Go Back
Close up photo of vegan sausages in a grill pan.
Print Recipe
5 from 30 votes

Vegan Sausages

These vegan sausages are so good! They have the perfect 'meaty' texture and heaps of flavor. They're also really easy to make. 
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Course: Entree, Savory
Cuisine: Vegan
Diet: Vegan
Servings: 4
Calories: 221kcal

Ingredients

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

  1. Chickpeas - we used canned chickpeas in this recipe, but any cooked chickpeas will work fine. 
  2. 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. 
  3. Vegetable stock - can be replaced with vegetable broth, whichever is easiest. 
  4. 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.
  5. 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. 
  6. Storing: Keep leftover sausages stored in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week. 
  7. 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. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1Sausage | Calories: 221kcal | Carbohydrates: 17.9g | Protein: 32.2g | Fat: 4.4g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 936mg | Fiber: 2.3g | Sugar: 6.3g