Vegan Sausage
So, what crazy thing did Steven make this week…?
Vegan Sausage!
Steven has been finding a lot of recipes that call for vital wheat gluten, so he decided to make some and use it to make Vegan Dad’s sausage recipe (which I think Vegan Dad got from Post Punk Kitchen)! Vegan Dad’s recipe calls for vital wheat gluten that you buy (dried) in the store, so this was a bit experimental…
Making vital wheat gluten (seitan)
You use one full bag of flour to make vital wheat gluten (also know as seitan). You add enough water to make it into a big dough ball (add about one cup of water at a time, as you are squeezing it into the flour; repeat as many times as necessary).
Note: don’t attempt to make a “volcano” and mix it all together.
It will spill down the counter all over the floor…
… and make a huge mess all over the cabinets! Ha ha. Steven made this mess while I was getting groceries so I didn’t have to clean it up!
You add the dough ball to water and let it soak for about 30 minutes.
Then, you knead it under running cold water for about 20-30 minutes. This washing process dissolves the starch, leaving you with insoluble elastic gluten.
You know it is ready when there is no more starch to rinse out, and the water coming out of it is clear.
Making Vegan Sausage
We mostly followed Vegan Dad’s recipe to make the sausage. We heated up vegetable broth (only used 1/2 c. since using wet vital wheat gluten), soy sauce, oil, garlic, nutritional yeast and all the spices (we used 1.5x the spices called for). The original recipe does not say to heat it up, but it makes mixing it a bit easier.
You mash up some pinto beans,
pretend you have a vital wheat gluten lung,
and mix it all together and start kneaded/squishing it!
It takes awhile to get it all mixed together. Steven pulled it into a long snake shape and pulled it apart to make the sausages.
You put the mixture on tin foil and roll it up into a tootsie roll shape.
Then you steam it for about 30-40 minutes!
We pan-fried ours for a few minutes.
Then it was all ready to go!
We ended up with 6 sausages in the end (one not shown as it was in our bellies).
The sausages turned out tasty and chewy! Steven wants to work on the texture a little bit because he thought it was a bit too chewy (I like chewy. And Chewie!).
And because they have fennel seed in them, they have a pretty realistic “sausage” taste.
We have been looking to alternatives to processed “fake meats” so this is a great recipe to use! Now we just need to perfect our homemade bean burgers.
Do you eat much “fake meat”? Do you have any recipes with sausage in them to share with me?
So far, we have eaten these as brats, and plan to try them on pizza as well!
Themocracy
That looks like a long process!
I’m still working my way up to making tofu. I’ve eaten it- just terrified to actually make it myself… 🙂
Wow– that’s really impressive!!! I’ve always wondered about making seitan…thanks for sharing!
I have grown to love “Boca” Burgers. Every Sunday afternoon, I make a big pot of brown rice and steam a bunch of vegetables. I put the rice and veggies in containers, then add a Boca Burger to the mix before I head off to work each day. This satisfies me much more than tv dinners, and is a much healthier option!
Wow, I’m really impressed that Steven made this. It looks like a really complicated process, but the results look nice and uniform. I’ve never really been that into “fake meat.” In fact, I’ve never tried seitan. The sausage looks tasty though; I’d definitely give it a try!
I actually made that Vegan Dad recipe once but it was too involved for me – I do buy some veg meats but hate some of the ingredients in them and so I am always searching for a healthy homemade burger that my kids will like. I personally love seitan but they don’t. So far my favorite meat substitute recipe are the Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon – awesome and so easy to make!
That seems like a lot of work but it sounds like it was worth it. I am always impressed by Steven’s cooking. He seems so fearless and always tries things that I would write off as being “too hard”.
I am cracking up at your Chewie comment. Too funny and so unexpected that I loved it.
I have a really good black bean burger recipe but I haven’t made it in a long time because my kids won’t touch it. They did try it but none of them liked it at all. As much as I loved them, after eating them for like 5 meals in a row I sort of was over it. I’ll have to look and see if it was vegan. I think it was, but I can’t remember.
I would love to see the recipe! Even if it is not vegan, we can veganize it. 🙂
Thanks for liking my silly humor. I think of you when I am writing these “funny” comments. 😉
The sausages look like they turned out great! I’m surprised your dough looks so stretchy. Whenever I work with vital wheat gluten, the dough is impossible to stretch!
Sometimes I enjoy the occasional fake meat. The thing is, even when I was an omnivore…I only liked chicken lol
Do you use the powder version of vital wheat gluten? I wonder if that is why.
That is awesome! I do eat fake meat but I’m trying to cut that out since it’s really processed. I cannot quit whole foods vegan nuggets though! They are so freaking good!
This sausage looks amazing! Definitely a labor of love but totally worth it. What a great idea!
Wow – that looks like a whole lot of work, but I’m glad they were worth it in the end. One of our favourite things to do with sausage (and I’m sure it would work with vegan sausage) is to stir fry it with tomatoes, onions and peppers and serve over quinoa. Yummy!
That sounds awesome! I will have to give it a try. I wish I could find cheaper quinoa here. I can only find the Bob’s Mill brand and it is so expensive!
OMG – that mess was OUTTA CONTROL! 🙂
Wow! Great work guys, that looks like a lot of work, however very worth it! Gluten lung; LOL!
