The more my huband gets involved in our cooking the better it is getting! He found these amazing vegan sausages on VeganDad and we went to making them right away and OMG these are yummy! In the Vegan Dad’s post he said that the recipe really came from PPK website and anyone who knows of the amazing talent that Isa Chandra Moskowitz has knows that she knows what the hell she is doing and these really show it.
The only gripe I have about them is that they are cooked in tinfoil. I do not like using tinfoil to cook in and if anyone has a tip on an alternative to tinfoil I would LOVE to hear it. Otherwise these are something to bring into your regular rotation. The options for using them are limitless, on pizza’s, in a bun with delicious toppings, next to your scramble for breakfast, and on and on I could go.
The other great thing about them is they have the power of beans in them and you can swap out many different beans depending on what you have on hand or what your taste preference is. We did not have pinto at the time of these photos so we used super antioxidant rich black beans and although it does not make for a smooth colored sausage they taste spectacular. One piece of advice here, if you have spice sensitive kids back off on the red pepper and fennel it won’t change the texture just the taste of the sausages. We mixed everything together without those and pulled theirs out and then added it in for ours that way everyone would eat them and be happy.
The recipe between the VeganDad and PPK is ever so slightly different and we chose what we liked from each and came up with what is below but honestly they are so similar you can chose for yourself which you want to mess with or use our combo below.
Homemade Vegan Sausages
1/2 cup pinto beans (or other bean of your choice-we used black), rinsed and drained
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon olive oil (PPK says you can replace oil with 1 T tomato paste-we will do that next time)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, grated (we minced it)
1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed, crushed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Several dashes fresh black pepper
We steamed ours in a large pot with a lid and a raised steam basket (metal basket). Since we were new to this recipe the first time we did not start the boiling process until we started to mix the sausages because it always takes longer the first time you try a recipe.
Set aside 6 sheets of tin foil approximately 5×5 in size.
In a large mixing bowl mash up the beans completely then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well until thoroughly blended together. This is a good time to get the water boiling so you can plop them right into the boiling water.
Divide the mixture up into six even pieces. I wet my hands slightly for each sausage so it did not stick to my hands. Roll the dough with your hands into the approximate size you want and then lay it on the end of the tinfoil and roll it all the way up and twist the ends up. The shape will come together once it cooks.
Place the sausages into the steaming basket and cook for 40 minutes.
These look delicious. The sausage shape would probably not be as perfect, but you could use corn husks (ala tameles) instead of tinfoil for the steaming process.
I made this same recipe from ppk a few months back but I found them really heavy. I followed the recipe exactly but I think it is the gluten that I am finding heavy. I also made seitan and then same thing happened. I am going to try boiling seitan next time (I think this is now vegan yumyum cookbook does it) to see if the texture if any lighter. I just can’t handle the density and I wish I loved it. I am allergic to soy but don’t eat too much fake meat but once in a while it is nice to enjoy. Thank you for the recipe. They look really good.
Julianne,
OMG what a great idea, I did not even think of that. I am going to give it a try!
thanks for letting me know
Kim
I make these all the time and I use non-stick baking parchment paper instead of tin foil. I just twist the edges of the paper like sealing candies and then steam the seitan/sausages as the recipe suggests
Dimitra,
Thank you so much for the tip! I was not sure is the paper would get too soggy. I’m glad you told me how to do it, I’m definitely going to try it. Thank you!!
Kim
Surprisingly I just made these the other day first time. Tasted good but mine where really firm like yours look. when we bit in them they mushed. Not sure if I didn’t cook them hot enough or maybe didn’t get enough of the bean juice out. Will definitely try again though. One of the better vegan substitutes I have found.
Shoot I need to proof better. Mine were NOT firm.
Janice,
I’m sorry they did not turn out well for you. These are the exact things we did with our that were posted on both of the other website and ours were perfect. I hope you figured it out and will let me know what happened. If I posted something wrong I would want to correct it and we all can learn from mistakes.
Kim
I use parchment paper and then over the parchment I use the foil. I don’t want the foil touching the food I eat. By the way, I just found your blog and it’s great! Thank you!
Christine,
Thanks for that tip, I agree about the foil not touching the food. I will try it that way! Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate that!
Kim