These vegan sausages are so good! They have the perfect ‘meaty’ texture and heaps of flavor. They’re also really easy to make.
We really enjoy seitan recipes around these parts. We’ve made vegan steaks, vegan chicken, vegan bacon, vegan pepperoni and vegan salami.
And we’re just getting started.
These vegan sausages are so delicious (and easy) that they may well become weekly favorites in your house just as they are in ours.
Enjoy them alongside some vegan mashed potatoes (bangers and mash) or on hotdog rolls with mustard, ketchup and fried onions for some awesome vegan hot dogs.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
Ingredient Notes
- Vital wheat gluten – this is pure gluten powder. It is responsible for the meaty texture of these vegan sausages. There is NO substitute for this.
- Chickpeas – we used canned chickpeas in this recipe, but any cooked chickpeas will work fine.
- Vegetable stock – can be replaced with vegetable broth, whichever is easiest.
How To Make Vegan Sausages
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add chickpeas, soy sauce, maple syrup, tomato paste, vegetable stock, dijon mustard, liquid smoke, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, coriander powder, oregano, smoked paprika, salt, ground black pepper and cayenne pepper to the food processor and process until well mixed.
- Transfer it to a mixing bowl and add in vital wheat gluten.
- Stir in briefly with a spoon.
- Now get in there with your hands and form it into a dough. Don’t knead it. You just want it to be mixed and form into a dough.
- Transfer the dough to a wooden board.
- Cut it into four pieces and roll each piece roughly into a sausage shape (it doesn’t need to be perfect, the shape forms really well while they are steaming).
- Now roll each sausage in parchment paper and then in foil and close up the foil on each end. Don’t wrap them too tight, they need a little room to expand while they’re steaming.
- Place them into a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water (or any kind of steamer that you have) and steam for 20 minutes.
- After steaming place them back onto the wooden board and open the tinfoil (be careful of the steam escaping).
- Heat up a grill pan and brush it with a high heat oil (we used grapeseed oil).
- Place the sausages onto the hot grill pan and let them cook for a few minutes so that the grill lines sear into the sausages before turning them and cooking on the other side.
- In the last minute of grilling, brush the sausages with vegan barbecue sauce (optional).
Recipe Tips
There is no need to knead. You don’t need to knead the dough. Mixing the ingredients briefly, forming it into a dough and then the minimal handling of the dough while you cut it into four pieces and form those pieces into sausage shapes, is enough to activate the gluten sufficiently to get the perfect texture for these sausages. They are firm and ‘meaty’ without being too chewy. If you do want firmer sausages then you can knead the dough just a few times and that is sufficient to firm them up even more.
Steaming. The best way to steam these sausages is in a steamer pot, which is a steamer basket that fits over a pot of boiling water. The water must already be boiling when you place the steamer basket on top and then you start your timer for 20 minutes of steaming.
Grill pan. You can fry these on a grill pan as we did to get the pretty grill lines seared into the sausages. OR you can just fry them up in any frying pan or skillet. The sausages are actually cooked after steaming, so if you just want to slice them up at that point and place them on pizza or use them in another dish, that works too.
Recipe FAQ
What is seitan? Seitan is also called ‘wheat meat’ and it’s made from the gluten found in wheat. The starch in the wheat is removed, leaving just the gluten behind. You can do this yourself but it’s a very time consuming and complicated process. Vital wheat gluten is pure gluten powder that has already had all the starch removed. It has a meaty texture that works great in making vegan meats.
Can you make these sausages gluten-free? Since these are seitan sausages it is not possible to make them gluten-free. The main ingredient is vital wheat gluten which is pure gluten powder. If you’re looking for a good gluten-free vegan sausage recipe then I recommend this recipe from Ela Vegan.
How to store vegan sausages? Keep leftover sausages stored in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week.
Can you freeze them? You can freeze the sausages after steaming them. Let them cool completely and then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Let them thaw in the fridge and then use them as you like, grill them, fry them, slice them etc.
More Seitan Recipes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Sausages
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Chickpeas (55g) Canned, Drained
- 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- ⅓ cup Tomato Paste (87g)
- ⅓ cup Vegetable Stock (80ml)
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- ¼ tsp Liquid Smoke
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ tsp Onion Powder
- ⅛ tsp Cumin
- ⅛ tsp Coriander Powder
- ¼ tsp Oregano
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- ½ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Ground Black Pepper
- ¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten (150g)
For Grilling/Frying:
- ½ Tbsp Grapeseed Oil or other high heat oil
- Vegan Barbecue Sauce Optional, for brushing
Instructions
- Add chickpeas, soy sauce, maple syrup, tomato paste, vegetable stock, dijon mustard, liquid smoke, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, coriander powder, oregano, smoked paprika, salt, ground black pepper and cayenne pepper to the food processor and process until well mixed.
- Transfer it to a mixing bowl and add in vital wheat gluten.
- Stir in briefly with a spoon.
- Now get in there with your hands and form it into a dough. Don’t knead it. You just want it to be mixed and formed into a dough.
