Makes 4 big sausages
Total time: 50 minutes || Active time: 15 minutes
There are so many amazing versions of these steamed sausages floating around, but one more couldn’t hurt! These are an excellent brunch sausage, perfect for slicing up alongside French Toast. They have a slightly sweet mapley taste, and when they sop up a little extra maple syrup, well that’s quite allright. I used both chickpea flour and nutritional yeast because I love that texture best, but you can use all nutritional yeast, or all chickpea flour. This recipe is anything but fussy. Here’s a PPK thread that has about a bazillion and one ideas for variations on the steamed sausage.
1/2 cup cooked pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons liquid smoke
2 cloves garlic, grated (with a microplane, or very finely minced)
1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Several dashes fresh black pepper
Before mixing your ingredients, get your steaming apparatus ready, and bring water to a full boil. The rest of the recipe comes together very quickly.
Have ready 4 sheets of tin foil. In a large bowl, mash the pinto 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. They’re really great sliced up and lightly sauteed, or grilled.
What kind of steamer do you use? Any recommendations for one?
I use the kind that fits right into my pasta pot. I think it’s supposed to be to drain pasta, too. Works like a dream.
Hi Isa, first off just want to say thanks, PPK & your cookbooks are mindblowing! Also, would these be suitable for freezing after they’ve been steamed?
Oh yes, they’re great frozen and reheated.
Just made a batch of these, using left-over lentils instead of beans.
made these last night with tofu scramble and home fries for breakfast for dinner. They were great, and I even cheated by mixing everything together in the food processor.
Awesome!! I can’t find chickpea flour anywhere, so we doubled the nutritional yeast. I still haven’t procured a steamer yet either, but I used your suggestion (I read it somewhere..) to use my metal strainer, and it worked fine! I made 8 smaller sausages, and still had to cook the full time because the lid I used wasn’t super-tight fitting. (Lots of mismatched pans, pots & lids, you know..) There were great, and easy, and we will definitely be making them again! We’re excited about all the possibility & with summer coming up, for grilling too. This is yet ANOTHER thing you have converted to Homemade Only Status for me & my family! Thank you!!
One thing I don’t see mentioned here is that chickpea flour is used in other cultures, under a different name. East
Indian cooks call it besan. If you have an Indian grocery, they’ll have it. And although I do have a steamer basket, when I need to pinch hit while making a large amount of tamales, I use my bigger spaghetti colander over my six quart pot, with a lid.
rice crumbs in place of vital wheat gluten do NOT work 🙁
I made some with panch puran and kabocha squash: http://bit.ly/wnPdRv
is there something to replace wheat gluten and nutritional yeast?
I really like these. 🙂 I froze them to reheat later in the week. They were delicious and a great addition to my Breakfast for Dinner night…. and let’s be honest here – a heck of a lot cheaper than buying them at the store. 🙂
I made them as directed since it was the first time. Next time, I will probably tweak them slightly to keep my husband happy (no fennel, little bit extra liquid smoke, little less maple syrup) but that’s him. 🙂 I thought the recipe, as is, was awesome.
Question: Would these work out in the steamer without being wrapped in tin foil?? Or would something horrible happen to them. I’m about to try it….
They will puff up like crazy and be spongy.
We are a family of celiacs and gluten-intolerant folks. So many recipes, such as these wonderful-sounding sausages, rely on gluten or gluten-containing grains to make them work. I wish somebody would apply the McDougall way of eating to a strict gluten-free diet. I think you’d have a lot of takers!
These are beautiful! Ive made them at least five times now. Really gorgeous and smokey and just amazing. I love them griddled till slightly blacked in sourdough bread smothered in ketchup! Thank you
I am so excited to try this recipe! As far as steamers go, do you mean a vegetable steamer? I feel weird about putting foil in a veggie steamer….
Hey gluten free folks, I saw a veggie version of “polenta sausages” on a Dutch website – I’m translating the Dutch recipe here, which might be interesting. This is the exact translation – I am sure you can adjust the seasonings to suit your taste, but the concept seemed to work.
150 grams polenta
2 cups (a bit more) veggie broth (or fake chicken broth, I guess?)
3 T olive oil
100 grams silken tofu
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 sprigs flat leaf parsley
5 sage leaves
80 grams bread crumbs (I guess use could find gluten free breadcrumbs?)
4 T cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste
Bring the vegetable stock to the boil with the olive oil and sprinkle in the polenta, stirring constantly. Let everything stirring constantly over low heat until thickened. It takes about 5 minutes.
Finely crumble the silken tofu with the garlic, parsley and sage. Then mix well with the cooked polenta (let it cool slightly).
Form the polenta-tofu mix into sausage shapes, wrap firmly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for four hours.
Dust the “sausages” with cornstarch before cooking (heat oil in a pan and crisp it up).
For those of you wanting to the see the original version in Dutch, here’s the link:
http://www.evavzw.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91:recept&catid=57:culinair&Itemid=142&ID=1051
Hope it works out!
These are so easy to make. The dough smelled so good!!! I have them simmering right now. I can’t wait to try them.
