Sausages for All!

Even before becoming vegan, I had a hard time with sausages. I loved, loved, loved them - so handy, so portable, so easy to incorporate into a snack or a solid meal! But for several years before I made the switch to the vegan lifestyle I had been unable to eat pigs anyhow, so had restricted my (deluded) self to chicken and beef sausages. But, having finally seen sense, I reconciled myself to this being a food, like cheese, that I'd just have to deal with really missing.

Enter the Sausage, Reborn!

I happened across a recipe for vegan sausages and gave it a go.

Then My Beloved and I took it to the next level, by customising the base recipe, and I am tickled pink to report that sausages are welcome in our kitchen once again! Here's the basic recipe, which will make between 5 and 6 sausages, depending on how thick you like them:

1 vegan bouillon cube (enough to flavor 2 cups water, see below)
1 slice whole wheat bread, toasted and made into crumbs
1 cup vital wheat gluten (about 4.5 ounces or 127 grams)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon flax seeds, ground

1 cup cool water
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cashew butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce

And the recipe is simplicity itself. Yes, I know I always say that, but it really is sooooo much easier than growing a piglet....

1. Dissolve the bouillion cube in the water and set aside.

2. Combine all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and stir well. They will look like this:


The vital wheat gluten.


The toasted breadcrumbs.


My 'cheesy' favourite: nutritional yeast.


The herbs: clockwise from 12 o'clock - sage, thyme, black pepper, onion powder, marjoram, ground flax seeds, and nutmeg in the center.

BTW: this is what whole flax seeds look like:




3. Whisk together all of the wet ingredients (garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, plus the 1 cup of stock) until the cashew butter is well dispersed. Prior to whisking, they look like this:




Plus, of course, the vegetable stock, but no-one photographs their veg stock, right?

4. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones and stir until well mixed. If the mix seems dry to you, feel free to add more water. I do, frequently.

OK, so now you have the base sausages. This weekend, I made a double batch, halved it and then created one set of 'cajun spicy sausages' and the other of 'mexican tequila, lime and black bean'.

For the Cajun-spicy, add the following:

1/4 stp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
dash of liquid smoke

For the Mexican-style, I used these:

1/2 oz tequila
1 oz lime juice
2 oz black beans
pinch of salt

These are very approximate measures as, by this point in the game, I was not exactly thinking 'scientifically', due to dwindling tequilla reserves....

Anyway, in either case, just add the extras in and mix.

Now, the fun starts when making up these little beauties. Grab some aluminium foil and tear into rectangles. Divide your mix into 5 or 6 equal-sized portions and plop each one down on the foil. Roll out gently to form a log shape and then roll up the foil, twisting the ends tightly. Once the sausages are wrapped in the foil it becomes easier to make them more regular in shape....just keep practicing, it's not hard! :)

Then all you have to do is to steam them for 35 mins.



When they're done, you can either leave them to go cold for a meal another day, or give in to temptation and try one right away. I have adopted both of these tactics and, although I know I should act my age and resist the urge for instant gratification, I find the second option infinitely preferable!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

Humphrey's First Birthday Cake - Not Before Time!

And now for something completely different!

Fans of this blog (yes, I know you are legion!) are accustomed to my ramblings about food I'm preparing for My Beloved and I, potlucks, various friends' dinners etc etc. But here is a first!

Deep breath!

The promised vegan doggie birthday cake!!!

I have adapted a recipe found in The Everything Cooking for Dogs - a nice little publication, but one which is not overtly animal-friendly if you don't happen to be canine, calling as it does for ground up turkeys and chickens' eggs. Not to worry, I thought, this can be veganized! And so I went to work....

Step 1:





Pour yourself a nice glass of wine! It's Sunday afternoon (in this case) and you are baking a cake for your canine companion - you deserve a nice glass of something!!

Step 2:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and then assemble the ingredients. You will need the following:

1 cup canned beets
2 bananas
1 cup canola oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/4 cup of soy crumbles (cooked)
1/4 cup non-dairy milk

In this recipe, the bananas replace the 4 eggs you would have used and the soy crumbles replace the ground up turkey flesh of the original recipe. Think of it this way: no cholesterol for your beloved pooch and no-one - not man or beast - gets hurt in the creation of that special little gift for your beloved four-legged friend.  

Step 3:

In a food processor, blitz the beets thus:




Then add the oil and bananas and blitz until smooth, thus:




The mixture is now thick and creamy, mainly due to the mashing of the bananas.

Step 4:

In a large bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together and form a well in the center.



Pour in the pink beet mix and stir until combined.




Step 5:

Stir in the grated carrots and the cooked soy crumbles. If you are unsure about the soy crumbles, this is what I used:




And it looked like this:







Step 6: 

The mixture is likely to be very thick, so now is the moment to thin it down a little with a scant 1/4 cup of non-dairy milk. I used soymilk, but ricemilk is equally good!

Step 7:

Lightly oil 2 8-inch pans and coat with flour and divide the mix between the pans.



Bake for approx. 30 minutes, or until a toothpicks comes out clean.


Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave until completely cool.





To finish the job, I creamed together some vegan cream cheese, a little powdered sugar, some additional grated carrots and a hint of non-dairy milk, sandwiching the cakes together like this:




And here is the almost finished result:



A close-up of that yummy beety-fake sausage-y mix...




I must say, it was a particularly odd thing to bake insofar as the kitchen smelled disturbingly like roasting pork. I have no idea to what I can attribute this happening - no pigs were involved directly or indirectly in the creation of this celebration. My Beloved was dog-proofing our last floor-level cupboard when he noticed it, and dragged me in to confirm he was not, in fact, completely losing his marbles. No, I verified, that really smells like pork crackling...

So if anyone out there in Blogland can explain this phenomenon to me, I would be especially grateful!

Humphrey and his brother Darwin are currently eating their dinner, after which they'll have a slice of cake. I'll document that as it happens, but for now...

Stay vegan, Friends!