Breakfast Sausages

The head of my department hosted a fun in the snow day out on the lake--sledding, skiing, snowball fights and all that--followed by veggie chili. So, for once, I did not have to make dinner. So, I thought I would share our Sunday brunch: pancakes with blueberries and raspberries, hash browns, tofu scramble, and these breakfast sausages. The boys loved them and gobbled them down. To my palate, the spicing in these is spot on, and the end result is incredibly sausage-like (well, for someone who has not had meat in over 2 1/2 years).

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 cup white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

- 1 cup water or veggie broth

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp mushroom soy sauce

- 1 tbsp maple syrup

- 1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten

- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp paprika

- 1 tsp dried sage

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

- pinch of cayenne

- 1/2 tsp thyme

- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary

- 1 tsp whole fennel seed

- fresh ground pepper

METHOD

Get water on its way to boiling in your steamer

1. Mash beans finely with a fork. Add in everything else up to the cayenne. Grind thyme, rosemary, and fennel seed together with a mortar and pestle. Add to mixture with the pepper. Mix together with a fork.

2. Shape a ping pong ball sized piece of dough into a sausage shape and wrap in a small piece of tin foil like a tootsie roll. Repeat until all dough is gone (makes about 25). Some of my recipes call for large breakfast sausages. In this case, make 6 large sausages.

3. Steam for 20 mins (35-40 for large sausages), rotating half way through if your steamer is small. Cool, and remove from wrappings. (Since we did not eat all 25 sausages, I kept half in the wrappings and froze them. We will see how well they fare in the freezer).

4. OPTIONAL: Place sausages in a frying pan with 2 tbsp of water and 1/4 cup maple syrup. Bring to bubbling and simmer until syrup thickens. Serve.

Lemon Pudding Cake

I wanted to revise this recipe a bit before I posted it, but hey, it's not like I am writing a cookbook here. The recipe tastes great and is filled with lemony goodness. Here are a few caveats, though. First, I used Bird's custard powder for the pudding. This is easily obtained in Canada, but maybe not in the U.S. It is essentially cornstarch with flavouring, so I was going to try a version that had just cornstarch or arrowroot powder. Second, I used an 8x8 pan which was filled to the max. It still turned out and did not over boil, but maybe a slightly larger pan is in order. The lemon cake is Isa's Lemon Gem Cupcake recipe from Veganomicon, so many thanks to her for letting me post it here.

INGREDIENTS

Lemon Pudding

- 2 tbsp Bird's custard powder

- 1 tsp arrowroot powder

- 1 cup sugar

- juice of two lemons

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 1/4 cups plain soy milk

METHOD

1. Mix together dry ingredients in a saucepan and whisk in wet ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Pour into a lightly greased 8x8 pan and place in the fridge to cool a bit while you make the cake.

Lemon Cake

- 1 1/3 cup flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 3/4 tsp baking soda

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/4 cup canola oil

- 2/3 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

- 1 cup soy milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- juice of 1 lemon

- zest of 1 lemon

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk oil, sugar, soy milk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest together. Add into dry ingredients and gently whisk until smooth.

3. Remove 8x8 pan from fridge. Spoon cake batter on top of the pudding.

4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until top is golden brown and cake is firm. You can't really do the toothpick test here, so give the pan a shake to see if the middle jiggles. You can also press the middle with your fingers to see if it is firm.

5. Cool a bit before serving (but it should still be warm). Scoop out a section of the cake, then spoon the pudding over top. Enjoy!

Homemade Sausages

When I saw these on Isa's blog, I knew I had to make them. Sure, they looked great for pizza and gumbo and the like, but would they stand up to the bun test? Would they be good on their own, slightly grilled, and served with ketchup and mustard? The answer is yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! These are easy to make and taste way better than anything I can get at the store (Yves). The texture is freakishly sausage-like, and I was able to grill them on the BBQ after the steaming. This makes me think there is nothing these sausages can't do. I went crazy with the spicing: fennel, rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, oregano, parsley (and no red pepper flakes). Feel free to throw in whatever you want. Here is the recipe from Isa's blog. I made 6 sausages instead of 4.

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 cup pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup cold vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, grated (with a microplane, or very finely minced)
- 1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed, crushed
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Several dashes fresh black pepper

METHOD
1. Before mixing your ingredients, get your steaming apparatus ready, bring water to a full boil. The rest of the recipe comes together very quickly.
2. Have ready 6 sheets of tin foil. In a large bowl, mash the pinto beans until no whole ones are left. Throw all the other ingredients together in the order listed and mix with a fork. Divide dough into 6 even parts. Place one part of dough into tin foil and mold into about a 5 inch log. Wrap dough in tin foil, like a tootsie roll. Don’t worry too much about shaping it, it will snap into shape while it’s steaming because this recipe is awesome.
3. Place wrapped sausages in steamer and steam for 40 minutes.

And now for dessert. I could not resist these blueberries and raspberries on sale at the grocery store today. They are from Chile, so, yikes, but they really helped to beat the winter blues (which we all have a really bad case of). I suppose I'll regret this some day when I am dying from some cancerous growth. Anyway, Vegan Mom made the sweet scones, sliced them in half, laded them with berries, and served with soymilk poured over top.