I have been trying and testing this vegan sausage recipe for a few months to bring you the ultimate, meaty and flavourful seitan sausage. While there are some great sausage brands, making your own is ultimately healthier, tastier and cheaper. They are very easy to make, using easily sourced and healthy ingredients.
When I first fed these to my Dad he asked me "where did you buy them?" He said they were so professional! What's also brilliant about this vegan sausage recipe is that it is full of protein from the seitan and black beans. They're very versatile and can be used in any recipe or meal where you need sausages, and they're especially yummy for a BBQ or grill.
🌭Ingredients
The main ingredients for this amazing seitan sausage recipe are:
Vital Wheat Gluten - this comes in the form of flour, which when cooked creates seitan. This flour is basically just wheat with the carbohydrates washed of it, leaving the gluten protein. This makes it high protein and low carbohydrate. When cooked i.e. mixed with water and other flavours, then heated, it forms a nice chewy and meaty texture. It's a game changer in vegan food! You can buy the flour online (affiliate link) or in healthfood shops.
Black beans - just an amazing bean that is full of protein and fibre, and is great for making vegan burgers and sausages. With the vital wheat gluten, the black beans make up the body of this vegan sausage recipe. You can buy tins / cans of black beans (affiliate link), or buy dried black beans (affiliate link) and cook them yourself (which is cheaper, healthier and better for the environment).
Smoked paprika - well, this is a smokey seitan sausage with those Spanish and South-American flavours. Smoked paprika is a staple for me and Louise! Buy online (affiliate link) or in most food shops.
Liquid Smoke - also for giving a smokey flavour. You need very little of this so a bottle lasts a long time. We use this a lot when making vegan tofu bacon, stews and vegan smoked salmon!
👩🏽🍳How To
This vegan sausage recipe is actually pretty simple. Essentially you need to:
- Mix up all your ingredients - the sauteed garlic and onions, salt and pepper, mashed black beans, vital wheat gluten, sundried tomatoes, smoked paprika, liquid smoke, chilli flakes and vegetable stock.
- Knead the mixture (that will form a dough), and divide into sausage-shaped pieces.
- Wrap the seitan sausages tightly in foil, making sure to twist the ends. The foil should wrap around the sausages a couple of times.
- Steam the foil-wrapped sausages.
- Once steamed, they can be finished off on the BBQ, grill, oven or griddle pan (affiliate link).
Sautee the onions and garlic Mash up the beans Add the vital wheat gluten Chop up and add the sundried tomatoes Add the rest of the ingredients (add the stock last) Mix well and knead with your hands Prepare pieces of foil to wrap the seitan sausages tightly Roll the dough into sausages Wrap up the sausages in the foil Make sure they are wrapped tightly so they don't expand. Twist the ends tightly Cook them in a steamer Fry, bake, BBQ or grill! 
Serve up!
❓FAQs
Absolutely! They freeze really well. I suggest freezing them after steaming. Then once you have defrosted them, you can stick them on the BBQ, grill or fry them off.
It can be easily made oil free (and actually uses very little oil anyway). When sauteeing the onions and garlic, just use a bit of water instead of oil.
If you BBQ or grill the sausages then you don't need any oil. You also can bake them oil-free using a silcone baking sheet (affiliate link).
If frying the sausages, you can use a spray bottle (affiliate link) filled with olive oil to massively reduce how much oil you use.
Yes! In fact if you're preparing them for an event, it is probably best to make them the night before (up to and including steaming them). Store in the fridge, and then cook on the BBQ, grill or fry them when you're ready to eat.
🌭Serving
What I love about this vegan sausage recipe is how versatile it is! The funniest way to serve these is in hot dog buns covered with vegan spicy mayonnaise and ketchup. We love Rubies in The Rubble Ketchup (affiliate link) made from waste tomatoes and reduced sugar! For our spicy mayo, we go for Flying Goose Mayo Sriracha (affiliate link).
I also just cook these up and have them with salad, as a high protein snack or as part of a casserole!
🍴Similar Recipes
Easy Vegan Hoisin Seitan Ch'kn Bao
Ultimate Vegan Blackbean & Mushroom Seitan Burger
25+ Incredible Vegan BBQ Main Recipes
If you love this vegan sausage recipe as much as we do, please rate and comment on it below, and please share with your friends!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Smokey Seitan and Black Bean Sausages
Ingredients Note:
For accuracy, I measure all ingredients in metric as standard, then convert and test the recipe for American cup measurements etc.
(Heads up Aussie and UK readers- your measurements in cups are sometimes different, so please use metric or check you have the correct cup and spoon type!!)
