Author: I've made seitan steaks, I've made seitan chicken inspired tenders, I've made seitan wing inspired bites, I've made seitan pepperoni, and now it's time to share my recipe for Vegan Italian Seitan Sausages. Clearly, I'm obsessed with seitan recipes. These Italian style sausages have that perfect meaty texture, that classic sausage shape, that burst of Italian seasoning flavor, and they're just really damn good!
It's actually a bit weird how meaty these turn out but because I made them in my own kitchen, I know they are also 100% vegan! There is even an oil-free option for those who prefer it.
The secret to taking these vegan sausages from good to really damn good is to add bits of sun-dried tomato and sautéed onion. You know how traditional sausages have those little fat speckles throughout that help add texture and flavor, well that's exactly what the sun-dried tomatoes and sautéd onions do. Even though they are just bits of veg it provides a very similar texture. So cool!
These sausages are best made the day ahead and chilled in the fridge overnight for the ideal texture. When they are cold they will be quite firm, but when you heat them- grill, fry, etc.- they will soften slightly for the most amazingly perfect texture. Then you can use them anywhere you like!
Where to use vegan sausages:
- Grill the sausages and serve on a bun, hot dog style.
- Fry and serve with potatoes and vegan gravy.
- Cut into thick slices or small chunks and top on soups, salad, or pasta.
- Toss into pasta sauces.
- Slice thinly or crumble to use on pizza.
- Prepare sausages with peppers and onions.
- Anywhere else you want to use these vegan sausages!
How To Make Vegan Italian Sausages:
Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan or skillet over medium heat and when hot add the onions and garlic. Sauté until the onions turn translucent and begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large bowl whisk together the vegetable broth, tomato paste, and white miso pasted until smooth. Now add the sun-dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, dried basil, brown sugar, fennel seeds, dried rosemary, salt, crushed red pepper flakes, liquid smoke, and all of the sautéd onions and garlic along with any oil leftover in the pan, and stir to combine.
Oil-Free Option:
If you prefer to make oil-free vegan Italian sausages simply sauté the onions and garlic in water or broth. Then for the sun-dried tomatoes, use the dry kind that aren't in oil. Chop them up and then soak them in hot water for about 20 minutes to soften the tomato bits. Drain, and proceed with the recipe as normal.
Lastly, add the vital wheat gluten and combine to make a dough. Knead the dough to make sure it's all combined, but once combined, stop kneading. The more you knead the tougher the sausages will get so only do as much as is needed to incorporate the vital wheat gluten.
Cut the dough into 6 equal-sized pieces. Take one of the pieces of dough and place it on a sheet of aluminium foil. Shape the dough into a rough sausage shape, but don't worry about making it look pretty or neat. Some pieces of onion and sun-dried tomato may fall out but just tuck them near the dough and it will all incorporate and shape up nicely as it cooks.
Roll the sausage up loosely in a piece of aluminium foil then twist the ends closed. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough to make 6 sausages.
How To Cook Vegan Italian Sausages:
Add several inches of water to a large pot with a steamer basket and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the sausages to the steamer basket and steam for 40 minutes. After steaming remove the sausages from the steamer and allow to cool completely in the fridge, overnight is best. The logs will have puffed up in the foil and become tight.
Once cooled, remove the foil and they are ready to enjoy as is. When it comes to cooking these Vegan Italian Seitan Sausages, you have some options. You can BBQ, fry, or grill them. Once they are finished cooking you can slice them up and put on a pasta, pizza, or salad. Or enjoy them whole on a bun. In other words: enjoy them any way you like!
Bon appetegan!
Sam.
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Vegan Italian Seitan Sausages
Servings: sausages
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, (see notes for oil-free version)
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¾ cup vegetable broth
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ¼ cup white miso paste
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, (the kind in oil) finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, (optional for spice)
- ¼ teaspoon liquid smoke
- 2 cups vital wheat gluten
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan or skillet over medium heat and when hot add the onions and garlic. Sauté until the onions turn translucent and begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the vegetable broth, tomato paste, and white miso pasted until smooth. Now add the sun-dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, dried basil, brown sugar, fennel seeds, dried rosemary, salt, crushed red pepper flakes, liquid smoke, and all of the sautéd onions and garlic along with any oil leftover in the pan, and stir to combine.
