Homemade Vegetarian Sausages
Homemade Vegetarian Sausages, firm & crisp on the outside & packed full of flavour.
Healthy & low in fat – they make the tastiest ever Veggie Hotdogs, Breakfast Sausage or Bangers & Mash.
This Vegetarian sausage recipe is dairy free and can be made egg free too.
I’ve been working on a veggie sausage recipe for a while because my last attempt wasn’t quite up to the mark and the sausages fell apart when cooked on the BBQ. This year I was determined to perfect the recipe.
My homemade vegetarian sausages had their first taste test at our Sunday breakfast with a big thumbs up from our son, phew!
They held up in the frying pan and I was able to serve a sausage that didn’t break up whilst cooking or transferring to the plate.
What Is Vegetarian Sausage Made Of ?
I don’t know about you but I’m not overly keen on all those unecessary added extras you get in shop bought vegetarian sausages.
Our Homemade Vegetarian Sausages are packed full of tasty natural ingredients which deliver on flavour.
Green lentils, walnuts, fresh breadcrumbs and, for an added unami rich flavour, dried mushrooms and tomato puree. All blended with seasonings to give the most delicious vegetarian sausage.
For seasonings I’ve used thyme, oregano and vegan Worcester sauce. But the recipe could easily take chilli, chipotle or, something we’re going to try later in the summer, basil and sun dried tomatoes.
Recipe Variations
Chilli Veggie Sausage – Add a couple of teaspoons of chilli flakes or chipotle paste.
Italian Style Veggie Sausage – Replace thyme with freshly chopped basil and add sun dried tomatoes.
Indian Style – Replace Worcester sauce with 1 tablespoon of curry powder or curry paste.
Make It Allergy Friendly
This recipe is dairy free and can be made egg free or soy free too.
How To Make The Best Homemade Vegetarian Sausage
Veggie sausages are easy to make and can be ready to cook in around 30 minutes or less. The recipe makes 12 large or 18 medium sausages so you can make ahead and keep in the fridge or freezer.
Dried mushrooms are soaked in hot water before being chopped.
Dried green lentils are cooked in the reserved mushroom soaking liquid and water.
Onions and garlic are fried gently until softened.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the mushrooms, cooked lentils, onion and garlic and mix together in a large mixing bowl.
Shape into sausages and wrap with food safe cling film, twisting the ends like a sweet wrapper or Christmas cracker. Alternatively, wrap with baking parchment and foil instead of cling film.
Chill in the fridge for half an hour.
Important note for Homemade Vegetarian Sausages:
Use food safe cling film. In the UK this is often labelled microwave safe.
Make It Vegan Or Egg Free
Replacing the eggs in the recipe to make Homemade Vegan Sausages is really easy to do.
Soak 2 tablespoons of ground chia seeds in 6 tablespoons of water and leave for 15 minutes.
Make It Soy Free
Replace Vegan Worcester sauce with 2 teaspoons of yeast flakes.
How To Cook Homemade Vegetarian Sausage
Vegetarian sausages are cooked in two stages:
Steam for 20 minutes.
Pan fry in oil or cook on the BBQ or griddle for 10 minutes.
How To Serve Homemade Vegetarian Sausage
Serve as the star of your veggie breakfast or brunch with hash browns, mushrooms, eggs and beans or tomatoes.
With creamy mashed potatoes and onion gravy for the ultimate Bangers and Mash.
In a homemade bread roll with fried onions and your favourite toppings for the best Veggie Hot Dog.
How To Store Homemade Vegetarian Sausage
Keep in the fridge for up to four days.
How To Freeze
Open freeze in cling or baking parchment before transferring to a large freezer bag. Will keep for up to three months in the freezer.
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Homemade Vegetarian Sausages
Equipment
- Steamer
- Cling film for shaping sausages or baking parchment and foil. Use food safe cling film. In the UK this is often labelled microwave safe.
Ingredients
- 10 g dried mushrooms
- 350 g dried green lentils
- 2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
- 2 onions diced
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 teaspoons freshly chopped thyme
- 2 tablespoons freshly chopped oregano
- 250 g ground walnuts
- 250 g fresh breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 2 tsp vegan Worcester Sauce
- 2 tsp celery salt
- Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
- 2 eggs whisked
Instructions
- Rehydrate mushrooms by soaking them in very hot water for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Use the mushroom soaking liquid and water to cook the dried lentils for 25 minutes until soft. Drain and roughly mash the lentils.
- Soften onions by gently frying in a pan.
- Add crushed garlic to the softened onions and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Finely chop the rehydrated mushrooms.
- In a large bowl, add the onion mixture, chopped mushrooms and the rest of the ingredients and mix together.
- Divide into 18 portions and shape into sausages.
- Wrap each sausage in a piece of cling film large enough to roll out each piece leaving enough for twisting at the ends like a cracker (see photo)
- Steam for 20 minutes and leave to cool.
- Place in the fridge for a couple of hours. Remove cling film before frying or cooking on the BBQ for 10 minutes.
