The Baking Biker Chic

I have a sausage machine, which enables me to make lots of weird and wonderful vegan sausages. It is however, very difficult to make sausages – trying to control the filling, the casings and the manual operations of the machine. Well let’s just say, there’s lot’s of wastage.

So these sausages were designed to be quick and easy to make, something you can throw together from the ingredients of your cupboard. And they’re exceptionally good for you

When making vegan sausages or burgers, anything goes, but as you’ll see from my ingredient list below, sometimes it’s the strangest of ingredients, which go together to create the unique flavours.

And there’s a balance to be had on how soft these are before you start baking them. Too much liquid and it won’t dry out. Too little and the sausage becomes dry – especially if you are preparing for freezing and cooking at another stage.

These sausages will used to make my gluten free chipolatas – I’ll publish the recipe soon.

Ingredients

• 1 tin of cannellini beans
• 4-6 sundried tomatoes
• 1 tbsp. tamari
• 3/4 tsp onion granules or powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp mixed spice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp orgran (egg replacer powder but don’t mix with water)
• Gram flour – if the mixture is too wet

This literally takes minutes to prepare, so preheat your oven to 150 degrees centigrade and line a baking tray with a non-stick liner.

Method

• Drain and rinse your beans and in a bowl, mash with a fork until smooth
• Puree the sundried tomatoes and add to the bowl
• Add all the seasonings into the bowl and mix thoroughly – do a quick taste test and adjust to your own preferences
• Add 1 tsp orgran to the mixture and thoroughly mix it through
• Your mixture should be easily rolled into sausage shapes – if not, add a tbsp. of gram flour to see if this helps, or more if it needs it
• This mixture makes 8 chipolata sized sausages – place them on your tray and bake for 15 minutes before turning and baking for a further 15 minutes
• Alternatively you can wrap in tinfoil and steam the sausages for 40 minutes if you are intending to eat them later by reheating.
• If you are eating straight away and cooking in the oven, give them another 10 minutes, take them out and place on a cooking rack – these can be frozen (perfect to plan ahead for Christmas Day if making them as chipolatas).

These sausages pack a punch with flavour but are so light too – they’ll make the perfect base for my gluten free vegan bacon – watch this space for an update.