The Best Raw Sausages
These raw dehydrated sausages are so so good. They are bursting with flavour, have a satisfying sausage-like texture and they’re packed with beautiful, nutritious ingredients.
As far as I’m concerned, these guys can do anything a “regular” sausage can do. They’re great in a salad, a sandwich or why not slice them up and pop them on a raw pizza? They make a great addition to a Christmas dinner spread too. Make mini versions, wrap them up in sun-dried tomatoes and you have an adorable raw vegan take on pigs in blankets!
The recipe for these sausages was inspired by a delicious recipe I tried from the book The Raw Alchemist by Shanti Allen and Lesta Pyatnichko. This was the first time I’d learned that dried coconut can help to create an awesome “meaty” texture.
You can either eat these sausages straight out of the fridge, or you can throw them back in your dehydrator for an hour or so to warm them up and re-dry the outside.
I love walnuts, because they just want to do some much good for your body and mind! They’re an awesome source of omega-3 which is hot stuff when it comes to brain function and development, as well as heart disease prevention. Walnuts are also extremely high in antioxidants and other nutrients! From a culinary point of view they are excellent at helping to create meaty textures and flavours.
Be sure to plan in advance to soak your walnuts. A few hours will be beneficial but I prefer to soak mine overnight. This will make them easier to digest as well as vastly improving their taste. You’ll notice the water will turn really brown. This is the dust, tannins and residue that can leave a weird astringent taste on your tongue.
The process for making the sausages is pretty straight forward. There are three main stages:
Firstly, we combine most of the ingredients in a food processor.
Secondly, we mix in some psyllium husk and allow the mix to plump up a bit.
Thirdly, we shape the mixture into sausages.
Finally we dehydrate the sausages for around 8 hours.
The recipe calls for 1 cup of mixed mushrooms. I like to use a mix of wild mushrooms like shiitake, oyster and maitake for their amazing umami flavour, but really any mushroom should work. Alternatively, you can leave the mushrooms out all together. there’s no need to substitute anything else in their place. They’ll still be delicious.
For me, this mixture tends to make between 25-30 sausages, which seems a lot, but I think it makes sense to make slightly larger batches when using a dehydrator. Also, I have no problem getting through them!
When it comes to checking whether the sausages are ready, they should be totally dry on the outside and quite a bit darker than when you put them in. When cut open, the middle will be a little lighter in colour and softer than the outside. You could dehydrate them for longer to get them even firmer, but I prefer them to be soft in the middle. You want the sausages to have a nice soft springiness to them when you squeeze them between your fingers. Basically, they should be pretty similar to a cooked sausage!
I make mine the size of a regular sausage, but you could absolutely make cocktail sausages, which would be great for a picnic, with a nice dip! If you do make little sausages, they will dehydrate more quickly, so check on them a little earlier.
Ingredients
1 cup walnuts, soaked 4 hours up to overnight
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
3 tablespoons of water
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup grated carrot, packed
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup dried tomato (dehydrated or sun-dried but not the ones in oil), soaked in just enough water to cover. Keep the water!
2-3 tablespoons tamari
2 heaped teaspoon miso paste
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon garlic granules
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon maple syrup
A few rounds of black pepper
1 tablespoon sage
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon thyme
1 cup mixed mushrooms, washed and roughly chopped, ripped or crumbled.
2 tablespoons psyllium husk. (I like to give mine a few pulses in the blender to break it down a bit).
Method
Switch on your dehydrator and prepare 1 dehydrator tray with a non-stick sheet.
Discard the soaking water from the walnuts and rinse them very well.
Combine flaxmeal and 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Mix well and leave to sit for at least 5 minutes until gloopy.
Add everything except herbs, mushrooms and psyllium husk to a food processor and process until you have a slightly chunky sausage-meat-like texture. Throw in some of the water used to soak the tomatoes to achieve this texture. You probably won’t need the whole lot.
Add the mushrooms and herbs and process a little more so that the mushroom disappears into the mixture but retains s a little of its texture. A few seconds should do it.
Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the psyllium husk. Then set aside for 5 minutes.
By now the mixture should have plumped up a bit from the psyllium husk and should be easy to work with and shape into sausages.
To do this, break of a piece off the mixture and roll into a ball around the size of a large bliss ball. Then, lay this down on your non-stick mat and lightly roll the ball from side to side using your palm and the underside of your fingers to create a sausage shape. If it seems to be thinner on one end, just turn it 180 degrees and roll a little more. You may have to push the ends in a bit and do some moulding to get a perfect shape.
It can help to slightly dampen your hands, but if they’re too wet, the mixture might all just stick to them. Sometimes you just need to give your hands a little wash.
Dehydrate for around 8 hours at at 115°F/46°C, then remove and cut into one of the sausages to check if they’re ready.
Either enjoy straight away or store in an airtight container in the fridge. I think they taste even better the next day!