- Transfer the dough to a wooden board.
- Cut it into four pieces and roll each piece roughly into a sausage shape (it doesn’t need to be perfect, the shape forms really well while they are steaming).
- Now roll each sausage in parchment paper and then in foil and close up the foil on each end. Don’t wrap them too tight, they need a little room to expand while they’re steaming.
- Place them into a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water (or any kind of steamer that you have) and steam for 20 minutes.
- After steaming place them back onto the wooden board and open the tinfoil (be careful of the steam escaping). They are now cooked and ready to use! But if you’d like to grill them (as we did) then keep reading.
- Heat up a grill pan and brush it with grapeseed oil or another high heat oil.
- Place the sausages onto the hot grill pan and let them cook for a few minutes so that the grill lines sear into the sausages before turning them and cooking on the other side.
- In the last minute of grilling, brush the sausages with vegan barbecue sauce (optional).
Notes
- Chickpeas – we used canned chickpeas in this recipe, but any cooked chickpeas will work fine.
- Vital wheat gluten – this is pure gluten powder. It is responsible for the meaty texture of these vegan sausages. There is NO substitute for this.
- Vegetable stock – can be replaced with vegetable broth, whichever is easiest.
- There is no need to knead. You don’t need to knead the dough. Mixing the ingredients briefly, forming it into a dough and then the minimal handling of the dough while you cut it into four pieces and form those pieces into sausage shapes, is enough to activate the gluten sufficiently to get the perfect texture for these sausages. They are firm and ‘meaty’ without being too chewy. If you do want firmer sausages then you can knead the dough just a few times and that is sufficient to firm them up even more.
- Grill pan – You can fry these on a grill pan as we did to get the pretty grill lines seared into the sausages. OR you can just fry them up in any frying pan or skillet. The sausages are actually cooked after steaming, so if you just want to slice them up at that point and place them on pizza or use them in another dish, that works too.
- Storing: Keep leftover sausages stored in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week.
- Freezing: You can freeze the sausages after steaming them. Let them cool completely and then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Let them thaw in the fridge and then use them as you like, grill them, fry them, slice them etc.
Any issues in doubling or tripling the recipes? I am having a BBQ and need lots, lol.
I would like to try this recipe, but I don’t have any nutritional yeast. Can you recommend a substitute?
Thank you!
We haven’t tested this recipe with a substitute for nutritional yeast, but if you don’t have it you can just leave it out. 🙂
I’ve got one word for this recipe DELICIOUS get out your hotdog buns because they taste like hotdogs but way better. I’ve even put pumpkin chili on top. I always feel guilty but there is truly no guilt.
Hi, is it possible to bake these instead of steaming them? I’ve used other recipes which required steaming but I didn’t really like the texture, I prefer it when I bake seitan. Thanks!
I haven’t baked these, but if you have a method you’re confident with, you can definitely try it.
Did you try baking these? How did they turn out? I bake all of my seitan as well. The problem I’ve come across with things like this is it tends to leave a crust which you really don’t want on a sausage. I haven’t tried baking in a fluid which would keep that down but might as well steam at that point. I don’t have a steamer but I’m thinking of getting one. I think a hotdog might need to be steamed and then maybe baked for a shorter amount of time at a lower temp, for those of us who aren’t really big into the steamed texture. I have found for baking seitan you ALWAYS need a third main ingredient (gluten, non fort yeast and a nut flour or quick oats etc something with tooth feel.. or it can end up with a really weird texture. you also don’t want to knead it as much as recommended here for baking (I’m sure it is necessary for steaming. Seitan can have such different results with the smallest of changes lol). I usually knead it til it’s holding together (a minute or two) and then let it rest for ten min or so to let the gluten do it’s thing and then bake. I’ve tried kneading much longer and it again ends up with a really weird texture when baked. (ymmv, these are just my amateur experiences with it 🙂 ) I did a lot of experimenting with hotdogs a couple years back and never found a way to bake them that was satisfactory.
We use a steamer pot, so it’s very low risk thing to try. You put the water in the bottom pot and then the steamer pot goes on top with your wrapped sausages. I haven’t tried baking them so I’m not sure how they will turn out.
Hello,I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your delicious sausage recipe. I no longer eat meat. I’ve gone completely vegan and my husband has too in support of me. So super happy to find a recipe that taste like real sausage and is really easy to make. Learning new cooking and baking methods has been a bit challenging. I do not use sugar anymore so desserts are still a bit hard. Again thanks for sharing! Connie
Hi Connie, thanks so much for your lovely comment and review, so pleased you love the sausages!
This was the best vegan sausage that I have made so far, and I have tried about 6 versions. Good flavour, texture and colour.
Phil
Fantastic! Thanks so much Phil!
Just made these today. Have played around with VWG a bit and made a couple of sausage recipes. These are the best I’ve made so far! So good. The texture was spot on and the taste was really good. Only thing I changed was I added a bit of bbq sauce. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. Easy and I feel like these will be a new regular recipe in our house.
That’s awesome Ritu! Thanks so much for the awesome comment and review!