Vegan Christmas Tempeh 'Sausage' Stuffing Balls

Name: Vegan Christmas Tempeh 'Sausage' Stuffing Balls
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 400 g tempeh (broken up into chunks ); handful fresh sage; 8 cloves garlic (crushed); 65 g cooked chestnuts (chopped); 1 small onion (chopped finely); 100 g breadcrumbs (use gluten free if desired); 2 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper; 6 tbsp non-dairy milk; 3 tsp olive oil (for greasing)

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Christmas is about sharing delicious creative food and flavours with loved ones, among other things. I love these Vegan Christmas Tempeh 'Sausage' Stuffing Balls! They're meaty, healthy and full of festive flavours. While I love a good centrepiece for Christmas dinner, (like our gorgeous Christmas Wreath Pie) what makes it for me are the side dishes. I came up with these tempeh ‘sausage’ stuffing balls because I used to love the traditional pork stuffing balls; so this is my vegan meaty festive alternative!

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🌭The Tempeh
🌿Ingredients
👩🏽‍🍳How-To
🥔Serving
❓FAQs
🍽️Other recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🌭The Tempeh

Tempeh is fermented soya beans that generally comes in the form of a block. It's a great meat replacement due its chewy and firm texture. It's natural, healthy and high in protein. For these tempeh sausage stuffings balls you want to buy it plain. You can buy plain tempeh in supermarkets, healthfood shops and online (sometimes it comes ambient in a jar but generally you'll find it in the fridge section). Better Nature are a brand that's widely available in supermarkets and online.

Tempeh has a slightly sour taste (which I actually love), although with these tempeh sausage stuffings balls it's not that noticeable as there are so many other amazing flavours. You can find tempeh pre-marinated/pre-flavoured for a quick and easy meal. Some of my favourites are these tempeh rashers and these tantalising taco bites. Or you can easily make your own tempeh bacon (which is super easy in the air fryer).

If you want more vegan 'meaty' recipes, check out these incredible Meaty Meat-Free recipes.

🌿Ingredients

Here are your ingredients for these tempeh sausage stuffings balls:

Tempeh - see above for details on this great vegan meat replacement, which is high in protein. If you want to find out more about high protein ingredients and recipes, check out our Protein Guide.
Chestnuts - for that festive nutty flavour! You can also add cranberries if you want, which will just add to the festive feel of this dish. Chestnuts are healthy and high in protein. They come in long-life packets so I always have some in the cupboard (for any time of year).
Fresh sage - to really create that Christmas flavour I've added lots of fresh sage (also, because you HAVE to have sage in stuffing!).
Breadcrumbs - I use actual breadcrumbs from leftover bread. You could use breadcrumbs from a packet instead.
Vegan milk - it just needs a bit of vegan milk to loosen the tempeh in the food processor and allow you to shape the tempeh into stuffing balls.
Garlic & onions - standard in most of our recipes!
Salt & pepper - add to taste if you want.
Olive oil - for greasing your baking tray so they don't stick. You could always use a silcone baking sheet if you wanted a truly oil-free version.

picking up the tempeh balls with fingers

👩🏽‍🍳How-To

The best thing about these vegan tempeh stuffing balls is that they're so easy to make! Here's how you do it:

Pulse all the ingredients in a food processor, except the oil. We love the MagiMix blender.
Form the mixture into stuffing balls. I usually make between 20 and 25, and they're about 1 inch thick. You can choose to make smaller or larger balls – just remember to cook larger balls for longer, and a bit less for smaller ones.
Bake in the oven. Flip them half way through.
Serve!

all the ingredients for the tempeh stuffing balls laid out — Get all your ingredients ready

chunks of tempeh in a blender — Get all your ingredients ready

🥔Serving

We love these with roast potatoes and all the trimmings. Check out our other seasonal recipes below that we think would be perfect to go alongside these Vegan Tempeh Sausage Stuffing balls.

tempeh stuffing balls with gravy and potatoes

❓FAQs

These are some questions we often get asked about these tempeh sausage stuffing balls.

Can they be made soy-free?

Yes. You can get tempeh made from other beans besides soy beans. It's generally artisan tempeh makes that do this. I love using Tempt Me Tempeh. Then make sure your other ingredients are soy-free.

Is this recipe gluten-free?

If you use gluten-free breadcrumbs, then yes. Always double-check all your ingredients though.

Can these be made in the air-fryer.

I've not tried it, but I'm sure they'll be delicious in the air-fryer!

🍽️Other recipes

If you loved these vegan tempeh sausage balls, then you'll love our other tempeh recipes. Here are our favourites:

The Best Teriyaki Tempeh

Jerk Tempeh Skewers with Herby Yoghurt Dip

📖 Recipe