Vegan Breakfast Sausage Recipe- So Good!

There are a lot of vegan breakfast sausages available at the grocery store these days, but if you like to cook, try making your own. This recipe is the best! It’s so good and easy to make!

The recipe is adapted from the cookbook The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner. 

It’s based on a Julia Child sausage recipe but she uses wheat gluten as a substitute for meat. The texture of the sausage made with vital wheat gluten is really nice and the addition of bulgur wheat gives the sausage patties a texture reminiscent of the real thing, but it’s vegan and all plant-based! 

Ingredients for Vegan Breakfast Sausage

• 1/2 cup bulgur wheat
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup olive oil (or water for oil-free sausage)
• 2 cups diced onion
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 4 or 5 cloves garlic, sliced or chopped
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons white or chickpea miso
• 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups vital wheat gluten

Breakfast Sausage Seasoning

Mix the following spices together in a small bowl.

• 1/2 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds or ground fennel
• 1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon finely crushed red pepper flakes or black pepper

Breakfast sausage seasoning flavors can be tweaked according to your taste. I personally like a bit of fennel and came up with this spice mixture blend for the recipe.

The cookbook recipe seasoning blend suggests additional spices such as cloves, cinnamon, dried savory, allspice, and regular paprika. Next time I make this recipe I might try some garlic powder or onion powder and maybe even some smoked paprika. There are already-made breakfast sausage seasoning blends available online or at some grocery stores as well. Find one you like and use a tablespoon (or a bit more) for this recipe.

How to Make Vegan Breakfast Sausage

1. Place the bulgur wheat in a small pyrex or any kind of heatproof bowl. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the top and cover with a lid or plate. Set aside. The bulgur wheat will absorb the water.

2. Saute the onion in a nonstick skillet until translucent. You can do this with olive oil or in a dry skillet if you want to make oil-free sausage. You’ll just add a splash of water for sauteing as needed. Then add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft.

3. Transfer the onions and mushrooms to a food processor, and add the garlic, soy sauce, miso, water, and sausage seasoning.

Pulse the ingredients in the food processor. The mixture does not need to be thoroughly blended. It will be wet with little bits of texture. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

4. Drain the soaked bulgur of any excess water and add it to the bowl with the pulsed onion and mushroom mixture.

5. Add the wheat gluten. Mix to form a soft dough. This is now the vegan breakfast sausage “meat”.

How to Form and Make the Vegan Sausage Patties

The breakfast vegan breakfast sausage in this recipe is formed into patties. Here’s how it is done.

1. Divide the vegan sausage meat and roll it into two logs approximately 2 inches in diameter and 7-8 inches long.

2. Wrap the formed sausage logs into two pieces of aluminum foil. You’ll need a couple of extra inches at the end of each log to twist. The sausage should be tightly wrapped to keep its shape. You can lightly oil the foil if you like to help prevent some sticking (they do this in the cookbook) but you don’t have to.

3. Place both logs into a steamer pot or pot with a steamer basket and steam for 1 hour. Once the logs have been steamed, remove them from the pot and let them cool. The logs will firm up as they cool and then will be ready to unwrap and slice into a patty shape for cooking.

Cooking the Vegan Breakfast Sausage

There are 3 ways to cook the breakfast sausage patties in this recipe. It’s your choice.

1. Add a drizzle of olive oil (1-2 tablespoons) to a nonstick pan. Cook the patties until golden brown and crispy on both sides.

Here’s what the sausage looks like when cooked this way…

2. Use an oil spray to lightly coat the bottom of the nonstick pan. Only a bit of oil is used this way.

I used an avocado oil spray to cook the patties and here’s how they looked cooked this way…

3. Cook the vegan sausage in a dry nonstick pan without any oil at all. This vegan breakfast sausage recipe can be made completely oil-free. I actually prefer making it this way and don’t notice any taste difference. The sausages have so much flavor and a great meaty texture even without the added fat.

Here’s what the cooked sausage patties look like cooked without oil…

No matter which way you choose to cook the vegan breakfast sausage patties, they’ll be delicious and you won’t believe how they resemble a meat breakfast sausage. They have a really good texture, which isn’t always the case with vegan meats.

Now serve up the vegan breakfast sausage patties with a tofu scramble, a stack of vegan pancakes with some maple syrup, or make breakfast sandwiches on an English muffin!

You can store the vegan sausages in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Just slice up the patties you want to make, and cook and brown the patties on both sides.

My personal preference is to cook up all of the sausages at the same time and freeze the extras. You can freeze the cooked vegan sausage patties for up to 6 months. Just take a couple out at a time when you have a craving, and slowly heat them back up in a pan or pop them in the microwave.

Print