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5 from 25 votes
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Homemade hearty and meaty Vegan Sausages. Easy to make, budget-friendly, freezer-friendly and packed with flavor. This vegan sausage recipe is just perfect for breakfast, weeknight dinners or grilling!
In this post:
- Ingredients
- How To Make Vegan Sausages
- Browning
- Serving Suggestions
- Seitan Sausage FAQs
- Recipe
- More Seitan Recipes
Are you even ready for this vegan sausage recipe? We're talking, meaty, golden, juicy, and perfectly seasoned. The flavor and texture is balanced perfectly with plenty of seasoning and a little fat to make them juicy, tender, and just like actual, made with meat sausages!
In fact, with their herby, slightly peppery taste, these vegan sausages are reminiscent of the English bangers I grew up eating and that has me very excited!
Not only are these vegan sausages absolutely delicious, they are also really easy to make, packed with protein, and a lot more budget-friendly than store-bought ones.
Just look at the inside of this homemade vegan sausage - I am so obsessed!
Ingredients
Here's exactly what you'll be needing to make your homemade meat-free sausages:
You'll notice that the ingredients are pretty much vegan pantry staples. For the best results, I recommend not making any subs. This seitan sausage recipe has been tested many, many times and will give excellent results if followed exactly.
A few notes on the ingredients that I know will get the most questions:
- Vital wheat gluten - The main ingredient. Note that this is an essential ingredient in this seitan sausage recipe. There is no substitute and the sausages cannot be made gluten-free. You can buy VWG in a lot of bigger grocery stores these days, or online. The best value one I've found is Anthony's from Amazon. If you are in the UK you can buy vital wheat gluten from Holland & Barrett or Amazon.co.uk.
- Oats - Really important for texture in this recipe.
- Soy sauce, nutritional yeast, bouillon/stock cube, tomato puree, paprika, garlic, black pepper, salt - All important for layers of flavor and color. If you are soy-free you can use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce and smoked paprika can be used instead of paprika.
- Sage and fennel - For authentic sausage flavor.
Success Tip - Adding a little oil to the seitan dough makes a huge difference. If you want juicy, moist, and realistic sausages don't skip it. My preference here is refined coconut oil. It gives the best, most authentic sausage mouthfeel and texture. (Note that it must be refined coconut oil. We really don't want coconut-flavoured sausages!)If you don't have it though, use any neutral liquid oil like canola, vegetable, or sunflower. You can omit the oil but your sausages will be slightly drier.
How To Make Vegan Sausages
So how exactly do you make your own vegan and vegetarian sausages? The process is pretty simple. Let me show you how:
- In a food processor or blender, pulse up the oats to break them up a bit.
- Mix the oats with the vital wheat gluten.
- Blend up everything else.
- Pour the wet into the dry and combine.
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces and shape into rough sausage shapes. They won't look pretty at this stage!
- Roll the paper over and tuck it under the sausage to secure it.
- Roll all the way then twist the ends closed. The rolling and twisting compacts the seitan sausage dough and neatens them up into proper sausage shapes.
- Make a foil package to nestle them in, seal it up and bake.
Browning
Once removed from the oven the vegan sausages are completely cooked through, but it is best to cook them again before serving to get them nice and golden. Methods for this include:
- Pan-fry in a skillet over medium heat, turning frequently until golden on all sides.
- Cook on a grill pan until nice char marks appear.
- BBQ/Grill outside until golden.
- Air fry at 350°F for about 10 minutes or until golden.
- Oven bake at 350°F until golden and heated through. About 15 to 20 minutes.
Success Tip - You can reheat/brown the sausages without oil if you prefer, but they do benefit from being cooked with oil to keep them moist and to get a really lovely, deep, golden color and sheen. Also, we're talking sausages here and a good sausage should be a little greasy!
Serving Suggestions
These homemade vegan sausages are rustic, hearty, and packed with protein. They can be enjoyed any way you please, for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.
My favorite ways to enjoy vegan sausages include:
- In a sausage sandwich with plenty of the British fave HP sauce (as in the photo above!)
- In recipes like sausage rolls, corn dogs, toad in the hole, vegan sausage casserole, and vegan stuffing.
- Cooked up in a skillet with peppers, onions, and garlic then piled up into hot dog buns.
- On salads, pizza and pasta dishes (you can make vegan sausage crumbles or slice them).
- On the side of Red Cabbage with Apples.
- With mashed potatoes, vegan gravy and vegan Yorkshire puddings.
- As part of a full English breakfast with vegan scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, vegan bacon, mushrooms, toast etc.
Making Ahead & Storing
This vegan sausage recipe isn't one you want to be starting midweek when you need dinner on the table fast, because they do take a little time. But once made, they are so handy to have stashed away in the fridge or freezer for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. All they need is a quick sear in a pan or on the grill so your meal can be ready really quickly.
