Vegan Sausage Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are vegan sausages made of? ›

The key ingredient in vegan sausage is typically either pea protein or soy protein, along with one or more oils (canola, coconut, sunflower), spices and other plant-based additions. Nutritional value varies depending on the manufacturer's precise recipe.

Plant-based casings

These are totally free of animal ingredients. Polysaccharide—a material similar to cellulose that's made of glycerin, starch, a seaweed derivative called carrageenan, and water—is a popular choice.

“The key thing is that any food that has been highly processed should be eaten mindfully – so not necessarily avoided completely, but I wouldn't recommend a vegan sausage weekly due to the high salt content and most likely list of additives and preservatives,” says McGregor.

Pig farming doesn't just impact the animals, however, it's also linked with environmental problems. Plus, processed meat is bad for our health. But there is some good news. Vegan sausages offer the same taste and texture as pork sausages, only they're made from plant-based ingredients instead.

Why is Vegan Meat Currently More Expensive? According to Specht, vegan meat is currently more expensive for a number of reasons. It's partly due to the fact that brands are operating in a “free market.” They must maximize their profit, and this means charging consumers more.

Almost all meat substitute products are processed, generally to mimic the texture, flavour and appearance to conventional meat, or to achieve a similar protein contribution.

Yes, the casing is edible. The casing is made of alginate, which is obtained from algae. Alginate is used in some fresh turkey and seafood based sausages to deliver a similar pop and texture as animal-based casings.

If you are looking to smoke the sausage without a casing I would suggest forming your sausage into a leaf, grape or banana or into a corn husk. The banana or corn husk are not edible but the grape leaf would be good to go.

The precooked plant-based sausage patties have many of the same ingredients as the burgers: soy protein, sunflower oil, coconut oil, soy leghemoglobin — the genetically modified ingredient to make plant-based heme, which Impossible Foods says is the ingredient that makes its products taste more like meat.

More people are cuttng out meat in favour of plant-based diets for ethical, environmental and health reasons. But not all plant-based foods - either vegetarian or vegan - are as healthy as we think they are. In fact, some are classed as ultra-processed foods, which have been linked to heart disease and cancer¹.

What happened to Tofurky? ›

The Oregon plant-based food pioneer Turtle Island Foods, better known by its Tofurky brand, has been sold to a Japanese company. The buyer is Torfurky's longtime tofu supplier, Morinaga Nutritional Foods. Morinaga's parent company is Morinaga Milk Industry Co., a food conglomerate based in Tokyo.

After going vegan, people may still crave some of the animal-derived foods they're familiar with, since our taste buds can take time to adjust. Vegan meats, nondairy milk, and other vegan products can help bridge the gap and make it easier to enjoy the same flavors without harming animals.

Healthy is a relative term—a better question is are vegan hot dogs healthier than the alternative (meat)? The short answer is yes. Despite the wide range of vegan hot dog options with the nutritional range to match, plant-based hot dogs are not as detrimental to human health as their animal-based counterparts.

Plant- and fungus-based substitutes are frequently made with soy (e.g. tofu, tempeh, and textured vegetable protein), but may also be made from wheat gluten as in seitan, pea protein as in the Beyond Burger, or mycoprotein as in Quorn.

Meatless sausages have come on leaps and bounds since veganism first took off. With brands such as Richmond, Beyond Meat and Linda McCartney championing the fridge favourite, vegan sausages are the key to introducing plant-based elements into your diet.

Plant-based sausage, burgers and bacon alternatives are usually not considered healthy according to the national criteria. But ProVeg found that they often have a better composition than their animal meat counterparts.

Seitan is a plant-based meat substitute made entirely out of hydrated and cooked vital wheat gluten flour. Gluten is a mixture of the proteins prolamin and glutelin found in wheat and similar grains, such as barley and rye.

Very realistic taste & texture

Not only do these vegan sausages look pretty realistic when you take them out of the packaging, but they also cook up and taste pretty much like the sausages I remember.

I would 100% recommend this brand even if you are, like me, an avid meat eater and vegan sceptic. If you've been debating going vegetarian for a while, I genuinely do think there are some decent meatless options out there (and some not-so-decent), and they tend to be cheaper than pork sausages.