It’s not easy to find healthy vegan sausage made with whole foods. Now you can easily make it at home and even have enough for future meals! These vegan sausage crumbles are oil-free, soy-free, nut-free, and gluten-free, but FULL of flavor and nutrition!
½teaspooncrushed red pepper flakes (adjust up or down for your spice preference)
¼teaspoonfreshly ground black pepper
¼teaspoongarlic powder
¼teaspoonpaprika (smoked or regular)
1 tablespoonmaple 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.
Ingredients for a single batch :
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