Making vegetarian sausages is now entirely possible thanks to the Vegetarian Casings made from seaweed polysaccharides rather than the previous cellulose casings that often proved to be too troublesome for domestic use. There are some golden rules when making meat substitute sausages which we will run through in this post.
For years vegetarian sausages seemed to be bland, incredibly hard to get hold of and pretty disgusting. However supermarkets are now stocking them and with new flavours coming out most weeks, vegetarians now have a wider range than ever to choose from.
If however, you want to make them to your exact taste, then making your own at home is now a very real and easy proposition.
10 Golden Rules of Making a Quality Vegetarian Sausage
1. Cook your stuffing first and allow it to cool before loading your casings.
2. The casings dissolve in water, so keep your sausage as dry as you can make it. These sausages are probably at their best served with a good sauce or made into a casserole.
3. You need to add a lot of flavour to meat substitutes, so experiment to your heart’s content.
4. They are reheated before serving but make sure they are very well cooked. Like boiled rice that is refried the following day, these sausages need to be piping hot before serving.
5. Absolute cleanliness and sanitisation of equipment are essential in all sausage making.
6. For a finer textured sausage you should now mince the meat a second time through a coarse plate 8mm or 10mm. The mix will pass through the mincer quicker if it is chilled as it may be sticky after the mixing process. If you are using a mincer to fill the sausages simply fit the sausage plate and nozzle, chill the mix and fill directly through the mincer into the skins.
7. You need a setting agent which can be egg if you eat them or something like aqua fava for completely vegan sausages.
8. Don’t panic when stuffing the sausage, if it is still crumbly, the casings are strong enough for manipulation of the contents to make a good, full sausage.
9. When cooking, it is best to keep them moving in the pan, or on the grill or oven. This way the casings do not suffer degradation from the little water there is in the sausage.
10. For a casserole, cook them under a grill first and then add them to your casserole. This way the casings will not simply dissolve in the sauce.
VEGETARIAN SAUSAGE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
500g Quorn
2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion (finely diced)
1 large dollop (yes, that’s a cooking term) of marmite
2 tablespoons of vegetarian balsamic vinegar
7g kosher salt or regular salt,
150 g gluten-free rusk,
2 eggs
Vegetal Vegetarian Casings 32mm
METHOD
1. On medium heat fry onions and add garlic to the frying pan.
2. Sweat the onions down and add some salt.
3. Add the Quorn and brown it off.
4. Add a dollop of marmite and stir in.
5. Add the balsamic vinegar.
6. Cook for around 5 mins.
7. Take it off the heat and let it cool fully. Pop it into the fridge to speed up the process.
8. Take it out of the fridge and add the gluten-free rusk.
9. Crack your eggs and mix the yolk with the whites. Add the eggs to the mix.
10. Get your hands in and bind the mix together ensuring the rusk and eggs are totally mixed in.
11. Pop your vegetarian casings onto your stuffer/mincer nozzle.
12. Slowly stuff your casings ensuring you do not overfill the casings.
13. Fry on low heat ensuring the sausage reaches 75 degrees Celsius.
Weschenfelder Top Tip - Quorn, or any of the other meat substitutes, can be used to make sausages. In order to do so, you might need a little trial and error to get the exact consistency and flavour you prefer, but it is possible, and the video above shows a basic starting point.