I love these! Adapted to be soy free using 2 Tbs balsamic an 1 tsp salt. Also use only chickpea flour.
Wondering if there is a way to make these without aluminum foil? Anyone try something more reusable?
So I just tried making these and while I like the flavor I found the texture to be odd. Very doughy. Did I do something wrong, like not cook it long enough, or is that how the texture is supposed to be? (once I put the colander in the pot the lid wouldn’t fit, so maybe I need longer than 40 minutes?) If sauteing, how long on each side over what heat?
WIll they come out firm? I normally don’t steam things like this but bake them. It’ll usually come out a bit firm but after I cool it, it turns harder. These after cooling still feel very fragile. Are they suppose to firm up? Should I bake them or will they firm during grilling?
Like several other commenters, I am gluten free as well. However, I have discovered that Orgran makes a gluten substitute (it comes in a little box and is ridiculously expensive for the amount) but I have used it successfully in several breads. I think that this recipe warrants experimentation with the gluten free gluten (that’s actually what it’s called!). I will let you know how it turns out!! May the Force be with me (and YOU too!!) =)
I just can’t believe I’m eating right now a breakfast sandwich made with these saucisses! It is so freaking good… And I made it :). I can’t wait to try variations or created my own. Hummmm… Pesto, red pepper flakes and dry tomatoes No more store bought for me. Thanks Isa, you change my life!
That’s the spirit!
Gonna try this. Ever since Light Life discontinued their breakfast links my mornings have been so bereft of tasty protein.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I can’t wait to try it!
Hello,
Could you please tell me if there is a good alternative method to making the molds without the foil? I try to avoid using it as much as possible.
Thank you,
Matt
People have use parchment that is tied at both ends. Not as neat, but still yummy!
They came out amazing! Very, very tasty.
I think the beans, which I mashed only roughly, added to the sausage-like texture, and I know sausage – I grew up in Poland, eating a lot of sausage, naturally. So of course I’ve just cooking a “Polish” version of the sausage, haha (the spice mix from thread mentioned above based on the Smoky Italian Sausage, i.e just the base, sans the Italian spices), Btw, to say a “Polish kiełbasa” is like to say “French cheese” – there are dozens of types – I might try to develop some additional spice mix recipes!
They came out great (still hot)!! For personal preferences, next time I will probably decrease the amount of soy sauce (a bit too salty for me) and double the marjoram, and I might add a bit more beans for better nutritional value, hopefully the texture will not suffer too much. I can’t wait to eat them with caramelized onions. Thank you for this recipe!!
Has anyone tried making smaller breakfast link-type sausages with this recipe? More work in the shaping and wrapping, but perfect for breakfast… But, I’m wondering if it would affect the cooking time…
I’d love to make isa Chandra & Terry’s various seitans but I can’t think of a substitute for aluminum foil. I don’t believe aluminum is safe to cook in.
Anyone figure out a substitute?
How many sauseges kan I steam at the same time? Can I lay them on top of eachother, if i double or triple the recipe or do I have to use two steamers?
Made these last week! So much fun. They turned out a little on the sweet side for us, but I will totally make them again but add more spice! The texture was fantastic! I’ve new to a vegan diet…. about five months now and this site has been a life saver… THANK YOU!
How you can make this recipe without a steamer?
Hello, Well mine did not look like the picture (the picture matched my make of the Italian sausage), mine were a light chocolate brown. These Maple sausages are good, a bit too dense, so next time I am going to add just a bit more broth.
The flavors are GREAT! Maybe a bit more fennel for my taste? These are definitely a “keeper”.
Both this Maple and the Italian sausage are almost too easy to make, 20 minutes maximum to prep, then the 40 minute cook time, dinner in an hour.
These are tastier, with the sense of fresh, over the commerially produced sausages. Plus I estimate the cost to be about $0.65 to $0.80 per sausage, much less cost.
Thank you for providing two wonderful recipes.
i found these way too sweet and over powered by soy sauce, so I remade them with only 1 TBS maple syrup and swapped out the soy for some homemade chipotle sauce (2:1 water and reconstituted peppers, blended with mexican oregano and refrigerated for a month). i also hate the almond taste of chickpea flour, so i used semolina flour. Finally, i found if you use 1 cup each of broth and VWG, you don’t get rubbery sausages… they fracture like proper meat and have lots of moisture… you have to unwrap them after the steamer and leave for 30 minutes to cool and “dry”
I would like to make something like this for my recently vegetarian husband but I don’t have nutritional yeast – I don’t even have a clue what it is 😛 Is there something that is in the realms of vegetarian (not necessarily vegan) that would substitute? Any help would be great, ta.
Another PPK success in my kitchen. I will be making many variations of this one. Thanks!
Is there any way these could be made into patties?
Making these tonight for Christmas breakfast tomorrow…third time I have made them and we love them!!! 🙂
Hi Chandra,
I am not sure if I missed this in the hundred plus comments, but is there a substitute for the vital wheat gluten?
Love your recipes, and I am so glad you are here to share them.
All the best,
Kelly