These vegan breakfast sausage is made with hearty lentils, protein-packed seitan, and flavorful spices. The perfect savory accompaniment to your vegan breakfast!
Here's a recipe that has been in the works for quite some time now. Vegan breakfast sausage took me multiple attempts, which began, sadly, on a day that I invited some friends over for brunch and promised them some amazing homemade vegan sausage.
This happens every now and then. When you promise to feed someone some experimental recipe that you're working on for a food blog, you quickly learn that backup plans are essential.
On the brunch occasion in question I tried making a breakfast style sausage out of lentils and seitan, but the result was incredibly dry and gritty. Luckily, my husband make his famous deep dish pancake that day, so a good brunch was had by all. And to be real, there's not much room for sausage when you've dining on a massive eight-serving pancake.
Anyhow, I kept at it with the vegan breakfast sausage recipe. I was pretty determined.
I realized that the trouble I was having with my previous batches of veggie sausage was in the ratio of wheat gluten to liquid. There's quite a delicate balance going on here, and what I finally ended up doing was working an adaptation from Isa Chandra's Italian Sausage Recipe.
You'll need some vital wheat gluten to get started. What's this you ask? It's the protein that's found in wheat, and it's what seitan is made from. (Learn more about that here.) You can find vital wheat gluten in powdered form at places like Whole Foods, or you can buy it online. Add some spices, cooked lentils, and a seasoned broth. Mix everything up to form a dough.
Shape your dough into a log and place it on a sheet of parchment paper or foil. Roll it up tight! Next you're going to steam it. I used a bamboo steamer, which worked great! But any steaming device that'll fit your logs will work. If you've got something small like a metal steaming basket, you'll just need to make smaller logs and perhaps steam them in batches.
Once the steaming is done, slice the logs and pan-fry your vegan breakfast sausage patties until crisp.
Tips!
- You're probably going to have a few lentils fall out of your dough when you shape it into logs. Just a warning! It's totally normal.
- The sausage is freezer friendly! I like to freeze the patties before pan-frying them, and but after works too.
- Is there a way to make this sausage gluten-free? Unfortunately, not that I know of, since wheat gluten is the main ingredient. The tempeh patties used in these sandwiches have a very similar flavor profile though.
- Is there much difference in using parchment paper vs. foil? I find the foil easier to roll, but the patties made with parchment paper came out sturdier and had a denser texture.
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📖 Recipe
Lentil & Seitan Sausage Patties
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups vital wheat gluten
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¾ cup cooked brown lentils, drained
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- About 2 tablespoons canola oil, or high heat oil of choice
Instructions
- Begin by setting up a steaming apparatus, such as a wok and bamboo steamer or a pot fitted with a steaming basket (see my tips above).
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, paprika, pepper, onion powder and thyme.
- Stir the broth, soy sauce, maple syrup and garlic together in a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup.
- Add the lentils to the dry mixture, then stir in the broth mixture to form a dough. Mix it up well, using your hands if needed.
- Divide the dough in two and roll into two 6" logs. Wrap each log tightly in a sheet of parchment paper or foil and steam for 30 minutes.
- Remove the logs from the steamer and give them a few minutes to cool.
- Once they're cool enough to handle, remove the parchment paper or foil and slice the logs into about ½ inch thick slices (or your preferred thickness).
- Coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and place it over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the sausage slices and pan-fry for about 4 minutes on each side. Cook in batches if needed. Transfer the cooked sausage patties to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Serve.
Notes
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This breakfast sausage is sooooo good!! Way better than any store bought and any other recipe I have tried. Love the texture and the taste! Plus it's so easy!! I wrapped mine in parchment and am pleased it has a firm but slightly moist and slightly chewy texture. I added some fennel seed and dried sage to give it even more flavor. Definitely will make this a staple to have over and over.
I've made this recipe twice now. The first time they were too soft and not tasty enough. he second time I used 1 tsp od thyme, 1/2 tsp of sage and 1/2 tsp of fennel. I also added extra VWG and kneaded it in. I formed two logs and wrapped them in parchment paper this time. They came out firmer and tasted better. My broth was salty so I only used 2 Tbsp of soy sauce.
My sister doesn't like lentils. Can I substitute either small white or cannelli beans? I, on the other hand, love this!
This looks so yummy! I just started making seitan and have been using my food processor or mixer to mix and get the gluten strands going. It sounds like that’s not the intention here, is that true? And if not, how long should you mix/knead?
Thank you! You should be able to use your food processor. I hadn't tried that at the time I developed this particular recipe, but since then I created a vegan pepperoni recipe using the food processor and it works just fine. (It's here, btw: https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/vegan-pepperoni/) I would run it very briefly to avoid smashing the lentils too much - just as long as needed to mix the dough. Enjoy!!
can these be frozen . if so before or after cooking
They can definitely be frozen after cooking. I'm not sure about before, but I'll update the recipe notes if I have a chance to try it!
Thanks
This turned out delicious and was so easy to make! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe.
Thanks you for this - I have just made it and this is my first ever seitan recipe. I had mediocre expectations as it was my first attempt, but my sausages turned out really good! I couldn't wait to try, so immediately fried some and it was so delicious. Thanks so much for the really easy instructions. I went vegan in the USA, and my favourite sausage was the Fieldcrest Smoked Apple and Sage. I've moved back to New Zealand and these can only be obtained at a specialty vegan shop at 4 x the price! So I now have the confidence to attempt to replicate with this recipe as my starting point. Thanks again. I'm in sausage heaven!
