vegan steak replacement — not sponsored, just a solid shortcut. Jump straight to the marinade and carry on from there.
Watch it made
Directions
- Make the pink onions first: pack the red onion circles into a mason jar. Fill with the 1:1 vinegar/boiled water ratio, add the salt and sugar, shake the jar, and set aside at room temperature for an hour, then store in the fridge. They keep up to 2 months.
- Mix the pico de gallo: chop all pico ingredients into a bowl, season, mix, and refrigerate until ready.
- Make the avocado cheese sauce: add the drained cashews to a blender. Microwave the vegan cheese slices in a bowl with the plant milk for 30–40 seconds and stir until melted (stovetop works too, it’s just more work) — if you don’t like cheese, you can skip this step. Add the melted cheese to the blender with the lime juice, salt, pepper, avocado, and 3 tablespoons of water; blend until smooth. If the blender is struggling, add more water and adjust the salt.
- Make the jalapeño cream sauce: add everything — sour cream, mayo, pickled jalapeños, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, sugar, cayenne, vinegar, and water — to a blender and blitz until completely smooth and creamy. Taste it: want more fire? Leave the seeds in one of the jalapeños next time. The paprika is what gives the sauce its bright-orange color — if yours blends up pale, your paprika is old; blend in another teaspoon or two until the color matches.
- Marinate the steak: add the thinly sliced seitan steak to an 8x8 pan. Add the chopped cilantro, red onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, 1 tsp salt, and a good pinch of pepper; mix everything together. Pour in the two cans of beer and press down gently so everything is covered. Sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour (it can go up to 24 hours, but that’s not necessary). Optional: making your own seitan? Start with vital wheat gluten rather than the wash-the-flour method — it's quicker and chewier.
- Sear: heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a cast-iron skillet until hot. Lift the marinated steak out with all of the onions, garlic, cilantro, etc. into the pan. Sauté and brown; once it starts drying out, add about a cup of the leftover beer mixture to the pan. Cook until most of the liquid is dried but not completely dry, stirring so nothing burns. Optional: rest the seared seitan 5 minutes before building tacos — the juices redistribute instead of running out onto the tortilla. Optional: cooked seitan steaks freeze well — cook extra and stock the freezer.
- Build the tacos: add the steak to warm tortillas, then pico de gallo, a few pink onions, shredded purple cabbage, a spoonful of avocado cheese sauce, a generous drizzle of jalapeño cream sauce, and the reserved chopped cilantro. Sprinkle lime juice over the top and enjoy. Optional: char the tortillas directly over a gas flame or in a dry skillet, 20 seconds per side — smoky blister beats a soft steamed tortilla. Optional: double up corn tortillas — insurance against them falling apart under juicy fillings.
