Makes 4 Sausages
Time: 50 minutes || Active time: 10 minutes
I realized I don’t have a super basic sausage recipe on the site and so here it is! The now classic, always magical, seitan and bean steamed-in-tinfoil sausage. Perfect for grilling, sauteeing or tossing into stews.
In case this is your first time making a vegan sausage, here’s what’s going down: You’re going to mash some beans in a mixing bowl and then throw in the other ingredients and mix. Then you’re going to roll ’em in tinfoil like a Tootsie Roll, and steam them. And then, like magic, you will have vegan sausages. Easiest thing in the world! A few versions of these sausages appear in Vegan Brunch.
1/2 cup cooked white beans (great northern or navy), rinsed and drained
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon olive oil *or* 1 tablespoon tomato paste (tomato paste is a great fat replacement)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon granulated garlic *or* 2 cloves fresh garlic, finely grated
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed, crushed *or* 1 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Several dashes fresh black pepper
Before mixing your ingredients, get the steaming apparatus ready, bringing water to a full boil. The rest of the recipe comes together very quickly.
Have ready 4 square sheets of tin foil. In a large bowl, mash the beans until no whole ones are left. Throw all the other ingredients together in the order listed and mix with a fork. Divide dough into 4 even parts (an easy way to do this: split the dough in half and then into quarters). Place one part of dough into tin foil and mold into about a 5 inch log. Wrap dough in tin foil, like a tootsie roll. Don’t worry too much about shaping it, it will snap into shape while it’s steaming because this recipe is awesome.
Place wrapped sausages in steamer and steam for 40 minutes. That’s it! You can unwrap and enjoy immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.
Thanks for this recipe. I have used it several times, and it is fabulous!
I have been travelling in the UK for 3 months and wasn’t able to find gluten anywhere. Finally ordered it on-line and it arrived today. So excited to whip up a batch of these and some of the alternative versions!
Look out, kitchen!
I haven’t read all comments (too many) but does anyone have a (rather aggressive) spice profile for pepperoni type sausages?
I really like things spicy. The Italian recipe I settled on has probably twice as much spice as Isa’s.
I also make a kickin’ chipotle sausage.
Not dissing Isa. She gave me the gift of the best vegan sausage ever – she ROCKS!
I feed them to my (mostly) non-vegan interns and they all love them.
OMG, This recipe is amazing! My carnivore bf said they were very good, which is an A+ in my book!
Thank you so much for making my meatless journey so much more enjoyable with this perfect blend of texture, flavor, and simplicity! Gonna share this with all my doubtful wannabe vegan friends,
I have recently gone vegetarian and I thought I would give your recipe a try, just out of curiosity.
I gotta say, both my mother and I found them to be BETTER than meat sausages!! Thank you so much for the amazing recipe!
This was my first time making seitan and I’ll be honest, when I first tasted it straight out of the steamer there was something about the texture that put me off… but after I let it sit in the fridge for a day, it actually tasted so much better! Yummmo!
Yes! Me too! They totally improve overnight. My partner grilled one the next morning and said ‘wow this tastes just like sausage.’
After so many times using this recipe I felt I had to say thanks. I am allergic to legumes (soy, chickpeas, beans etc) so I cannot buy storebought seitan. It took some trial and error to replace the white beans, but I found many interesting options that work. Today I made a merguez-inspired version, with baked sweet potato to replace the beans, and coconut seasoning to replace the soy sauce, and cumin-cardamone-coriander-curcuma-paprika-cloves as the spices combination, plus quite a bit of hot sauce. The result, as expected, is yummy. Your recipe is my go-to basis for any seitan-sausages and will never be able to thanks you enough! 🙂
hello Isabelle. I am intrigued by your use of sweet potato instead of legumes. How creative! Is that an ounce per ounce substitution? thanks
Tried this and fell in love immediately! Now I’m looking up recipes for Bratwurst and Weisswurst to get the spice mix ingredients to use with this base to see if it will work. If it does, I will rule the world! OK maybe not, but I will certainly rule the grill.
These are amazing! Even my meat eating husband loved them. Being of German descent, I have been subjected to some of the worst wurst ever, mainly growing up. Thank you for providing something so much better.
I don’t have a steaming apparatus, is it possible to do it an other way?
Hi Louise, you can purchase an inexpensive bamboo steamer at your local asian market or Amazon.
I made these today and they were phenomenal. I did find that at the end of 40 minutes they seemed a little underdone to me, so I finished them by baking them (as I usually make the Seitan O’Greatness and bake it the entire time).
Really delicious and I feel you wouldn’t even know these weren’t meat sausages. I had a guy working in my house when they were cooking and he thought they had to be real.
I’ll make these often. Thank you!
These sound so good. I will definitely give these a try. I don’t feel good about using tinfoil though. As tinfoil is so bad for us to cook food in. So I will try using cheesecloth hopefully it will work. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Oh my goodness. Oh my. Seriously – these are just so good. So, so good. And the ability to change up the flavours by using different herbs and spices or varying the stock, makes this so damn versatile!
