Julie Hasson: There's a Pig I Didn't Eat, and He Has Your Name All Over Him!

So, the way my mind works (and maybe yours, too) is that contemplating cutting out my main food group caused me to obsess over what I would no longer eat. I didn’t (at first, anyway) think about the whole world of food opening to me, food that I’d not only never tried, but never even heard of. Nope. I thought mainly about one particular food that would be cut out of my life forever if I gave up meat: Italian sausage.

This caused me to worry that I couldn’t commit to a vegetarian life. Honestly, this one food could have been my undoing. It wasn’t enough that I no longer had any in the house, so I wouldn’t be tempted. I vividly remember in the first weeks of leaving meat behind I had a dream about Italian sausage. No lie. And it wasn’t even like I was dreaming of, say, George Clooney eating sausage. Just the sausage on a bun, swimming in peppers and onions. According to the Free Dream Dictionary, a dream of eating sausage denotes that “you will have a humble, but pleasant home.” There would be nothing pleasant about leaving my sausage behind me if I didn’t find a replacement (and fast).

I know that there are packaged vegetarian sausages and they are very good. My favorites are Field Roast, Morningstar Farms and Upton's Naturals. I was adamant, though, to do it myself. Part of what kept (and still keeps) me motivated is the real fun of cooking again. Even though I never ground up any meat and spices and squirted them in intestines in my former life, I was determined to make my own sausages now. Minus the meat. And the intestines, for that matter.

It doesn’t take much research into vegan and vegetarian cooking before you find Julie Hasson. She’s my favorite cook on the excellent YouTube cooking channel, “Everyday Dish.” Her video and recipe for making your own vegan Italian sausage was a revelation to me. I could do it! I could make my own damn sausages and stop dreaming about them (or at least add George Clooney to the dream from now on). In the past year I have probably made this recipe six times. I use these sausages on and in everything. I love them on pizza, and also fried with some grains and spinach. I’ve adapted her recipe a bit. Originally I added Parmesan cheese, for instance, while hers are straight-up vegan. If you want to omit the cheese, go ahead. I don't use it anymore in this recipe and don't miss it. I also added some other spices. You can follow my adapted recipe or follow hers to the letter- they’re both good and hit the spot.



Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages
Adapted from Julie Hasson on Everyday Dish



2 ¼ cups vital wheat gluten
½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
¼ cup garbanzo bean/chick pea flour
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)
2 tablespoons Mrs. Dash chicken seasoning
2 tablespoons minced onion (dried is fine. Fresh makes the sausage a bit moister. Your choice)
2 tablespoons fennel seed (adjust to taste. I do a coarse grind of half in a pepper mill)
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground paprika
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (or another teaspoon of regular paprika if you don’t have smoked. The smoked really does make a difference, though)
½ teaspoon Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy (or dried chili flakes, more or less to taste)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt (I use coarse sea salt)
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons instant tapioca, unprepared (optional. Adding tapioca give the sausages a little bit of a softer texture. Try it with them the first time you make these, then try it without the next time. I prefer it this way)
2 ¼ cups cool water
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce

1. In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients then gently stir into the dry. Stir just until all the ingredients are mixed. The dough should be a bit wet.
2. Using a ½ cup measuring cup, scoop out dough into 8 equal portions. Shape each portion into sausages, then roll them up individually in aluminum foil, twisting the ends. Steam in steamer for 30 minutes.
3. When sausages have cooled, unwrap and store in fridge. They are much better the next day. These can be frozen or stored in the fridge for a week. You can eat them cold right out of the fridge or sautéed with a little bit of olive oil.
4. Cooking tip: because these are essentially a form of bread, they will absorb liquid. These are most “sausage-like” when fried in olive oil and/or grilled. I often make these separate from whatever I want to serve them with, then add them to the dish at the end.

Switching up the ingredient list produces any kind of sausage you'd like. We make a lot of chorizo, for instance, and I make a mean apple-sage sausage. I'll post those with upcoming recipes.