- Lastly, add the vital wheat gluten and combine to make a dough. Knead the dough to make sure it’s all combined, but once combined, stop kneading. The more you knead the tougher the sausages will get so only do as much as is needed to incorporate the vital wheat gluten.
- Cut the dough into 6 equal-sized pieces. Take one of the pieces of dough and place it on a sheet of aluminium foil. Shape the dough into a rough sausage shape, but don’t worry about making it look pretty or neat. Some pieces of onion and sun-dried tomato may fall out but just tuck them near the dough and it will all incorporate and shape up nicely as it cooks. Roll the sausage up in a piece of aluminium foil then twist the ends closed. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough to make 6 sausages.
- Add several inches of water to a large pot with a steamer basket and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the sausages to the steamer basket and steam for 40 minutes or until its internal temperature reaches at least 160°F (71°C) when tested with an instant-read thermometer. If the temperature goes higher, that's perfectly fine—you can't really oversteam seitan. The sausages will have puffed up in the foil and become tight. After steaming remove the sausages from the steamer and allow to cool completely in the fridge, overnight is best.
- Once cooled, remove the foil and they are ready to enjoy as is or you can fry, grill, slice, or enjoy them any way you like.* Learn my secret tricks to making perfect seitan in my free masterclass. Click here to learn more and register.
Notes
Nutrition
⭐ Did You Make This Recipe?
I’d love if you left a rating and comment, it helps others find the recipe and makes my day! 💕
Catherine says
Hi
A little concern about the sausages - does 1 really have 951g of sodium, as indicated, or is that the whole recipe? If so, is there a way to mitigate this?
Love your recipes.
Sam Turnbull says
The sodium mainly comes from the salt, so you can reduce or omit it to your own taste preferences 🙂
Katya says
Miso is very high in sodium. i think leaving it out might change the flavor but you could try reducing it. i usually reduce added salt by 1/4 at least, and instead of veggie broth (also usually quite salty if using the packaged variety), you could use water. I use Better than Bouillon in recipes that call for veggie broth so I can dilute it a bit.
Edwina Paschall says
Could you steam these in a vegan sausage casing instead of the foil or parchment paper?
Lis says
Would I be able to use washed flour seitan instead of wheat gluten?
Sam Turnbull says
Not for this recipe.
Lea says
So I have to make these sausages....for 3 reasons.....first one being I love your seitan recipes...your fake steak is off the charts .....changed my life.... Second reason is your recipe for pizza popcorn in your new cookbook....I have to find more recipes with sun-dried tomatoes in oil otherwise, I'm going to end up with dried up sun-dried tomatoes no longer in oil.... The third reason...I like sausages..... So there you have it.....
linda myers says
Hi Sam, I just love this recipe! I've made it several times with peppers & onion. On pizza in pasta (your recipe..delicious) and tonight for a tapas party I am sauteing in white wine & garlic, veg broth and parlsey. So yummy with these sausages. I love all your seitan recipes but this is my fav!!
Sam Turnbull says
Aww so happy you love it, linda! 🙂
Marla O says
LOVE these! So yummy! Great to grill and eat in a bun, or cut up into chunks in tomato sauce with pasta. The only thing is my onion and sundried tomatoes kept falling out, so I decided to pulse all the wet ingredients together in the food processor and then add the gluten by hand. Creates a smoother texture but there’s still little bits of onion and sundried tomato.
Cat says
What a fantastic recipe. Followed the recipe exactly as you outlined. Perfect!! Thank you very much I will make them again for sure!!
Mandy says
I was encouraged by excellent results I had making your vegan tenders. I love chorizo (vegan) sausages and buy them occasionally but they are expensive. I decided to make my own if I could! I used a chorizo spice mix I blended instead of the Italian spices you listed for your seitan sausages and they are delicious! Thank you!!!!
Emma says
Great Recipe but there were a few changes that I found essential.
1. Add onion and garlic powder instead of freshly chopped onion and garlic - less messy
2. The dough was extremely dry for me - but I was going by metric weight 1 cup vital wheat gluten = 140g (total in this recipe 280g)
Had to add another half cup of water to loosen the dough. Could you provide the metric weight in the recipe?
Otherwise amazing flavour profile will make again 🙂
Luuk says
My personal googling resulted in 120gram for 1 cup of vital wheat gluten.
