Hello friends of Hive.
Here in Canada we are in the thick of autumn. This is when the leaves turn yellow, orange, and red. People rave about the beauty of it all.
For me the sight of this, fills me with an indescribable sadness. I don't know exactly why. It could be that this is the sign of upcoming torture that I will have to face. The torture of dark, windy, cold, snowy, icy days to come. The days locked inside except for the walk to work and back.
Alright, enough of my woes!
October is also a time when the German Octoberfest takes place. I grew up in one of the most popular places for Octoberfest. Southern Ontario.
Everyone talked about it, and how they were going to a party here or there. They drank a lot of beer swinging their steins back and fourth, listening to polka.
The food without a doubt, was mainly sausages.
I never once attended the festivals. I always thought someday I would see what it's all about. I would never do such a thing nowadays. Also the sausages would be made from pork.
Today I will make a vegan sausage dinner as a tribute to the October German festivities that I have never attended. It has ended already but it's still October so we are not so far off right?
For this I am using vital wheat gluten and a small amount of tapioca flour.. Gluten flour can be purchased in quite a few places around our city. If I wasn't able to get this, I would try the flour washing method, where you would form a ball of dough and wash away the starch. I have never tried this.
I have chosen the seasonings that I feel would be good.
Vegan sausages
Seasonings
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp fennel
1 tsp dill
1 tsp thyme
1/4 cup nutritonal yeast
Flour
2 cups vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
Wet ingredients
2 cups vegetable broth or more if needed
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons liquid aminos,or soy sauce
3 tablespoons agave or maple syrup
2 tablespoons oil
Salt to taste
After mixing the wet ingredients together, add salt and taste. I like sausages to be on the salty side, but I keep in mind, that later I will braise them in vegetable broth, which is also salted.
Mix the gluten flour with the tapioca flour.
I made a random decision to add tapioca flour. Some people add beans or chickpeas. I decided not to do that this time.
Add seasonings.
Mix the seasonings with the flour.
Incorporate the dry with the wet ingredients. Add either more broth or more flour if needed. I like the dough to be fairly tough but workable. It will gain some moisture from the broth later.
This is a bit of an arm workout to knead. Gluten flour is tougher than regular flour.
I knead the dough until it comes together as much as possible.
Covering and resting the dough makes it easier to work with later.
Meanwhile make the vegetable broth. I sometimes use store bought.
Vegetable broth
1 onion
1bulb of garlic
1 carrot
1 celery stick
10 or so peppercorn
3 bay leaves
Salt to taste
Brown the onions in oil, add garlic and the rest of the items. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.
I also added a vegetable broth cube to this as an after though
After 40 minutes, or so, of resting, cut the dough into equal pieces to a desired size.
Roll into sausage shape. This was the first time I decided to use rice paper wrappers to wrap them. I usually use tin foil or parchment paper.
This is now my preferred method.
Dip each wrapper on both sides for around 5 seconds, or until you can roll them.
Don't let the wrappers get too soft. Roll the sausages in the paper.
I sometimes put them straight into a steamer or boil them in broth. This time I put them in the air fryer for 10 minutes first.
Spraying with oil all over, gets them golden on the outside.
I could have put them in the oven, but air frying is faster.
When they came out I put them in a pan to simmer in broth.
They simmered for a good 30 to 45 minutes. They also swell up quite a bit. This is when I decide they are ready.
After they are done, I removed them from the broth and set aside. They are reheated later.
Meanwhile I prepare the side dishes.
I found nice small brussel sprouts, which to me are better then the big ones.
Pan cooked brussel Sprouts
250g brussel sprouts
2 medium shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 cup vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for the saute
Saute shallots and garlic. Add the brussel sprouts and cook until tender.
Add vegetable broth.
Simmer until the liquid is evaporated.
It wouldn't be a proper German style dinner without potatoes and sauerkraut.
The potatoes were sliced, coated in oil, with salt and pepper and put in the air fryer until golden. Around 10 minutes. (I think as I kept checking them.)
The sauerkraut was added to a pan with fried onion and cooked down with added salt and pepper. In the non plant based world, there may be bacon or some kind of meat added.
With added cucumber salad in a dill vinaigrette, and a gravy made from the broth, it was complete.
I like my sausages with mustard, but I didn't do it this time.
I was very please with how they turned out. In fact the store bought ones that I really like are no better.
I managed to get 7 good size sausages out of this using less than half the bag of gluten flour.
A package of my favourite store bought sausages costs an average of 7 dollars for four.
The bag of gluten flour costs 10 dollars so it's worth it to make them myself. It's just not convenient, but I don't think I'll waste money on such luxuries anymore. Over all it's more satisfying to make it at home.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
Photos taken with a Nikon D7500