rants & recipes

Couple of inches of snow on the ground here - perfect soup weather. And any weather's perfect for sausage, right? Tonight we had pumpkin soup. Or rather I had pumpkin soup - Evin chose to finish off leftovers from last night because he doesn't like soup. And I made a third attempt at cloning Field Roast's Apple Sage Sausages. I've only tried the store-bought version once, so it's difficult to remember but I'm pretty sure these are fairly close. And tasty, for sure.

Apple Sage Sausage, Take III ( attempt I here, attempt II here )

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten (1 6 ounce box)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 2 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tbsp ground sage
• 1 tsp ground fennel
• sprinkle curry powder
• 1/4 tsp red pepper
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup dried apples, chopped finely
• 95 grams (about 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp) finely diced potatoes, microwaved for about 2 minutes
• 2 tsp marmite
• 4 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• 2-3 cloves garlic, microplaned
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
• 1 tsp A1 sauce
• 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp soy plus water to equal 2/3 cup

Instructions:

1. Mix wheat gluten, nutritional yeast and apples in one bowl, set aside.
2. Mix remaining ingredients, add to wheat gluten mix.
3. Knead to combine.
4. Form into log-shaped pieces. I make 7.
5. Wrap each piece in aluminum foil, twisting ends to close.
6. Pressure-steam for 15 minutes after full pressure is achieved. (I was distracted and these cooked at full pressure for a while! I'm glad nothing blew up. They were nicely firm, though, so maybe cook for 20 minutes or so.)
7. Let the PC lose its steam slowly, for added cooking time.