Ingredients
- 1 onion (finely chopped)
- 5 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tin/can cooked black beans (drained weight 240g (1.5 cups))
- 2 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 4 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 6 sundried tomatoes (cut up)
- 185 g vital wheat gluten ((1.5 cups))
- 2 tsp chilli flakes ((optional - for some spice))
- 250 ml vegetable stock ((1 cup))
To serve (optional)
- Ketchup
- Spicy Vegan Mayonnaise
- Fried onions
- Hotdog buns
Instructions
- Sautee the onions and garlic in some olive oil (or just little water for an oil-free version).
- Season with salt and pepper.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash up the beans. You want the beans to have some chunkiness to them and for them to not be a paste.
- Add to the mixin bowl your smoked paprika, liquid smoke, vital wheat gluten, sundried tomatoes and chilli flakes (if using). Mix everything together well.
- Then add the stock. This will start to turn the mixture into a kind of sticky dough (which you want). Knead the mixture for a few minutes to make sure that everything is fully incorporated.
- Take off small pieces of the mixture and roll into sausage shapes around 3-4 inches long and 1 inch thick. You should get between 15 and 20 sausages - don't worry if they are not all the same size.
- Tightly wrap each sausage in foil, securing the ends by twisting the foil. This helps them keep their shape. If the foil is too loose they will expand too much and not have that dense sausage texture.
- Steam the sausages for 40 minutes. Check water doesn't boil dry and add more water if necessary.
- Once they are steamed, remove the sausages from their foil wrappings. You can finish them off by baking them or lightly frying the sausages (to crispen up the edges). Or put them on the BBQ for the ultimate sausage!
- Delicious served in hot dog buns with fried onions, ketchup and spicy vegan mayonnaise. Equally good for any meal that requires sausages!
Inga says
How would you recommend adjusting the cook time if using the bp high pressure setting in the instant pot for a shorter cook time? Also how ,one would you airfry it for after with temp and time suggestions?
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
Unfortunately I don't have an instapot so I haven't tested it but I think a general rule with Insta pot is to reduce the time by half (so around 20-25 minutes). Air fry I would put at 180C/360f for maximum of 10 minutes, or until crispy.
Miss lizzy says
Great recipe. Amount of liquid smoke perfect. Also love your chicken. Do you use your dough hook on the chicken recipe?
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
I'm so happy you like the recipe! For my chicken recipe I use the dough mix thingy (it's not a hook but it does a similar job) on my food processor.
Sophie says
Made my first sausages today. Huge success, never need to get store bought again. Thank you so much! Excited to play around with flavours, and now gonna work through your entire seitan section one by one ha!
p.s Love that it had beans in, that way I don't feel like it's deviating from my mostly wholefood meals and getting in that little extra boost of protein is perfect.
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
I'm so happy you like the recipe! Its great for BBQ season for sure.
Jason says
This here is a good sausage.
Smokey, palatable and yummy.
I cooked the beans first off. Made them spicy cooked with spices and such. A chipotle and a ghost pepper to get the beans a little angry.
Defo will fall in the rotation.
Thanks luv.
Dee says
The best I've ever had. Never even got to the grill or into the smoker as I intended but we're excellent pan fried and air fried. I'm making a double batch this time to smoke. My carnivore husband was even liking them and he is in charge of the smoker so this recipe more than works!
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
Oh I love the idea of smoking them! And I'm so happy you like the recipe!
Shellie says
Absolutely delicious, Louise. I made it as written with the 4 teaspoons of liquid smoke and steamed them in my IP. They came out great. How do you think these would turn out if you made them larger, maybe 6 sausages? If so, would you steam them longer? Thanks for a recipe we'll have again.
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
I'm so happy you liked the receipe! I think you could easily make them a little larger, maybe increase the steaming by 10 minutes? There's no reason you couldn't make them into burgers too. (Or try my seitan burger recipe! It's great too 🙂 !
Shellie says
4 teaspoons of liquid smoke? That sounds like a lot and can overwhelm a recipe.
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
Hi Shellie,
Seitan tends to really absorb flavours and needs quite strong flavouring to be noticable, hence the 4 teaspoons. If you prefer a less smoky sausage, you can reduce to 2 or 1 teaspoons.
Shellie says
These sound great. Can I use the sundried tomatoes that are not in oil? If so, should I rehydrate them?
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
HI Shellie, Yes you can use the sundried tomatoes that are not in oil. I would rehydrate them for sure.
Cheryl Palmer says
Absolutely love this recipe…I used organic dried black turtle beans which I soaked & cooked and then used the cooking liquid in place of the stock. I love to share with local people & promote healthy eating (as a medically retired nurse) and this made a huge batch to share and freeze. Not expensive and easy quick prep! Thank you so much ladies 🙏🌱💚
Vanessa Sturman says
This is so great! What a fantastic idea to use the cooking liquid (so many great nutrients!). Love hearing about your sharing and cooking for local people 🙌🏽 What a lucky bunch eating your amazing food. Wish we lived near you 🌟xxx