I’ve been vegan for a little over a year, but only stumbled across your site about ten days ago. Isa, you’ve changed my life! Seriously – I like to know exactly what goes in to my food, so being able to make my own seitan is just brilliant.
I have a few ideas as to what to make in the future with these – I tried the ‘beef’ stew recipe last night and it was just fantastic.
Thank you again!
Phenomenal recipe! Served these at Christmas dinner and even the meat eaters loved them! I browned them and added them to sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms. Mmmmmm!!! Thank you for such a great recipe ☺
Hi. Would leaving out the nutritional yeast make a big difference. I can get ths item, but its very expensive here. Or is there an alternative.
I live in Japan and have a hard time finding the same beans I would buy in the US. I bring dry pintos and garbanzos in large quantities and always have them on hand. I see dry white beans in the stores here but have no idea if they are actually similar to navy beans or great northern beans. I think of the two white beans mentioned as being among the softer varieties of beans– if well cooked, would pintos be a good substitute?
Thanks in advance!
P. S. “Appetite for Reduction” is my favorite cookbook–so many of my stand-bys are from it and are committed to memory.
I would like to steam these in my InstantPot. Do you (or anyone else) know what the time conversion would be? I have a friend who makes these in large quantities and are a staple in her meal planning. I am very excited to give them a try!
I saw a similar recipe that specified the instant pot steam setting for 10 mins. Use 2 cups of water and the wire rack
My first attempt at Seitan Andouille sausage was an IP recipe! 35 minutes on high pressure. There were eight five inch sausages. Wonderful, other than son decided more spices were better and they were too hot for me, but fine for him. It just so happens, I sent them home with him. Hmmmm….may have been outsmarted, eh?
Hello. What could I substitute soya sauce for?
You might try Brag’s Liquid Aminos.
Just made a slightly different version of these from Isa Does It. They were truly spectacular. Grilled them on the barbecue just to get some grill marks on and that heightened them to an all-new level. Will definitely be making again!
I just made these, and the omnivores loved it. I made it into hot dogs with caramelised onions and fried them on the stove with oil. I don’t know why but it didn’t look like the picture or have the colour even with added paprika but it still looked realistic and tasted amazing. I would highly recommend as it was my first time using vital wheat gluten. Perfect
Made these yesterday. So good! Even better the second day.
I wanted to know if I can make patties and bake instead of steaming
Hi Isa, I have a question about this awesome recipe. I’ve made these a few times and they’ve turned out great, but I’ve been looking for a method that doesn’t involve aluminum foil. This is partly due to laziness and partly due to an effort to switch to reusables in the kitchen. I was wondering if you’ve ever used a silicone sausage mold (such as this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XWQQTD5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AMH8LVZHK5EGR&psc=1) to make these or if you’ve heard of people having success/failure with them. It seems like it could be a great solution, but I’m not sure if it would produce enough pressure to get the sausage to form properly. Thanks!
This was my first seitan recipe, and I’ve returned to it many times. It’s one of the few creations my fussy 3-year-old loves. For the moment. I tend to use whatever cooked beans I have on hand — blackeyed peas last time. Always a hit, even with omnivores.
I just made a double batch of these yesterday and they were amazing! The texture was great and now I’m going to try using the same recipe, but change up the spices and make chorizo. I was also wondering if Seiten freezes well, but it looks like a few people have done so with good results. I loved the use of beans in your recipe. I had just made a pot of Garbanzo in my pressure cooker, so perfect timing! I just bought your Holiday cookbook, my second book of yours, and I’m very excited to dive in and try your recipes in there.
I’ve made this a number of times, and I enjoy them as much today as I did the first time over a year ago. I do tend to tweak the recipe occassionally, like kidney or black beans instead, and using both olive oil and tbsp of tomato paste or chili paste. In fact I normally make a batch of 12 sausages every 2 weeks. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe.
I just made these in my instant pot. I made a double batch and made patties out of some. Steamed for 30 minutes. Such a great flavor and texture!
Finally leaving a comment after years of making this and coming up with my own variations. This recipe is fantastic and it never fails to be absolutely delicious, thanks for sharing. Hands down one of my favorite vegan foods. Thanks for sharing!!!
Many thanks for sharing this recipe. Absolutely delicious and easy to make. I love that it does not require a blender (less dishes to do) and that it’s a wetter recipe so it’s easy to incorporate the vital wheat gluten into wet ingredients. I don’t have a steamer and bake it at 350 for 20 minutes each side.
We’ve been making these for something like 13 years. It’s one of our go-to recipes. I have to say I’ve also messed around with it and experimented with or used alternate ingredients that I’ve had on hand. Never been disappointed. Isa’s vegan cookbooks are a must-have on your shelf of vegan cookbooks. She has been cooking vegan since before a lot of people had ever heard of vegan.
I can never thank you enough for the gift of this recipe.