vegan sausage

Almost three months ago I wrote a post about home-made vegan sausage, but I never posted it. That was probably at least a month beore vegan sausage recipes started appearing all over the Internet. I was a little behind because one, it looked like too much trouble, and two, I didn't believe people would think it tasted good. It turns out I was wrong on both counts and we've made lots of seitan sausage in the last couple of months. This seems like the perfect time to finally post this as it's Memorial Day weekend and "The World's Largest Brat Fest" is happening in the city where we live. ("The World's Largest Vegan Brat Fest," held in the parking lot of Whole Foods, was yesterday.) For the record, the Brat Fest also serves vegetarian brats, and last year there was a controversy over whether or not the veggie brats should be considered in the total number of brats consumed! Click here for stats. My final version of the sausage, and the one I like best, appears at the very bottom of the post. You can eat it just as it is, but it's at its best sliced and sauteed in a little olive oil. It's really good.

Here's the post:

I'm not fond of overly-processed fake meats and cheeses. They are usually too high in salt and fat, they taste bad and they often try to simulate foods I didn't care to eat when I wasn't vegetarian, like lunch meats, hot dogs, sausage and such. Sheesh, I live in Wisconsin, land of brat-eating cheese heads, (no offense intended) and I've never tasted an actual brat. Before I moved here, I'd never even heard of them. The first one I tried was at an alternative Brat Fest (alternative to "The World's Largest Brat Fest" held here on Memorial Day) put on by Alliance for Animals. (If there are any meat-eating Wisconsinites out there reading this, you're probably shaking your heads in disgust!) The brand was Tofurky. I liked it well enough and they've come in handy at barbecues , but I don't crave them. I like seitan but I don't try to make it taste like meat. My husband sometimes buys lunch "meats" but I rarely eat them. He buys orange slices of "cheese" but they taste worse than American cheese, and I never ate that. It would be arrogant for me to say I didn't like any kind of animal food before becoming vegetarian. For example, I liked short ribs on the barbecue, and roasted chicken, and scrambled eggs. And melted mozzarella cheese on pizza. Now it all seems so gross. I don't want them anymore. When I think of burgers, I don't think of ground meat - I think of a food shape that fits easily into a bun. I don't want burgers to look or taste like beef. It's not the taste of these things I miss - I think it's TEXTURE. Sometimes you just want to chew something - really sink your teeth in. Yeah. Or wrap your mouth around a gooey stretchy bite of pizza.

One time I was baking a lot of tofu slices to take on a camping trip and in the effort of packing - three kids, dog, husband...- I forgot all about the tofu, and it baked all day. It was supposed to travel in the cooler and be road snacks for a few days. Now it was road kill. I was freaked. It had a texture somewhere between jerky and crackers - and it was great! I was transported back to a childhood of gnawing on the turkey wings of Thanksgivings past. It was texture. Tofu with texture and chew - with good taste as a bonus.

And there's pizza. I've put tofu on it. I've put weird fake cheese on it. I've put no cheese on it. I've put homemade "cheez" sauces on it. With a good crust, sauce and toppings, pizza can be great without cheese. But there's the mouth-feel memory of that stringy melted mozzarella buried somewhere in my brain, and every so often it surfaces. When I first considered becoming vegan, it was visions of pizza that passed before my eyes. I sometimes use small amounts of Follow Your Heart mozzarella on pizza and the melted texture is gratifying. I've even started almost liking the taste. (I've been reading about a new cheese coming from the Chicago soy dairy that's supposed to be even better.)

So where is this heading? Am I going to start eating more meat-like foods? No. I'm content to eat my veggies, fruits, nuts, grains and beans. But sometimes it's fun to create foods with textures (and tastes) that mimic old familiar foods. Sometimes it's fun to eat non-dairy ice cream. Yeah. It's always fun to do that.

Bamboo steamer used with Le Creuset pan

Anyway, I've been reading other blogs and finding all these "sausage" recipes. First I made sausage crumbles with soy protein and put some on a pizza and some into chili. (I didn't like it on the pizza but it was good in the chili!) Then I found Julie Hasson's vegan sausage on Everyday dish and I was intrigued. I found a simpler version called seitan sausage on the ppk, and being lazy, I tried that one, changing it only slightly. The only steamer I have is a bamboo steamer, so I used that to steam the seitan. It fit perfectly on top of my 3-1/2 quart, enameled cast iron pan. They turned out perfectly with a pleasing texture and taste. I've never steamed seitan before, and this has opened up all sorts of new possibilities. It's a bit different from simmering the seitan, which is how I've cooked it for the past 20 years.

I've been using vital wheat gluten for years to make a stuffed Thanksgiving roast. I've never had a recipe - just mixed it with water and seasoned it with herbs, spices, dry mustard, onion, garlic and tamari and rolled it out (this is not easy as it's very stretchy — an understatement!), fit it into a pan with the seitan extending over one side, filled the pan with rice-bread stuffing, stretched and tucked the side flap over the top and baked until puffed and golden. Now I'm finding all sorts of recipes out there for steamed seitan and I'm excited to start trying them.

Mash the pintos in a large bowl. My potato masher seems to be gone so I used the bottom of a glass. Mix in all the rest of the ingredients in the order listed and mix with a fork. Form into sausage shapes and roll each sausage up in a piece of aluminum foil, twisting the ends. Steam the rolls for 40 minutes.

After the sausages are steamed, try sautéing slices in a little olive oil until they brown a bit. I guarantee you'll be impressed. Smells good, too.

p.s. Okay. So I bought a potato masher and decided to make these again. (Actually, this is the third time, if you count my husband making them so I could test the recipe and see if it really was as easy as it seemed.) The first time I made this, I pretty much followed the recipe, but it's in my nature to muck around with recipes and change them. I mean, open a whole can of beans and only use 1/2 cup? Why not have a higher percentage of beans to flour. Maybe try a different kind of bean. The recipe below is slightly different from the one above, but the result is similar — perhaps a little more smooth and juicy.

seitan sausage #2 (very spicy) inspired by a recipe by Isa on PPK

1- 15 ounce can cannellini beans (or chick peas), rinsed, drained and mashed
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup cool water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 medium cloves garlic, very finely minced
1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons Chinese red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika (or sweet paprika)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper (coarse ground)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 chipotlé in adobo, mashed up (optional but really good)

Mash the pintos in a large bowl. My potato masher seems to be gone so I used the bottom of a glass. mix the tomato paste and chipotlé (if used) into the mashed beans before adding the rest of the ingredients. Mix in all the rest of the ingredients in the order listed and mix with a fork. Form into sausage shapes and roll each sausage up in a piece of aluminum foil, twisting the ends. Steam the rolls for 40 minutes. (about 4 to 6 sausages)

Try sautéing slices in a little olive oil until they brown a bit. I guarantee you'll be impressed. Smells good, too.

p.s. Okay. So I bought a potato masher and decided to make these again. (Actually, this is the third time, if you count my husband making them so I could test the recipe and see if it really was as easy as it seemed.) The first time I made this, I pretty much followed the recipe, but it's in my nature to muck around with recipes and change them. I mean, open a whole can of beans and only use 1/2 cup? Why not have a higher percentage of beans to flour. Maybe try a different kind of bean. The recipe below is slightly different from the one above, but the result is similar — perhaps a little more smooth and juicy.

Here's what I did for lunch with the finished sausage. I sautéed thinly sliced yellow potatoes and thinly sliced onion in a little olive oil. When the vegetables were tender, I added sliced seitan and cooked until lightly browned. Fresh pepper was ground over the top.