Sunday, April 25, 2010

Homemade Vegan Sausages

Happy Sunday everyone!

I had a wonderful weekend but I'm not in the mood for a long post so I'm going to save it for tomorrow. Hope that's okay with y'all:) Today I wanted to tell you about an amazing eat that is perfect for the upcoming/current BBQ and camping season. Burgers are awesome and the homemade veggie kind are beyond delish. For some great recipes check out these rawkin sites. Yet, sometimes you just want to roast a hot dog in the fire and call it dinner...with all the condiments of course. I also like to have veggie sausages for some of my cooked meals sometimes. I never thought that I could actually make my own sausages...easily! When I first became interested in vegetarianism and veganism I found the blog called Vegan Dad. His site became a refuge for me as his recipes use simple ingredients, take little time to prepare, and they taste delicious. If you are a beginner or you are more advanced in the vegan kitchen, Vegan Dad is the place to go for some great inspiration. So, when I came across his vegan sausages, I knew I had to try them. The verdict....perfect! They are flavorful, they fry up perfectly (if you want to have a crispy texture), and they have just the right consistency (not too chewy, not too soft). I loved these (and many of his other recipes) so I bought his recipe book which contains other sausage recipes including breakfast sausages, Italian sausages, andouille sausages, and others. Last summer we had the breakfast sausages for our camping trip and they were fantastic. I was pretty low on eats as it was the day before my regular shopping day and so I remembered his sausage recipe and it lucked out that I had all the ingredients:)

The sausages come together in minutes and then you just steam them for 45 minutes.


Sorry for the ugly pict but I wanted to show you what the consistency looked like. The flour-like stuff is the wheat gluten.

one sausage ready to be steamed!


They don't look like anything edible but trust me they steam up perfectly!

One batch makes 6-7 sausages and you can make them ahead of time and freeze them! I steam them in a bamboo steamer but any steamer will work.

Here's one hot out of the steamer. Vegan Dad uses pinto beans but I didn't have any so I used kidneys instead.

Sausages ready for a pantry dinner!


I ate them right out of the steamer and placed them in my salad. It was surprisingly good!

mmm..sausages, veggies, and loads of sprouts with a dijon mustard dressing!


I fried up the onions and sausages for the hubby's dish..check out the final product...

This dish had onions, kidney beans, veggie sausages, pasta sauce, and Italian seasonings. I think it would be fabulous if you left out the seasoning and maybe put in some pineapple..mmm!


To top off our dinners I decided to go with some banana-blueberry softserve. This was amazing, so much so, that I just made another batch:)

You have to try this! Just place one banana and about a 1/2 cup of blueberries in a food processor and pulse away until you get the consistency of softserve.
What are you favorite raw softserve combos?


Hope you enjoy the rest of your evening and stay tuned to hear about my good deed over the weekend!

PS Averie is having a fabulous coconut oil giveaway. So get on over to her site and enter:)


6 comments:

Averie @ Averie Cooks said...

whoa my hubs would LOVE to dine at your house. i am not a sausage fan, of any kind, just not for me but you did a bang up job with these melissa!

and thx for all those coconut entries :)
xo

Nelly said...

yummmmmmmmmmmmm...i'm going to try making those when we go up to the cottage in the summer...so when everyone else is eating cow and pig and chickens, i'll be eating veggie sausages, and i can always lie and say they're "real" sausages...no one would believe me...

Melissa said...

Hey Averie - Thanks for your nice comments about the sausages.you are sweet! No problem for all the coconut oil entries...anytime:)

Hey Nelly - They would be perfect for the cottage. I bet you they would enjoy them better than the real thing. And that would be funny if they actually DID believe..lol!

Lauren said...

These look great Melissa!
As does your blueberry softserve...When I've made banana soft serve I just make the plain banana and add my favourite toppings like coconut and gojis and fresh fruit. I've heard of people doing all kinds of things though...like adding raw chocolate or raw chocolate sauce. Not sure if you're a chocolate fan?
By the way, the overnight oats I make are not cooked oats at all, they are just soaked overnight. No heat required. And they are an entirely different consistency than regular cooked oats so maybe you would actually like them!

kelli said...

MMM!!! i'm going to a vegan brunch this weekend and i heard sausage is going to be on the menu. your pictures got my belly growling!

your raw soft serve looks yummy! i'm going to try some with raspberries today. sometimes i just like the soft serve with a lil bit of vamilla water. i've also made it with raw cookie dough chunks, and it tastes great topped with almond butter and chocolate sauce!=)

this post reminds me that i am almost out of soup and need to make that powder!

kelli said...

*vanilla

=)