Notes
- Makes approximately 18 large vegetarian sausages or 22 medium sized.
- MAKE IT VEGAN OR EGG FREE – Soak 2 tablespoons of ground chia seeds in 6 tablespoons of water and leave for 15 minutes.
- MAKE IT SOY FREE – Replace Vegan Worcester sauce with 2 teaspoons of yeast flakes.
- HOW TO STORE – Keep in the fridge for up to four days.
- HOW TO FREEZE – Open freeze in cling or baking parchment before transferring to a large freezer bag. Will keep for up to three months in the freezer.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
PIN FOR LATER
I’m linking Homemade Vegetarian Sausages to:
- Meat Free Mondays hosted by Jac over at Tinned Tomatoes.
- Cook Blog Share hosted this week by Jacqui over at Recipes Made Easy.
- Fiesta Friday hosted by Angie over at Fiesta Friday and co hosts this week are Jhuls @ The Not So creative Cook & Su @Su’s Healthy Living.
- Cook Once Eat Twice over at Corina’s Searching For Spice.
Hi Sarah
There for sharing the recipe.
Just wondering if green lentil and dried mushrooms can be replaced with any other lentil n fresh mushrooms?
How will it turn out?
Love-
Sesa
Hello Sesa, it’s always a pleasure to share my recipes.
The dried mushrooms are in the veggie sausage for flavour. Fresh mushrooms don’t give the same depth of flavour and would also make the mixture too wet. Having said that, you could use finely chopped mushrooms and cook them down like you would in a duxelle to remove the moisture and increase the flavour. I have made the sausages without mushrooms as our friend has a mushroom allergy. They were still very tasty and our friend loved them.
I’ve only made our sausages with green lentils but a good substitute would be puy lentils. I wouldn’t recommend red lentils as they tend to go to mush too easily.
Hope this helps, Sarah.
@Sarah James, I also have a friend with a mushroom allergy. Did you use a substitute for flavour when you left them out? Mushrooms are a big part of veggie cooking, aren’t they, so this allergy is a hard one to work around?
Hi Peter, I used 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce when I made vegetarian sausages for my friend with the same problem. The best thing to do is taste the mixture before you add the egg to get the flavour you’re happy with. Hope this helps, Sarah.
Truly appreciate the way you made this wonderful sausage. Everything is so nicely described that really helped me. Thanks for the nice treat.
Thank you Mobasir for your kind comment and glad to hear the recipe and tips were helpful. It’s a pleasure to share the recipe.
We abandoned cling film about 5 years ago when looking at ways to reduce our personal impact of plastic use on the environment. How would you suggest cooking these without the cling film? Do you think baking paper would work as well?
Baking paper would be a good alternative, it’s a matter of how tightly you roll the paper and making sure to twist the end of each sausage. Please let me know how you get on.
Lovely sausages but mine were a bit dry, I wonder if it was because I used dry breadcrumbs instead of fresh? Great flavour I just wonder how they can be a little more moist. Will definitely try them again.
Hi fay, using dry breadcrumbs would make a difference to the moistness of the sausage. Maybe try rehydrating the breadcrumbs with a little water or milk next time. Please let me know how you get on.
Hi.
I’ve made these sausages before and I love them. I want to use this recipe to make sausage rolls and would like to know if I still need to steam them or would they hold their shape in the pastry without steaming first?
Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been on rather a long break from my blog. So pleased you love the sausages Stephen. I would still steam the sausages, I think the sausage would hold the shape but I’m not sure they would have enough cooking time if just baked in the sausage rolls.
Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe. I just had my family around for Saturday brunch and tried it out on them and they went down a treat. They were easy to make and the recipe worked perfectly. They have great texture and a real meaty feel. They even fry like normal sausages. Really great recipe and very helpful of you to give a printable recipe card.
I was wondering what you thoughts would be using a sausage stuffer and stuffing them into casings? My wife is moving more so into a vegetarian and we do a lot with wild game. I was thinking on making a small batch and if she likes it make a bigger batch and stuff into casings and freeze them for whenever she might want some.
Thank you
Hi Bill, sorry for the very late reply but I’ve had a very long break from my blog. Sounds a very good idea, hope you can let me know how you get on.
Loved these! I’m a gluten free so replaced the worchesshire with gluten free soya sauce and gluten free panko bread crumbs. I’ve tried many recipes and this has been the absolute best so far. I’m going to try Italian sausage next time!
I’m so late to the table. I had no idea you’d started up a marshmallow business. Well done you. I hope it’s going well. These sausages look fantastic. The mix is very similar to my nut loaves and burgers, but I love the idea of creating sausages out of them.
Thanks Choclette, our marshmallows are keeping us busy and we’re really enjoying meeting our customers. The only downside is that I haven’t had time to spend on my blog which I do miss.
Hi Sarah can these sausages be frozen? Am looking for a receipe to make and freeze sausages. Wanting to avoid shop brought vege sausages. Thanks
The sausages freeze really well, I often make them and freeze for the very same reason.