As someone who only consumes plant based food, I have a weakness for vegan sausages and hot dogs. There are really good ones available here, but they are pricey. I also don't want to make a habit of eating too many processed plantbased meat substitutes.
I met my partner Marc twenty years ago, at a sausage and meat processing factory. His father was the manager. It was one of the worst jobs ever. We quit and moved to Montreal. After two years we stopped eating meat. We still ate seafood eggs and dairy, going on and off vegan until 7 plus years ago when we cut out all animal products.
Marc and I like to have this kind of treat when we're lazy and had a few too many the night before. We call it the medicinal sausage. Marc says if he was a doctor and someone went to him to be cured, he would just prescribe a hotdog or a sausage. Three for a real bad case. No this wasn't the case for us this time.
This time I've made my own for a change. On occasion I use vital wheat gluten to make seitan in different ways. I have done it with just the wheat gluten, liquid and seasonings, I've made it combined with beans or bean flour or tapioca flour. This time I used tofu to combine with it.
The recipe is made up as I go. It's based on researching several recipes and my own taste preference. Most recipes that I follow don't work out very well. For this I've done my own thing.
I used a food processor and also a blender in order to get the smoothness that I wanted.
I added the tofu to the food processor to grind as much as possible.
Vegan sausages
230g tofu
250g vital wheat gluten
350g vegetable broth
10g oil
1 tsp black salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp citric acid
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp beet powder
40g maple syrup
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
15g nutritional yeast
40g shallot
15g garlic
salt to your liking
(I like to make these salty like a real sausage)
After adding the dry ingredients I put the tofu mixture in a blender with the wet ingredients to puree.
Add the blended mixture to vital wheat gluten either in a bowl or back in the processor.
I decided to clean the food processor and use that instead of a bowl. I ran it until it turned into a dough.
It was kneaded by hand for around ten minutes. I tried to make it as smooth as possible and kept tasting it for salt. I tasted it and wanted more salt so I flattened it and sprinkled more salt on it, then kneaded again.
I rolled it in a parchment paper. I sometimes use foil or just add it straight to boil or steam.
The paper helps to shape into a tube by twisting both ends.
After twisting all of the sausages, I steamed them in my electric steamer.
I put the timer on for an hour but it basically ready when they're firm and plumped up.
Afterwards I brushed them with a mix of:
2 tablespoons vegetarian mushroom sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
After I put them on an electric grill but I got worried they would break so I transferred them to a pan with a little water in it.
I finished them by turning on medium until the water evaporated.
I had already made the buns before hand.
The buns were a simple recipe which I had tested out before and to my surprise they turned out good. I don't bake very often. It's not my thing. I'm always afraid of failure. The strange thing is I've worked on and off for a total of around 5 years throughout my life, in baking. It was mostly cookies and muffins though.
After mixing the yeast with warm water and sugar I set it aside for 5 minutes. I've skipped this step before and it was still fine.
I added the salt to the flour and mixed it then added the yeast mixture to the flour then the oil. It was kneaded for a good 10 minutes until smooth. It was kind of sticky so I sprinkled extra flour as I kneaded.
It was covered and left to rise for around an hour. When the dough was doubled I formed some rolls and left them to sit for around half an hour until they puffed up.
Buns
3 cups bread flour plus extra for kneading
2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups water
3 tbs cane sugar
1/4 cup oil or butter,
For brushing on the buns
2 tablespoons plant milk
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon maple syrup
I brushed them with the milk mustard mixture then sprinkled with sesame seeds. They were put in a preheated 425F oven with a bowl of water on the bottom.
I know they are not perfectly shaped, so I'll just say they're rustic. I need to work on that.
They were taken out after around ten or fifteen minutes when the bottom was golden.
I dressed them with three different toppings for extra fun and variety. The classic one that I like is mustard, ketchup and relish.
I was reminded of the late night, after the bar sausage carts. Those carts don't exist here in Montreal. When I lived near Toronto in a town called Hamilton, we had a couple of carts there. When we went to Toronto, they seemed to be everywhere.
I chose items I had in the fridge. For one topping I simply pan seared some peppers, onions, garlic, salt and black pepper. The pan was deglazed with a splash of balsamic vinegar.
I added the peppers to the bun with some vegan mayo.
For the third topping I seared some portabello mushrooms and onions with salt and pepper. It was also deglazed with balsamic.
I had some vegan mozzerella cheese that I purchased to try, so it was melted on the bun in the oven, before the mushrooms went on. I have never bought this vegan cheese before. It was actually good. I usually don't have much interest in store bought vegan cheese. This melted like regular cheese.
I didn't add anything other then the mushroom and onion. It was already seasoned and the cheese was salted.
When Marc and I eat vegan sausages or hot dogs, it's almost always that he has two and I have one. This time they were quite packed so, I split them in half and we shared. I took the smaller half.
I threw in some cherry tomatoes in the pepper one to make it kind of Italian.
There are so many more possibilities for toppings it's almost silly. Next time I'll have to get some hot chilies in there.
Photos taken with a Nikon D7500 by me, except the ones of me, taken by my other half