Sydney says
Hi Sam!
I am hoping you can help me troubleshoot - these came out so, so chewy for me. I've never made seitan before but always buy it, so I do not know what I did wrong. I felt like I barely had to knead at all, steamed it i the instant pot as directed. Can VWG become chewy and tough (like gross, not like meat-y) if it is overcooked? Or was it over/under kneaded by chance?
Thank you so much!
Sam Turnbull says
Hi Sydney, my guess is that steaming them in the instant pot was the problem. As you know the instant pot is a pressure cooker, so the pressure could definitely change the texture. It's also possible they were under steamed. Hope that helps!
Kellie says
These were fantastic. Lots of roasted tomato flavor, and the texture was very nice. To the commenter who used an instant pot to steam: when I made my first batch of seitan (using a different recipe), I had the same experience. It came out chewy, like a very dense bologna. These, steamed on the stove, refrigerated overnight, then reheated in a skillet, were exactly what I wanted. Plus, they tasted fantastic. These will be the highlight of our Thanksgiving table. Thank you!
Paul C says
Sam, you continuously hit it out of the park with your recipes and instruction....as a new to Veganism (and 50 year meat eater), can honestly say to meat eaters around the world - 'time to change...and with recipes like these, there's no wanting meat again'...Really WELL done (again) Sam!!!!
Sam Turnbull says
Yay! Thank you so much, Paul! So happy you enjoyed 🙂
Gee says
I've made these three times now love them. This time made them into meatballs. Turned out incredible.
Sam Turnbull says
Aww wonderful! So happy you enjoyed, Gee!
Rodney Fickas says
Made these tonight for our pasta and they were fantastic. I still have three sausages. How long will they last in the fridge? We hope to use the rest for our Friday night pizza night. Thanks.
C + C says
We have really been enjoying this!! We've made three or four times now, but the last few times we've made them as meatballs and steamed directly (unwrapped) on an oiled steaming basket - SO DELICIOUS!!! Tender, flavorful, just absolutely perfect.
Sam Turnbull says
Wonderful!! SO happy you loved them 🙂
Emily says
Thanks for the recipe. This was my first attempt making seitan and it turned out not so bad.
A note to all the people asking if they can substitute something for the miso, etc.:
You can substitute ANYTHING if you understand what is the purpose of the original ingredient. Remember, of course, that we're making vegan sausages out of wheat gluten.. the entire concept is based on substituting something vegan for something meaty. So I encourage you to get creative and dream up some of your own substitutions. For example, I also didn't have miso paste (and various other ingredients). Instead, I mashed up some cooked chickpeas and soy sauce to create an umami-flavoured paste. et voila.
Thomas says
Just a question about steaming. I have an Instant Pot which has a steaming feature. But is it ok to just the pressure cooker function? Would it change the # of minutes that the seitan is cooked?
Sam Turnbull says
Hi Thomas, I haven't tried steaming it in the Instant pot, but a comment from reader Sandy said this: "Great recipe! I did an experiment in that I steamed half in aluminum foil on the stovetop, the other half in about 3/4 inch broth and a little liquid smoke in my instant pot, for 16 mins, letting it cool naturally. The winner is definitely the instant pot! More flavorful and juicy. Really brings out your terrific recipe! Which I will be using. Thanks for posting it! "
Hope that helps!
Thomas says
Thanks! I'm a devoted Instant Pot cook so it fits in with my preferred method of cooking.
Chris says
Several people have asked if miso can be omitted or substituted.
I too would like to know. Everything ready to make these but for the miso.
Thank you.
Lori says
These are so good! Wrapped in pretzel dough, did a quick baking soda boil, and then baked at 450 for 12 minutes. Fantastic! It's amazing what you can do with vital wheat gluten!
Cris Bolt says
I've tried more than a few seitan sausage recipes over the last several years, and I can honestly say this is the best tasting recipe yet. I made them with the sun dried tomatoes and didn't over-knead, basically followed your directions explicitly and they turned out delicious. Another tip I could add for seitan cleanup, use cold water to rinse bowls and utensils right away. Thanks for all your great recipes, really enjoy your videos too.
Jen says
Is it a problem if the white miso is left out? Would I have to substitute something else?
Mindy says
I'd like to know this also.i cant find miso anywhere. thanks