The Best Vegan Sausage Recipe: Seitan Sausage
Before I stopped eating meat (over two decades ago now!) one of my favorite non-vegetarian items to eat were sausages. I’m sort of lucky in the sense that there are lots of good vegan sausages- since sausages are all about flavor, and filled with spices and herbs, it’s pretty possible to make a meat-free version of sausage. My seitan sausage recipe uses apples, potatoes, spices and herbs to create a simple and delicious, homemade vegan sausage that won’t fall apart when you cook it. I consider it to be the best vegan sausage recipe, and after a try or two I think you’ll agree with me- it’s simple, wholesome, and delicious! It has the grainy, slightly fatty texture you look for in a sausage, and is much better for your health, the planet, and the animals than the traditional sausage variety.
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What’s in The Best Vegan Sausage Recipe?
One of the things that makes this seitan sausage the best vegan sausage recipe is that (unlike store-bought alternatives) this sausage uses basic ingredients and no preservatives. It uses vital wheat gluten (the main ingredient in seitan, see below for more details), as well as potatoes to create the texture, along with a bit of coconut oil. Apples add a hint of sweetness, and finely chopped onions add their delicious flavor to the mix. After that we have the spices and herbs- rubbed sage, garlic powder, mustard powder, thyme, salt, and nutritional yeast. If you’re a new vegan, that last one might be new to you- nutritional yeast is that bit of cheesy, umami goodness that vegans like to use for flavor. It is also usually fortified with vitamin B12, which is just about the only thing you can’t get naturally in a vegan diet (and really need). If you’re seeing the term “nooch” around, it’s referring to nutritional yeast. Finally, to bump up that umami moment even further, we have some soy sauce- for a soy-free version, use coconut aminos.
Seitan Sausages? What is Seitan?
Hail Seitan! Seitan is a great meat alternative for those looking to reduce their reliance on animal products. It’s high in protein, chewy, savory, and versatile. I warn you now- it is NOT gluten-free. The main ingredient in seitan is vital wheat gluten, which is basically just gluten. Your basic wheat flour is made up of starches and proteins, and once the starches have been removed you have vital wheat gluten. That means the strong and stretchy gluten bonds that make flour great for making breads and pastas are now all that’s left, and the light, pillowy starches are gone. Seitan can be bought premade, or you can can get fun with it and make many different meat substitutes- as well as these seitan sausages, I have a few different ideas for seitan recipes below.
Looking for Seitan Recipes? Try one of these!
- 5 Ingredient Easy Vegan Chicken
- Simple Seitan Fajitas
- BBQ-Braised Vegan Air Fried Seitan Recipe
- Vegan Meatballs (Beetballs)
How to Make Homemade Vegan Seitan Sausage
Making the best vegan sausages isn’t really hard, which is part of what makes it great. It’s not exactly the most simple recipe either though, so make sure you give yourself a little time to get it done. Start with your potatoes by peeling them, and chopping them into very small cubes (the smaller the better). Then steam them so they’re soft and well cooked. The onions and apples are also chopped into small cubes, just like the potatoes. Now we move on to the food processor- starting with dry ingredients, and then adding wet, pulse until a dough forms. Try not to over-process, so the subtle potato texture doesn’t get lost! Next comes the kneed- homemade seitan sausage needs about 4 minutes of kneading to get the dough to form properly. Less might have your sausages too loose, and more might give you firmer sausages than you like. This is also something you can play around with, until you have the texture you like.
I use plastic wrap to shape the sausages- while plastic wrap is heat-safe (to a certain level), I understand if you don’t want to put your plastic wrap in the steamer. You can always go sans-saran, but the shapes will be less perfect and perhaps a little lumpy. The seitan needs to steam for 30 minutes to be cooked. After that, you can refrigerate them until you’re ready to eat. Cook them as you would other vegan sausage, and enjoy!
The Best Vegan Sausage Recipe: Homemade Seitan Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 cup of Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into very small cubes
- 2 cups vital wheat gluten
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp. rubbed sage
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- ½ tsp. dried thyme
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. mustard powder
- ½ cup apple, chopped into very small cubes diced
- ¼ cup onion, finely diced
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup coconut oil
Instructions
- Prepare a pot with a well-fitting lid with a steamer, add a small amount of water, and bring to a boil. Add chopped potatoes and steam for 5 minutes, or until the potatoes are well cooked. Remove from the steamer and set aside.
- Add vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, sage, garlic powder, thyme, salt, and mustard powder to your food processor and pulse to combine. Add the remaining ingredients, along with ¼ cup of water and process until a dough forms. Add more water, a tablespoon at a time, if needed.
- Place your dough on a clean, dry surface and kneed for 4-5 minutes. Place in a covered bowl for at least 10 minutes. Once the dough has rested, use a bench scraper to split the dough into 12 equally sized pieces. Roll each of the pieces into a sausage-shape, and then wrap each one tightly in a 6-inch piece of plastic wrap. Tie the ends of the plastic wrap about an inch away from the ends of the sausage to give it room to expand (if you don’t want to use plastic wrap here, it’s perfectly fine, but the sausage shape will be less even and more free-form).
- Get your steamer back up to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Working in batches, steam your sausages for 30 minutes. Make sure to place them so they have a little room to expand and aren’t overlapping each other. Once they are steamed, remove from the plastic wrap and let cool. Store in the refrigerator, and use as you would other veggie sausages (for best taste, cook again to get a sear on the outside).
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