Vegan sausage crumbles that are soy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, and oil-free? I know what you’re thinking – these can’t possibly taste good. But they DO! Made entirely out of vegetables, seeds, and spices, and FULL of flavor!
15 years ago if you’d told me I’d be sitting on my couch at 11pm on a Monday night typing up a recipe post for vegan sausage crumbles, I probably would have checked to see if you had taken your grandmother’s glaucoma medicine again. Someone, anyone, please get this reference.
But seriously, I didn’t even really understand what eating vegan/plant-based was at that time. I wouldn’t have gone so far as to confuse vegan with gluten-free (yes, I’ve experienced that more than once), but it would most certainly have been a foreign concept to me. And yet, here I am, all excited to tell you about how you can grind up vegetables and seeds and spices in a food processor, roast them in the oven, and get something that tastes sausage-y. I am weird. We can all agree on this, right?
Anyway, vegan sausage made from whole foods. Let’s get into it.
How to Make Vegan Sausage Crumbles
The base for vegan sausage is my vegan ground meat recipe. It is like a blank canvas just waiting to be painted with spices and stirred into vegan gravy. That might be the strangest simile ever.
Basically, collect these vegetables and seeds, and shred them up using a food processor:
- Cauliflower
- Mushrooms
- Carrots
- Onions
- Garlic
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- Pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)
This base makes a lot of vegan ground meat. As in, enough for three batches of these sausage crumbles. But this is a good thing, in my oh so humble opinion, because you can season the other two batches separately (like with taco seasoning, for example), and have a building block for future meals stashed in the freezer. But, if you only want to make one batch, I’ve got you covered in the recipe (check out the Notes section).
Next, it’s time to get spicy.
Spices for Vegan Sausage Crumbles
There are two main types of sausage seasonings that I wanted to cover here, because they seem to be the most common. Breakfast sausage and Italian sausage (sweet or spicy). There are a lot of similarities between the two, and you can certainly use your own spice blends. These are just a jumping off point. Also, yes, of COURSE I will be doing a chorizo version at some point. (salivates)
First, vegan breakfast sausage seasoning. We’re using salt, fennel seed (super important for that sausage flavor), poultry seasoning (or a blend of sage/thyme), crushed red pepper flakes, paprika, garlic powder, and black pepper.
The Italian sausage seasoning is very similar, except we use basil and oregano instead of poultry seasoning (if you have Italian seasoning, that works too). Then I usually bump up the crushed red pepper flakes a bit to make it extra spicy. If you want it to be a little sweet as well, you can add some sugar or maple syrup. You’ve got options, people! But I would argue that a non-negotiable is the fennel seed. If you leave it out, I cannot vouch for the sausage flavor. You’ve hereby been notified.
Ok, so once you’ve decided which seasoning blend to go with, it’s time to make vegan sausage crumbles! Add three cups of the vegan ground meat base back to the food processor fitted with an s-blade. Add the spices and pulse into a coarse, crumbly texture. Be careful not to puree the mix, this step basically incorporates the spices and makes the texture even throughout. It also crushes some of the fennel seeds which will release their flavor. P.S. If you don’t like seeing the fennel seeds in the mix, just use ground fennel powder. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Now transfer the uncooked sausage crumble mixture to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roast in the oven at 400F for 20-25 minutes, stirring partway through.
When the sausage crumbles are done roasting, they’ll look like this. And your kitchen will smell amazing.
While the sausage crumbles are roasting, you’ve got just enough time to whip up some biscuits and gravy. YEP. This happened.
If you don’t know what to do next, I can’t help you. Just kidding. I can help you by giving you the recipe for these oil-free vegan biscuits and this protein-packed vegan white gravy. I’ll be sharing a simpler white gravy recipe soon, too. Hang in there, I’ve got your healthy comfort food needs covered. You’re welcome.
P.S. Please, somebody comment that you get the glaucoma medicine reference, PLEASE. I need to know I’m not alone. Thank you and goodnight.
Vegan Sausage Crumbles
Equipment
Ingredients
Vegan Ground Meat (makes 3 batches)
- 1 head cauliflower, broken into large florets
- 8 ounces crimini mushrooms
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1 medium yellow onion, quartered
- 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 cup raw pepitas or walnuts
Breakfast Sausage Seasoning (per batch)
- 1 teaspoon ground poultry seasoning (or 1/2 tsp ground sage and 1/2 tsp ground thyme)
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds (1/2 tsp ground fennel)
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (adjust up or down for your spice preference)
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
Italian Sausage Seasoning (per batch)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (or 1/2 tsp dried oregano and 1/2 teaspoon basil)
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds (1/2 tsp ground fennel)
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (adjust up or down for your spice preference)
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika (smoked or regular)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or brown sugar, optional (for sweet Italian sausage)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- In a food processor fitted with an s-blade, process the pumpkin seeds (or walnuts) and sun-dried tomatoes until a fine meal forms, but be careful not to go so far as to puree into a smooth mixture.
- Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Remove the pumpkin seed and sun-dried tomato mixture to a large bowl.
- Remove the s-blade from the food processor and attach the grating disc.
- Shred the cauliflower, mushrooms, carrots, onions and garlic. If you don’t have a shredding attachment, pulse small amounts at a time using the S-blade until finely chopped but not pureed.
- Remove the shredded vegetables to the bowl containing the pepita/tomato mixture and stir to combine.
- Add the spices into a small bowl and stir to combine.
- Fit the food processor with the s-blade (no need to wash first). Add half of the mixture back into the food processor along with half of the spices.
- Pulse to combine the spices into the mixture, being careful not to puree (leave some texture).
- Remove the mixture to the prepared baking sheet and loosely spread out in an even layer. Repeat for the remaining mixture.
- Place both baking sheets in the oven and roast for 25 minutes, stopping halfway through to stir so the crumbles bake evenly.
- This recipe makes approximately 6 cups of sausage crumbles (after cooking), which can be further separated into 2 cup portions for freezing. One 2 cup portion is equivalent to 1 pound of sausage after cooking.
Notes
- The seasoning blend quantities work for one batch, which is ⅓ of the recipe (approximately 3 cups before cooking). This is designed to allow you to make differently seasoned batches for future meals if you wish. For example, you could make one batch of breakfast sausage crumbles, one batch of italian sausage crumbles, and then one batch with another seasoning, such as taco meat. If you choose to season the entire batch the same, triple the seasoning blend ingredients.
- If you do split up the batch and season each one separately, it is easy to do! Simply portion out 1/3 of the mixture and add it to the food processor with your desired seasoning and roast on a separate baking sheet. Quickly wipe out the food processor and rinse off the s-blade (to avoid the spices mingling), and repeat with the remaining two batches, switching out the seasoning as you wish. You may opt to roast the batches plain, in which case you have just made vegan ground beef that you can have on hand for future meals.
- This recipe stores for up to a week in the refrigerator, and a minimum of 3 months in the freezer. I do not recommend freezing prior to cooking, as it impacts the final texture.
- I use and recommend the sun-dried tomatoes that are not packed in liquid, and there is no need to rehydrate them before using.
- 6 ounces cauliflower florets (1/3 of a large head)
- 3 ounces crimini mushrooms (3-4 large mushrooms)
- 1 small carrot, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 small onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/3 cup raw pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) or walnuts
Yes, I got the reference. In Oregon it’s no big deal… Puff and stuff ????
Thanks for the recipe. I was just asked by a friend to create or find a good biscuits and gravy recipe. I’ll try this…. but not right now, it’s nearly 1 a.m.
Ha, I like the way you think, but that’s not what I was referring to. 🙂 1 a.m. sounds like a great time for biscuits and gravy. 😉
You are not alone. I can’t remember the reference, but I know about Grandmother’s glaucoma medicine. I hear it’s great for relaxing… 😉 This recipe is going to be prepared in my kitchen soon! Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the videos you produce!
My pleasure, Christopher! I’m really excited to get back to making videos asap. I miss it! Would love to hear what you think when you make this. 🙂
I’m allergic to mushrooms and would like to add protein to this recipe. Could you recommend any beans that might work? Maybe pinto? Thanks.
I need to secretly try this out on my sausage loving husband, be a fun test!,,
Just re-read my sentence, and had a good laugh, ha!
Hi Beth,
Thank you for figuring out this recipe! I am always amazed at how recipes are put together! My husband and I have cut out beef, pork, and lamb from our diet and I had been looking for a decent ground beef substitute for a while. I just recently ran across Pass The Plants.
I was surprised at how close the texture was to ground beef and the taste is also great. So far I have used this in my chili, lasagna, biscuits and gravy, taco and burrito filling and we have made the burger patties. We have company coming on Saturday and I plan to use the Italian sausage to make pizza. Everything I have used the base recipe for has been fabulous and no one that has eaten the meals had any idea they were not eating beef or pork. That says a lot to me.
When I first read through the recipe it sounded a little overwhelming but after I made the first batch I could see that it was very simple and did not take that much time. (I used my food processor) We made the choice to cut back on animal products for environmental reasons but have benefited for health and budget reasons! I am looking forward to trying some of your other recipes. Thanks again!
Cannot wait to make this, and many of your other recipes!
Thank You!!
For 6 years, my poor friend would watch as we all ate sausage and meat at parties. I foud your blog and all my friends can actually enjoy recipes! I tossed in a bit of taco seasoning, and we had a delicious mexican night!