I like to keep the sausages wrapped in their parchment paper for protection, then I pop them in an airtight container or freezer-safe container/bag. They will keep for up to 7 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer. Defrost overnight in the fridge before using.
Seitan Sausage FAQs
Does vegan sausage taste like sausage?
This vegan sausage recipe is remarkably realistic in flavor and texture. My meat-eating family has been really enjoying them.
Do vegan sausages need casing?
This recipe needs no casings. The meat-free sausages hold together really well without them.
Can I steam them rather than oven-bake?
No. This recipe does not turn out well when steamed. For the best appearance, texture, and flavor they need to be baked.
Recipe
Vegan Sausage Recipe
Author: Melanie McDonald5 from 25 votes
Homemade hearty and meaty Vegan Sausages. Easy to make, budget-friendly, freezer-friendly andpackedwith flavour. This vegan sausage recipe is just perfect for breakfast, weeknight dinners or grilling!
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PREP: 25 minutes minutes
COOK TIME: 1 hour hour
Total 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes
Serves 8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup (100 grams) oats , rolled, old fashioned or quick oats (not oat flour)
- 2 cups (250 grams) vital wheat gluten
- 1 medium onion (about 165 grams or 1⅓ cup if diced)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce , (or coconut aminos for soy-free)
- 1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon or a stock cube (beef, veggie or chicken style)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste , (puree in the UK)
- 2 tablespoons refined coconut oil , or any neutral liquid oil (if using coconut you must use refined not unrefined/virgin) Oil-free? Omit but read recipe notes.
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon paprika , regular or smoked
- 2 teaspoons rubbed sage
- 2 teaspoons ground fennel , or fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 10 tablespoons (150 ml) water
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and cut 8 squares of parchment paper about 10 x 10 inches in size. Set aside.
In a food processor or blender, pulse up the oats until they are broken up and a mix of floury and small pieces. Tip them into a mixing bowl, add the vital wheat gluten and mix together.
Peel and cut the onion into a few smaller pieces then add it to the food processor/blender (there's no need to wash the bowl first). Add all of the other ingredients and blend until pretty much smooth.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir well with a spatula until mostly combined. There will still be some dry bits that won't mix in. Tip out onto a clean surface and knead for about 1 minute or until there are no dry bits showing, and a dough is formed.
Divide into 8 even pieces and shape into rough 1½ inch diameter sausage shapes. They won't look pretty or perfect at this stage (more like poops 🤣) but don't worry it gets better!
Roll each sausage up tightly in a piece of parchment paper, at first tucking it over and slightly under the sausage to secure it before rolling all the way. (There are pictures in the post above to show this process).
Once rolled all the way up, twist both sides really tightly like paper wrapped caramel candies. It's the rolling and the twisting that compacts the seitan sausage dough and neatens them into proper sausage shapes.
Tear a piece of foil about double the length of all your sausages lined up. Sit the sausages on one end of it then lift the other side of the foil up and over to cover them. Squeeze the edges tightly shut all the way around to create a seal.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes then carefully turn the foil packet over and bake for another 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and use as needed or allow to cool in their parchment paper wrappers.
NOTES
Once removed from the oven the vegan sausages are completely cooked through, but they are best when cooked quickly again so they can brown. You can reheat/brown the sausages without oil if you prefer, but they do benefit from being cooked with oil to keep them moist and to get a really lovely, deep, golden colour and sheen.
- Cook in a skillet over a medium heat, turning frequently until golden on all sides.
- Cook on a grill pan until nice char marks appear.
- BBQ/Grill outside until golden.
- Air fry on 350°F for about 10 minutes or until golden.
- Oven bake on 350°F until golden and heated through. About 15 to 20 minutes.
NUTRITION
Serving: 1sausage | Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 1151mg | Potassium: 218mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 188IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 69mg | Iron: 3mg
Did you make this recipe?Rate it & leave feedback in the comments section below. I love seeing your remakes too. Tag @avirtualvegan on Instagram! 🌟
More Seitan Recipes
- Vegan Ham
- Vegan Chicken Breasts
- Vegan Beef
- Vegan Roast
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Susan Kaufman says
Hello!
I just found your site and I'm excited to try a lot of your recipes. For these sausages, could they be baked in a covered dutch oven instead of wrapping in foil? Just trying to reduce my use of disposable products.
Thanks!
SusanReply
Melanie McDonald says
I haven't actually tried cooking them like that so don't know how they'd turn out. Dutch ovens aren't airtight and the foil package would be so that could make a big difference. This recipe relies on trapping steam while baking. Also if your Dutch oven is cast iron that could change things too. Cast iron cooks very differently to a regular baking tray. I feel like they would probably end up much drier and tougher. Hope that helps!
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