Vegan Sausageroni

I know, vegan pepperoni? What!?!? I've always felt of two minds when it comes to psuedo-meat products. Some of the meat (and dairy) substitutes are so processed that you may as well be eating Spam. Worse yet, is sometimes you look at the ingredients of "meat-free" meat and find something like casein (milk-protein). Huh?!

Skip all the confusion. Make your own perfect sausage or pepperoni at home with ingredients you know! This recipe is entirely vegan and completely delicious. I found this recipe here and a whole lot of other variations on the same concept here. It's primarily a magical mixture of mashed beans, spices and vital wheat gluten all wrapped up in foil and steamed until sausagey. I found it a bit too gummy/chewy after just steaming, so we sliced the sausageroni and pan fried it. A little crisping and it was the perfect topping to a vegan pizza pita! I'm hoping my genius gluten-free baking triathlete superstar of a friend Julia can come up with some substitutes for the vital vital wheat gluten in this recipe for all you gf folks out there! 

Vegan sausageroni, daiya cheddar, peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms, pita!

Makes three 6-8" sausages

INGREDIENTS:

*reduce pepper flakes and peppercorns if you don't like spicy food!*

• 1/2 cup of white kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup cold water (I used vegetable broth)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp liquid smoke (I used Trader Joe's South African smoke grinder)
• 1 tsp HP sauce, or BBQ sauce
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp whole anise seed
• 1 tsp red peppercorns
• 1 tsp green peppercorns
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes 
• 1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten

DIRECTIONS:

1. Add water to a large pot that fits a steamer (or colander) in it. Bring to a boil.
2. Mash the beans with a fork or potato masher. 
3. Add water, oil, liquid smoke, HP or BBQ sauce, paprika, cayenne, salt and sugar and mix well.
4. Roughly grind anise seed, peppercorns, and red pepper flakes with a mortar and pestle (or blitz a few times in spice/coffee grinder)
5. Add into mixture. Add in wheat gluten and mix well with a fork.
6. Divide dough into three equal portions. Shape each into a tube and wrap like a tootsie roll in heavy duty aluminum foil. 
7. Make sure to wrap it tightly by twisting the ends. Heavy duty foil is needed to keep the pepperoni from bursting out of the wrapping when cooking.
8. Steam for 45 mins. Cool and slice what you plan on using. Pan fry before using for best results!