This vegetarian sausage is really quick and easy to make
I’ve recently started making a lot of different sausages and when my vegetarian friends asked me to come up with some vegetarian sausage recipes, I decided to take up the challenge!
My first one was the sweet potato, caramelised onion and sundried tomato sausage with a chilli kick, but I also really fancied doing something with beans and lentils as they are so tasty, nutritious and versatile.
Note: These vegetarian sausages can also be made into vegetarian burgers / patties without the vegetarian sausage casings. Simply shape into a burger / patty and fry with a little oil in a non-stick pan.
Ingredients for 8 vegetarian sausages (these quantities will make 7-8 vegetarian sausages, plus whatever is left in the sausage-making funnel/mechanism)
- 250g closed cup chestnut mushrooms, cleaned, finely sliced and then coarsely chopped
- 3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 50g lightly salted butter
- 115g tinned butter beans in water, drained (typically from a 250g – undrained weight – tin)
- 115g tinned cannellini beans in water, drained
- 115g tinned kidney beans in water, drained
- 115g ready-to-eat Puy Lentils (I use Merchant Gourmet ones)
- fine sea salt (to taste)
- Vegetarian / Vegan Sausage casings (I found these online – available from various retailers)
Method
Melt the butter in a non-stick pan
Gently fry the garlic on a low heat (do not let it brown, merely soften a little and infuse the butter with garlic flavour)
Add the mushrooms, season lightly with a little sea salt, turn up the heat and cook on a high heat until they are cooked and some of the juices have reduced down – but do retain a little bit of liquid
Meanwhile, ‘blitz’ the butter beans, cannelini beans and kidney beans in a food processor but only very briefly, so as to retain some chunky texture
Add the Puy lentils to the bean mixture and mix by hand
Add the fried mushrooms
If the mixture is a little dry, add a bit of melted butter
Season with sea salt (to taste)
Push the mixture into the vegetarian sausage casings using a sausage-making machine/funnel (note that when you twist the ends, unlike with natural casings, they won’t remain properly twisted…leave enough room at the end to allow for a bit of expansion of the contents during cooking and prevent all the filling from escaping from the ends)
Grill or fry (careful if you BBQ – the vegetarian sausage casings have a tendency to tear open / explode on the high heat!) and serve with accompaniments of your choice
