Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Vegetarian Breakfast Sausage

This is a great homemade alternative to those processed store-bought brands. The real upside is that you know exactly what's in it. There is no mystery meat here -- just rice, vegetables, eggs and spices.

The roll can be made ahead of time, cut into slices, and frozen for a quick weekday breakfast. You could crumble it into a breakfast burrito or use it anywhere you'd normally use breakfast sausage. This vegetarian sausage is great first thing in the morning, but could also be crumbled, sautéed and served stuffed inside of a red pepper or a baked eggplant for dinner. Get creative!

Vegetarian Breakfast Sausage

1 teaspoon canola oil (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1/4 cup finely diced shallot
3 cloves garlic (finely diced)
8 ounces crimini mushrooms (finely diced)
1 cup finely diced celery (about 2 ribs)
1/2 cup finely diced carrot (1 medium)
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
scant 1/4 teaspoon clove
scant pinch nutmeg
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup
sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)
1 cup cooked, cooled white rice
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour (or all purpose flour)
2 large eggs (beaten)


Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallot, garlic, mushrooms, celery, and carrot to the pan. Stir consistently and sauté until all of the liquid has released and then evaporated; this should take about 5 minutes. Add the sage, red pepper flakes, clove, nutmeg, soy sauce, and maple syrup to the pan. Stir to incorporate and remove from heat. All mixture to cool. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the cooked and cooled vegetables, rice, flour, and eggs. Divide the mixture between two large sheets of foil, roll into a tube, and twist the ends of the foil -- like a Tootsie Roll! Place rolls on a baking sheet and place into the oven for 25 minutes. Allow rolls to cool completely before unwrapping and slicing into 1/2-inch disks.

In a medium pan over medium heat, pan-fry disks in a little canola oil until nicely browned. Serve with eggs and biscuits.

11 comments:

Sunnyside Travel Guide said...

Could you use brown rice? We love short grain brown rice and always keep some around.

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

Absolutely! That would be great.

Unknown said...

Looks great!

Did you know it's Gordon Ramsay's birthday today? http://youtu.be/FUXTbEhod-8

tender b. said...

This sure beats the expensive, processed stuff. Can't wait for breakfast.

Sinead said...

These were great! I had to make a few substitutions because I'm allergic to celery and for what I had in the cupboard, but I'd been looking for a recipe I could adapt for vegan and wheat free sausages so I was so glad to find this.
I froze the remainders and they make a brilliant convenience food- so much cheaper than buying ready-made sausages, and I can adapt it for whatever vegetables need using up.
Thank you.

haishan said...

I tried this, and it smelled delicious, but I couldn't get the sausages to set in the oven -- even after I left them in for what ended up being an extra 20 minutes! I added some wheat gluten and am giving it another go, but what did I do wrong the first time? Was there maybe too much moisture? Should I not have subbed breadcrumbs (which I wanted to use the last of) for the flour? Help!

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

H., yes, the flour is key.

TCV

Anonymous said...

Just made these and they were amazing. Great texture and flavour. Pretty much a perfect recipe!

Poisonive said...

Great job on the sauagemaking - well done!

Jo Romero said...

This looks brilliant, can't wait to try it - just also started following your blog :)

Anonymous said...

What if we use cooked bulgur in place of the rice ?