Breakfast or Dinner Vegetarian Sausage

As a child, one of my favourite meals (they were all my favourite) was sausages, potatoes and green peas.  I loved the spicy flavour of the beef sausage and never seemed to have enough of them on my plate.  I gladly ate any sausages left on my sister's plate. Sometimes mom would scrape the drippings off the pan and dribble a little over the potatoes.  Oh, how tasty that was! 

Even though I loved the taste of the sausages I never served them very often to the family.  I think all the fat threw me off and I thought it wiser to leave the fatty sausages for just very occasional meals.  Of course all that changed when we became vegetarians.  Then I wanted sausages all the time!  But I had given up the dead carcases and had to move on.  But the memory of the taste of the spicy sausage still remained even after nearly 20 years of vegetarianism.   I tried many fake veggie sausages but, I tell you, I don't know who tastes those things before they package them.  They didn't taste remotely like a sausage of my youth. 

And then a couple of years ago I came across a meatless oatmeal sausage that was going around the internet blogs and YouTube.  I was fascinated by the process of turning the oatmeal into a well flavoured and meaty facsimile of the real thing.  Anyway, that's what all the reviews said.  I make vegetarian "meat" patties with oatmeal all the time but they don't have this texture so I decided to try the recipe and just as everyone said, they were very sausage-like except something was missing in the spices.  So I made them several more times, doing a little research on sausage spices and came up with a mixture that was very pleasing to my taste buds. 

I also added ground walnuts to add more protein.  You could use pecans as well or any nut that you have on hand.  The minced onion is also optional but will add a little more texture to the mix.  Don't be put off by the long list of herbs and spices.  That's what gives them such a lovely, spicy, sausagey flavour.

I haven't given any credit for the original recipe as I could not trace it down.  It is said to be an adaption of a World War II ration recipe but I could not find any first source references to back up those claims.  There is a veggie sausage in Wales that's been around for several hundred years, known as the Glamorgan Sausage, a mixture of bread crumbs, cheese and onions which does not resemble this recipe at all so I don't know where this one originated.   

Wherever the method came from I'm glad I found it.  Every time I make these sausages I'm almost as surprised with the flavour and texture as I was the first time I ate them.  Try them and I'm sure you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was and still am. 

You can make these sausages into little breakfast patties or into larger cylindrical dinner sausages. 


Breakfast or Dinner Sausage
2 cups uncooked oatmeal
½ cup walnuts, ground fine
¼ cup minced onion, optional
1 teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon ground sage
½ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon red (cayenne) pepper
¼  teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 eggs OR 4 egg whites OR 2 egg whites + 1 egg

Oil for frying
2-3 cups vegetable or beef-style vegetarian bouillon

Mix all ingredients, except the vegetable bouillon and oil for frying, and form into patties or long sausage shapes. Do not pack the mixture too tightly but tight enough to hold together.  Brown patties or sausages on all sides in a small amount of oil. 

Add enough vegetable bouillon to the frying pan to cover the patties and bring to a boil. Or alternately, you can use a separate saucepan to simmer the sausages. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove patties/sausages from the liquid, drain, and re-fry before serving.

If you are not going to use the sausage immediately store the simmered sausage in the refrigerator until ready to use.  Re-fry the sausage before using.  

Makes 12-18 sausages depending on the shape and size you make. 

Before you begin mixing everything together, grind the nuts to a medium fine meal.

 Mix all the ingredients except the frying oil and the vegetable bouillon.

Form into dinner sausages or smaller breakfast patties.  Don't squeeze the mixture too tight, but make sure they are well formed. Fry in a little oil until they are browned on all sides.

While the sausages are browning bring the bouillon to a simmer.  Place the fried sausages into the simmering broth.  Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.  Save the broth.  It's delicious and will make a great gravy base.  When the sausages are simmered remove them from the broth and refry to serve immediately.  If you are not ready to use the sausages, refrigerate until ready to use.  They may also be frozen at this stage.

Add a little more oil in the pan and fry the sausages for another few minutes until all sides are refried.  I prepared six sausages for our dinner.  These were fried shortly after they had simmered.  

For a hearty breakfast, serve with your favourite eggs and toast.

Serve for dinner with mashed potatoes and your favourite vegetable.

Toothsome veggie sausages for your next dinner or breakfast.