Ridiculously easy to make seitan sausages.

Finding good tasting vegetarian products in Portugal is a little bit difficult (not to mention, somewhat expensive too!) so I was really excited to try out this recipe when I found it on vegandad's blog.

This recipe is pretty much foolproof, and very versatile - add whichever herbs or spices you prefer for something different (a teaspoon of chilli flakes, awesome!). I've modified it slightly from the original, and this is my favourite variation i've tried so far.

These are great to be eaten hot straight from the steamer, or cold in sandwiches, or barbequed, or grilled...

Here's how it's done:

Ingredients:

(Makes 6 sausages)

1 cup cooked white beans
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce (low salt is preferable!)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 1/4 cups wheat gluten*
1/4 cup nutritional yeast*
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

* If you're in Portugal both of these can be found in Celeiro stores (and often Jumbo has nutritional yeast too).

Method:

Make sure your steaming apparatus is ready to go before you start and put 6 sheets of silver foil (about 20cm x 30cm each) to the side.

In a large bowl, mash the beans until they're smooth.

Add the rest of the ingredients in the order listed, and mix with a fork until everything is well combined. Don't worry that it looks a little bit gross, all will be fine in the end!

Divide this mixture into six, as equally as you can, and then spread out one portion to about 12cm lengths on each of the six pieces of foil. Don't worry about shaping them, the steaming will magically pop them into shape while they're cooking (really)!

Now roll them up snugly, making sure to twist both ends tightly.

And place them into your waiting steamer. Try not to squash them together too much! (If you're using a pressure cooker to steam them 20 minutes should do it.)

Now, wait patiently for 40 minutes while they steam. Cook the rest of your meal. Go read a comic. Whatever.

Carefully(!) remove the foil parcels from the steamer and unwrap your sausages. Like I mentioned before these are awesome as they are, but my favourite way to eat them is grilled until they're slightly charred.

All done:

Try it! (They taste way better than they look, believe me!)