(except she couldnt eat sour cream)
This turned out wonderfully for me! I loved having extra to put in the freezer and use later. I made the breakfast flavored one but will also be making the other kind next time as well. This is a new go-to! Thanks!!
My husband doesn’t like mushrooms, but he tolerated it! Any ideas on a mushroom substitute?
Hi Beth!
Can’t wait to try this recipe! I have frozen cauliflower and frozen mushrooms. Do you think they would work in this recipe? Thank you so much for sharing your recipes!
Karen
Thank you for this recipe. I actually used the spice mix on prepared veggie sausage patties and it was a game changer! I can’t wait to make your recipe.
These vegan sausage crumbles are wonderful! I made a batch a couple weeks ago along with your vegan spinach ricotta and both were delicious on homemade pizza! I’ve got 2 more batches cooking in the oven today for pizza tonight. The Italian spice blend is spot-on!
Can you make these into patties
“You better have glaucoma!”. Chris Rock said to an old guy smokin weed in a scene from Rush Hour, I believe.
Hi Beth, I just now ran across Pass the Plants (and had to chuckle at your ‘Friends’ reference). Thank you for posting this (and your meat substitute). I’m eager to try this recipe! The recipes for sausage crumbles I’ve found up until now use seitan or tofu, two types of foods I don’t consume. Looking forward to browsing the rest of your site. Thank you!
I made this for the first time this morning. It turned out better than expected. I had some left over mushroom and onions so I made a mushroom gravy adding vegetable stock as my liquid. I pureed the mushroom and onions in my vitamix. It was thick enough as a gray consistency and boy did this taste good with the crumble over biscuit! I will be making this again for sure! I am starting out again on a plant based journey so I need all the help I can get so I am glad I found your website. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
I love the way you make vegan food taste so good! I love vegan food, but a lot of recipes are bland and unimaginative. Your recipes are a perfect blend of spices, flavor and veggies.
this recipe looks so promising! i’ve been searching for a recipe for a vegan version of sausage for hoppin’ john this new year — a recipe that uses actual plants and not processed ingredients. thank you!
I’m so excited to try this this weekend! Just what I was looking for, thank you!
Beth, you are my new favorite blogger. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And the Ross/Friends reference was priceless:) https://yarn.co/yarn-clip/d0b0ec0a-0111-43f6-bb0f-35f246d74aa3
Ha, thanks, Athena! So glad you got my reference. When I read some of the guesses in the comments they made me laugh. <3
Hello! I’ve been using the Italian sausage spice mix in your recipe for some time now & WOW! Spot-on flavor profile & I’ve used it repeatedly with stellar results. So, thank you! Recently, I finally acquired a food-processor & am excited to try your full recipe!
Quick question: I get an allergic reaction from tomatoes, can you recommend a good substitute for the sun-dried tomatoes? Thank you so much for your help!
Oh my gosh, just made veggie crumbles
With your Italian Sausage seasoning and it is amazing thank you so much
I made the vegan ground beef (using the stove top method) and then divided into 3 bags and froze. I thought I could make vegan sausage crumbles at a later date with some of my frozen treasure. Rereading vegan sausage crumble recipe(s), I see that the spices are added before roasting the vegan ground beef.
Is there anyway I can rescue what I have frozen and transform into vegan sausage crumbles?
Wonder what happens if thaw a bag and follow vsc recipe. Dry it too much to roast after already cooked out the moisture on stovetop? Or will having been frozen add moisture so can roast it ?
Thank you!!!!!!!!
Nancy
Nancy, I’m so sorry I missed this comment somehow! I’m curious if you have tried to defrost the cooked portions yet. I think you would be fine to add in the spices after thawing and either reheat on the stovetop to wake up the spices or roast them mixture for a few minutes to heat it up and dry out the moisture. I find with freezing that there is a little moisture left especially when using the stovetop method. Also, I love that you referred to it as frozen treasure. 😉
Do you think this would be good without the onion and garlic? I’m pregnant and really wanted sausage flavor, but I’m WFPBNO and don’t generally consume soy products- all the other recipes seem to have TVP or other soy products. I’m allergic to onion and garlic (hopefully not forever because I love them!) and I am hoping this recipe is still worth making without them!
This looks fantastic but I’m trying for very low-fat; do you think the walnuts could be subbed out for something out or just left out all together?
I actually don’t like sausage. The only exception I make is using Italian sausage in a cherished family lasagna recipe. Except I wanted to share it with non-pork-eating friends, so I tried this recipe and just tossed some of it into some boring leftover pasta. Holy cow, this is SO good. I’m excited about making it again for myself and using it in other recipes!
PS, if anyone is like me and realizes they didn’t get the right nuts, sunflower seeds worked in a pinch. I wouldn’t suggest it as a preferred alternative, but it did work.