Vegan Sausages – homemade

Sounds impossible, but this doesn’t mean it is! Try my recipe for vegan sausages and treat yourself with some incredibly delicious vegan sausages that have the same texture as the traditional dish! 

As I’m sure you know, sausages are a staple in a lot of countries especially when it comes to holiday seasons. They come in such a wide variety that it’s hard to keep track of, but we can mainly say that they divide into dry sausages and fresh sausages (which must be cooked before consumption).

Drying is a method of preservation, so dry sausages developed mostly in warm areas. Likewise, fresh and cooked sausages come from northern countries with much colder weather.

Sausages are linked to a lot of traditions and childhood memories depending on the country where they come from, but, needless to say, they do contain meat. So how can we enjoy the taste of a good sausage once we adopt a vegan diet?

I’m happy to say that nowadays the industry is taking huge steps toward developing a wide variety of vegan meat alternatives which can also be used in the making of sausages.

Not gonna lie – making vegan sausages instead of meat ones takes a little bit more time and attention. When it comes to traditional sausages, the egg is the main “glue” that holds all of the ingredients together. And you can’t use it, so it may become a little bit tricky. Once you master this, however, the result will be flavorful, guilt-free and sure to make vegans not feel left out, especially during the Christmas season when sausages are a must.

These being said, you can definitely make vegan sausages at home that are crisp on the outside and bursting with flavor on the inside… and most importantly, vegan sausages that hold their shape when they’re bitten into.And I must say, some of the vegan sausage varieties are so tasty and similar to regular ones that even meat lovers are going to ask for seconds! 🙂

Vegan sausages can be made from seitan, the popular “wheat meat” that makes for an excellent substitute both texture and flavor-wise. You can also use tofu, textured vegetable protein or a combination of any of these ingredients.

You can also add vegetables to the mix, much as you would with vegan burger patties. Likewise, you can skip the seitan, soy or tofu entirely and use only legumes, such as beans or lentils.

Other amazing vegetable options are eggplants and beets. The ingredients you use are going to determine the flavor profile of your vegan sausage. For instance, using lentils as a base is going to result in a strong flavor profile, while using white beans is going to give you kind of a blank canvas which you can customize with the help of spices and herbs.

Of course, no sausage, vegan or not, is going to be good without a certain spice blend, and the varieties to it are pretty much endless. Some options are cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, oregano, cayenne, bay, sage, red wine vinegar, thyme, allspice, and the list goes on and on and on.

You really need to experiment and find out which combinations you like best and which works the greatest for the type of sausage that you are trying to recreate. For instance: for a chorizo-style vegan sausage you might want to use a lot of spicy ingredients, while for a sage sausage you will obviously need a lot of sage, marjoram, red pepper etc.

In order for the sausage to hold its shape and to obtain that dense sausage texture, you need to add some sort of thickening or binding agent. You can use any type of flour for this.

Breadcrumbs also work really well when it comes to binding. You can even take this a step further and make your vegan sausages gluten-free if you are gluten intolerant. This calls for brown rice flour instead of a regular one. For that firm “sausage” texture you could use xanthan or guar gum, as they provide the texture naturally provided by gluten in a traditional recipe.

When it comes to vegan sausages, steaming looks like the best method that will result in your sausages not falling apart. Refrigerating your cooked sausages for a few hours, or best overnight, also helps them to maintain their shape, much as when you are preparing a no-bake cake recipe.

Vegan sausages are a delicious type of food that is becoming more and more popular. Nowadays you can find an increasing ready-made variety in the supermarkets, as veganism and vegetarianism are beginning to be adopted by more people every day.

Not only that: even omnivores are starting to prefer vegan sausages sometimes, as they tend to be lower in calories and have low to zero fat content. They also tend to be more nutritious as they contain a wide variety of vegetables! 🙂

You should definitely try this recipe for vegan sausages this holiday season and tell me if you loved it or not. For this recipe, I chose not to use seitan, as I’m not a big fan of it, and I “filled” my vegan sausages with white beans, nutritional yeast, garbanzo flour and, of course, the perfect blend of spices! Give them a try and don’t forget to share them with your loved ones!