Vegan ‘Cheesy’ Almond, Leek & Herb Sausages

Many years ago, Delia Smith’s cookery books became our bible and a particular family favourite was and remains her vegetarian Cheesy Herb Sausages. My husband makes them every week. Our daughter-in-law was introduced to them when she joined our family and now makes a personal request for them when she comes to visit.

Since becoming vegan and gluten-free, however, I’ve had to forego this pleasure and usually have a bought alternative (I like Dee’s Wholefoods) when family come to stay and choose something else when it’s just us.

When I was still vegetarian, but had to become gluten-free, my husband offered several times to make an alternative with gluten-free bread, but commercial g/f bread has an aftertaste that dominates whatever you use it in and I never wanted to use up the homemade bread for this as it is time-consuming for him to make (I can’t do it because of my back injury) and I also didn’t want him to have to make two lots of different sausages.

Now that I am vegan and he has also given up eggs (but not cheese yet, we are getting there slowly), and we are more used to vegan cooking, we decided to try making some Delia-lite sausages using a chia egg and nutritional yeast. It was surprisingly easy and came together quickly. Chia egg is quite a miracle worker when it comes to needing a binding agent to replace real eggs in burgers and sausages.

I chose leek rather than onion for several reasons: I find onion difficult to digest; onion, unless you grate it, often doesn’t cook properly in homemade sausages while leek doesn’t dominate and also blends with the mixture better, it holds together well.

These are our first attempt and we were very pleased with them. They are firm, tasty and satisfying.

Watch out for our second version:  Vegan Leek, Carrot and Ginger Sausages, even better!

Makes about 8 depending on size.

Vegan, Gluten-free and Organic where possible.

Ingredients

2.5 oz / A third of a Cup Almonds, soaked,  rinsed and patted dry, then roughly grind with:

2 Heaped Tbsps Nutritional Yeast

1 Tsp Dry Mustard

1 Tsp Thyme

1 Tsp Sage

Add together in a processor with:

5 oz/ Gluten-free Breadcrumbs*

Pink Himalayan Salt & Black Pepper to taste

1 Small Leek, finely chopped

1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

A Splash of Tamari

1 Chia Egg (1 Tbsp Chia Seeds soaked in 3 Tbsps Water to form a gel)

Process all the ingredients for a few seconds until the mixture will stick together but still has some texture, squeeze into sausage shapes.

Refrigerate for a while until needed.

Lightly cook in coconut oil, turning frequently (the sausages, that is, but  you can do a twirl now and then if you like while you’re waiting!).

We put some uncooked ones in the freezer for another day.

*Vegan Gluten-Free Tiger Nut Loaf/Bread Mk III

Copyright: Chris McGowan