Apple sage sausage

This vegan recipe is from The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester. One weekend I was motivated to do some cooking ahead and I made this and beans and tomato sauce and stuck it all in the freezer to use at a later date. We used half of the recipe this weekend- some on a homemade pizza and some with a pasta dish. We still have the other half of the recipe left over in the freezer. I guess where I'm going with this is it freezes really well! Just take it out the night before and stick it in the fridge or leave it on the counter for a few hours from the freezer and then stick it in the fridge. You don't have to cook it in a slow cooker- you can make the uncooked sausage into patties and cook them on the stove top or in the oven.

"Apple sage sausage" from The Vegan Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

1 cup walnuts pieces

1 cup vital wheat gluten

2 Tbs nutritional yeast

1 cup applesauce

2 Tbs ground flaxseed mixed with 2 Tbs warm water

1 Tbs vegan chicken-favored bouillon

2 Tbs sage

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp Hungarian paprika

1/2 to 1 tsp salt (to taste)

Pepper, to taste

1. In a food processor, pulse the walnuts and cooked rice until the mixture is coarsely ground

but not puréed. Combine the nut mixture with the remaining ingredients in a large mixing

bowl. Cover and refrigerate (over night if you want to do this the night before- if not, no

need to refrigerate). 

2. Put the mixture into an oiled slow cooker crock. Cook on high for 1 ½

to 2 hours. Break down the loaf into small pieces in the food processor, and process until it

crumbles (you can skip this step if you'd like and just crumble it by hand when you want to use it). Store what you won’t use in a week in the freezer.

I recommend freezing it in quarters and taking it out as needed. This is about a quarter of the batch and it was plenty to use on a cookie sheet-sized pizza. It has a meaty texture without tasting like a weird and processed vegan meat.