I have to say that I am totally impressed! It looks like a lot of work, but so worth it in the end! I’m not really into faux meat. One of the main reasons I’m vegetarian is that I don’t like the taste of meat, so I don’t really want something that is trying to mimic the taste of meat. Ha. I do like tofu cooked with sauces and stuff. I have a feeling I’d like your sausages. It’s the processed fake products that are weird to me.
gosh what an undertaking…….how great that you made that from scratch!
i like tempeh once in a while and enjoy tofu when i am out.
i also like frozen veggie burgers.
i am not a fan of the fake chycken etc…..
have a great day 🙂
When I choose veggie/vegan alternatives I prefer it not to look like meat. I like to see veggies in my veggie burgers.
Love the kitty in the your masthead … so cute!
Thanks 🙂
this is truly impressive!
Do you think you could make a huge batch and freeze them? Although, it looks like that would take ALL weekend 🙂
My favorite sausage recipe is Sausage and Peppers with Crispy Polenta. I’m sure Steven could adapt it to work with the sausages he made.
We should freeze them. I would like to make them to take to the river this summer so I can eat them while my family eats their brats.
I will have to try that recipe! I have not tried polenta yet… so many grains… so much potential!
Let me know how it works in the fried rice! I like sausage in soups … especially spicy sausage. Gives the flavor a nice kick!
I will let you know how we like it! The soup idea is a good one.
I love sausage and love that you guys made vegan sausage! What a feat!! It looks absolutely wonderful! Since sausage is all about the seasoning, I bet it’s doable to create something as taste as the real deal 😉
[…] 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment In today’s blog post on vegan sausage, Kim of IlaxStudio mentioned liking both “chewy” and […]
That is truly impressive…I am not sure I like anything enough to go through that process to make…
Wow! He did a good job on those. o.O I really don’t think that I would have the patience to make something like that. Haha. Then again, I’m not a huge fake-meat eater anyways so it’s all good.
OK – I wish I had a man that would cook ANYTHING let alone attempt vegan sausage.
I laughed at the volcano though. What a boy thing to do eh?
Woah! I’m thoroughly impressed! They look great!!
I’ve never attempted to make any meat substitute! Seems like an intense process!
Holy cow!!! That is so impressive…GO STEVEN!!
I love Morningstar Farms sausage patties so much that it wouldn’t ever occur to me to try and make them myself. That being said, I am really curious about finding recipes for things like this and giving them a try myself!
You should Dave! It is a lot of fun to cook these goofy things and try new recipes 🙂
I’m just now exploring going vegetarian, and I’ve been mystified about seitan. Now that I know what it is, I might consider it. Sigh. This is a lot of work, but I think in the end, I will get into it. Meat kinda just squicks me out.
How cool that you are thinking about vegetarianism! You could always start out with the pre-made meat alternatives if this seems like a lot of work. Or just forget that stuff completely! There are so many great veggie and grain based dishes!
I was all over this idea until I saw the word gluten. 🙁 Story of my life.
I’m usually not crazy about fake meats…I just can’t eat them because they have so many ingredients, usually soy which I can’t eat either. I’m going to go cry a river now.
I thought about you when we were making this – because it is just pure gluten 🙁
I hate that the fake meats have so many ingredients too. It is kind of ridiculous!
What an adventure!
I’m a huge fan of veggie burgers, but most other fake meats are too expensive and not tasty enough for me to justify buying them. I do love tofu masquerading as other things like scrambled eggs and such 🙂
We have yet to figure out a good tofu as eggs recipe. Do you have one?
The fake meat products are WAY too overpriced. When we were eating a lot of them, we tried to buy them in bulk or on sale.
i just did a big post tonite on veganism for compassion vs. health reasons, would love to hear your take on your path!
and fake meats, about 5 yrs ago i did the whole soy-based fake meats but now, i dont want them. i dont want meat or anything that even tastes like meat!
Hehe, Chewie. High Five my fellow Star Wars fan! 😉
I’ve always wanted to make my own seitan but it looks like a lot of work.. especially that kneading. However, those sausages look fabulous!
Yay! Star Wars!
I think we are going to try a loaf seitan too. Maybe we will use the store-bought vital wheat gluten and it will be easier 😉
I only eat fake meat. The real stuff doesnt go down.
What an endeavor to make your own vegan sausage. Pretty amazing. I don’t think I’d want to put the time into making the
Seitan – I’d buy it and then proceed on from there.
Great job you two!
I finally introduce Luke to the wonder that is Seitan (Praise Seitan!). He loved it!! I have had a bag of wheat gluten in my cupboard for years (about 6 now). I always mean to make seitan out of it but never bothered. Then while looking for a recipe to use seitan in, I found a quick & easy recipe to _make_ seitan. So now one Saturday I may actually do that. I’m hoping sometime in April.
Haha, this looks so gross, except for the final product, which looks pretty good. I did not know what seitan was made of, or that you could make it yourself, so thanks for enlightening me!
I like tofu, although I don’t really think of tofu as a fake meat, I just like eating lots of different proteins and I like that tofu sucks up whatever flavour you give it. I think crispy fried tofu is pretty darn tasty; my husband did this crispy tofu stir fry a while back that I thought was amazing, but he has yet been able to replicate it 🙁
Wow! What a process. Totally impressed that Steven did this.
I don’t like fake meats but I keep wishing I did just for the sake of getting a little more variety.
I’ve made these before and the pepperoni at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I liked them at first but the wheat gluten aftertaste does get to me. I think you will like it on pizza though. To me, it has always been best in small amounts. So thin slices mixed with other toppings is good. I like taking just the spices meant for the sausage and adding it to soup. Then it tastes like the soup has sausage in it but it doesn’t. Yum! Let us know if you perfect the recipe any more for the texture.