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Janelle Carss

Spicy Italian Vegan Sausage

Smoky, spicy, savoury, and loaded with Italian sausage vibes, these Spicy Italian Vegan Sausages are the kind of plant-based sausage that makes you forget you're eating plants! Made with TVP, lentils, fennel seed, and plenty of bold spices, they're chewy, flavour-packed, and wrapped in a crispy rice paper casing—or you can skip the casing entirely if you want.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings: 6 sausages
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Canadian, Italian
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup cooked or canned brown or green lentils, drained and rinsed
  • ¾ cup dry TVP (textured vegetable protein)
  • ½ cup rolled oats (gluten-free if needed)
  • ¼ cup chickpea flour
  • 2 tbsp oat flour (blended oats)
  • 2 tbsp breadcrumbs (gluten-free if needed)
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce, or tamari if gluten-free
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire (sub balsamic vinegar OR jerk marinade if you like extra spice)
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1½-2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp chili flakes, adjust to your spice tolerance
  • ¼ tsp cayenne, adjust to your spice tolerance
  • ¼ tsp ground coriander
  • ¾ cup hot vegetable broth or water
  • 6 to 8 rice paper sheets
  • water for dipping the rice paper

Method
 

  1. Hydrate the TVP: Add the TVP and boiling vegetable broth to a bowl and stir to combine. Let it sit for about 5 minutes, or until the TVP has absorbed the liquid and softened.
  2. Mash the lentils: Add the cooked lentils to a large bowl and roughly mash about half of them with a fork. Leave the rest mostly intact—you want some whole lentils throughout the mixture for texture.
  3. Mix the sausage mixture: Add the tomato paste, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, vegan Worcestershire sauce, Dijon, and all of the spices and give it a good mix. Then stir in the hydrated TVP, rolled oats, chickpea flour, oat flour, breadcrumbs, nutritional yeast. Mix everything really well until you have a thick, sticky mixture.
    4. Don't skip the rest! Let the mixture sit for about 10–15 minutes. This gives the oat flour, breadcrumbs, and chickpea flour time to absorb excess moisture and helps the mixture firm up.
  4. Shape the sausages: Divide the mixture into 6–8 portions. Use your hands to firmly shape each portion into a sausage. Compress the mixture as you shape it. At this point, you can either cook them as-is or give them a rice-paper casing.
Option 1: With Rice Paper
  1. Soften the rice paper: Fill a shallow dish with warm water. Quickly dip one rice paper sheet into the water until it softens. Don't leave it submerged for ages—it will continue softening as you work with it. Place the softened rice paper onto a clean, but dampened cutting board.
  2. Wrap the sausages: Place the softened rice paper onto a clean work surface. If your rice paper is large enough, you can use a second sheet for a sturdier casing. Repeat with the remaining sausages.
  3. Cook: Heat a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat and cook the sausages, turning occasionally, until the rice paper casing is golden brown and crisp on all sides. You can also air fry them until browned and crispy, for about 15 minutes at 365℉.
    Let them cool for a few minutes before serving—the inside will firm up as they cool.
Option 2: Without Rice Paper
  1. No rice paper? No problem. The sausage mixture is perfectly happy to go commando. 😜 Simply shape the sausage mixture firmly into your desired sausage shapes and place them on a lightly oiled baking sheet or air-fryer basket.
    Cook until they're browned and firm on the outside, turning as needed for even cooking. Because there's no casing to protect them, handle them gently while they're hot. Once they've cooled slightly, they'll firm up considerably.
    2. If you're making them without rice paper, chilling the shaped sausages for 15–30 minutes before cooking can make them even easier to handle.

Notes

Cooking: You can air fry or pan fry either of the sausages whether you wrap them in rice paper or not!