Hello, I’m thinking about making this recipe and would like to double or triple it. Do you think all the ingredients would scale the same way? I was particularly wondering about the soy sauce and spices.
I think you should be fine to simply double or triple all of the ingredients - soy sauce and spices included.
These turned out delicious! I added 1/2tsp of crushed fennel seeds for more of a “breakfast sausage” flavor and my husband and I can’t get enough of them. Definitely the tastiest seitan I’ve ever made. Thank you so much for all of your hard work perfecting and sharing these wonderful vegan recipes.
These are one of my most used, most favorite recipes. I leave out the maple syrup and they are amazing is pasta and on pizza too! I”be even made them in patty for to be veggie burgers. They are everything. I steam them in my insta pot for 10 minutes- so easy! So delicious!
Hi, I've just come across this recipe and am hoping to try it for breakfast next weekend. I'm a little confused about the lentils. I have dried lentils so I'll need to cook them before I use them. Should I add them as soon as they are cooked or wait till they are cold (in which case maybe I can cook them the night before)?
You can absolutely cook them the night before! Either way is totally fine. I hope you enjoy it!
made these today, my first time ever making Seitan,i made sausages and they were devine!! Thank you for sharing such an awesome recipe
I'm glad you like them! Thanks Michelle!
Hello
This sounds like a great recipe from the responses im reading. Does the recipe call for canned lentils or do they have to be the dried type, if so im assuming rhey would have to be cooked and mot used raw.
Cheers!
Tracy
Hi Tracy! You can use cooked or canned lentils - both work! Just don't use dried lentils, and make sure if you use cooked that you measure them after cooking and not before. Enjoy!!
Do you think oats would work as a substitute for the wheat gluten? Please reply soon, want to make these this week :) !
Hi Christine! I haven't tried, but I don't think you'd get the same texture or be able to get the sausage to hold together with oats. You might be able to get it to work with some other changes to the recipe (maybe add beans?), but I couldn't tell you what to do without some experimentation.
YUM!! I had convert the measurements to the Metric system, so I was hoping I wasn't too far off. My mix was really wet - I could wring it out but I kept going. Steamed them two at a time, then did a test pan fry to know if they'd worked. O. M. G.
The resident meat eater and vego/vegan sceptic ate most of my test batch! He loved them! So did I, as did my children! It was my first time making seitan, and while the flavours were pretty intense (could be converting the measurements), I loved the result. Fast, easy to make and tasty. Win!
Yay!! I'm so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks Carly!
Trying these today.....wait for news. Will be used for the third birthday breakfast of my Grandson.
Enjoy!!
Hello Again,
Ok, made the sausages. Used foil and my bamboo steamer Now,interestingly. Enough...I love salt and really different food, cook many cuisines. I found these to be perfect but TOO salty with a vey strong taste???? My daughter the VEGAN said she thought the smoked paprika was too strong, did not find them salty, she has basically a salt free diet...Go figure. I shall try these again using half the amount of Soy Sauce (I used Tamari) with water. Also will add some different spices, perhaps sage (which is a herb), and cumin. Over all, I am thrilled with the concept as I have not eaten a sausage in about fifty yeas so this would be a boon to my breakfast. One can only eat so much Oatmeal. Thanks so much for this recipe and permitting my comments.
I'm glad you enjoyed them! Definitely adjust the amount of soy sauce to your taste, and I think sage and cumin would be delicious additions. :)
Two questions...could I add additional spices (fennel and sage) to give it more of a breakfast sausage flavor? Second, I’ve love to make sausage rolls. If I use this recipe would I have to steam them first or just roll a log in puff pastry and bake it off?
You can absolutely switch up the spices! And I'd recommend steaming them first. I think they might end up a bit dry if you don't. I hope you enjoy them!!
What is the serving size for this recipe?
1/4 of the batch - so 5 or 6 patties depending on how many you end up with. :)
I make these all the time!! They're delicious. Even meat eaters love them! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Awesome!! I'm so glad they're a hit! Thanks Zoe!
I tried an approximation of this recipe (same gluten to water ratio) in the oven, baked in a bread pan for 45 min at 350 and it worked pretty well. It was softer in the center but baking slightly longer or pan frying slices afterwards fixed the softer parts.
Great idea! I'll have to give that a try. :)
Hi! Do you have any baking instructions/suggestions for this seitan recipe? Looks delicious!
Thank you! I'm afraid I haven't tried this (or any other seitan recipes) in the oven. I'll definitely put it on my list of kitchen things to experiment with though. :)
I chopped some of it up, mixed with frozen corn, and sprinkled with taco seasoning mix then heated in the microwave. It made a very yummy filling for street tacos and dinner was on the table in less than 10 minutes!
Great idea and sounds like a delicious meal! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
1st attempt I was really pleased but the recipe calls for way too much pepper. Next time I will half the amount, it dominated the taste too much for my taste buds.
Lovely texture though.
I made this recipe and it is, BY FAR, the best seitan dish I've ever made! Thank you so much! I've tried the PPK recipe, and I've found my seitan turned out really underwhelming and not tasty at all. Your recipe (I did add a touch more vital wheat gluten, however) turned out so delicious and had a perfect, appetizing texture. I don't have a bamboo steamer, so I just used a large pot and a steaming basket instead. Again, thank you!
Awesome!!! I tend to lay the spices on thick in dishes like this were I want tons of flavor - glad to hear it worked. Thank you so much for sharing! :)