Vegetarian Sausage

1 can of each of the following, drained and rinsed:-

Chick peas, Cannellini beans, Red kidney beans, Haricot beans (total yield, drained, is a little under 1kg).

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

100g Breadcrumbs, from my own bread

3 oz Carmargue red rice, cooked in water flavoured with

1 Knorr vegetable stock cube

1 Kallo organic vegetable stock cube

1 tablespoon tomato purée

3 teaspoons Branston fruity sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 small free-range/organic eggs

1 scant teaspoon Fine sea salt – take care not to over-salt as there’s salt in the stock cubes

? teaspoon black pepper

NB: For a vegan recipe, omit the eggs

For this recipe I use a hand mincer, as a food processor would too easily reduce the beans to a puree – I want to retain some texture so I’ll use a mincer with 10mm holes which will chop the beans coarsely, while leaving some whole or almost whole.

Method:-

Put the beans in a suitably sized pan, cover with water, bring to the boil, remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes – you just want them to heat through. Drain the beans well, then tip onto a clean tray to dry off for 10 minutes. While still warm, tip into a bowl, stir though the herbs, seasoning and olive oil, cover with clingfilm and leave until next day (refrigerate once cold).

While the beans are warming, or afterwards, it matters not which, cook the rice, in enough water to cover by an inch, along with the Knorr stock cube. Add a more boiling water is necessary.

When the rice is cooked, tip into a sieve over another pan, and allow to drain thoroughly. Then set aside. Return the rice water to the pan, and reduce until you have just about half an inch depth, dissolve the Kallo cube, sauce, and tomato purée. Return the rice, and add the crumbs, mixing well with the rice until all the liquid is absorbed. Set aside for 10 minutes to allow the absorption to be completed, then add to the beans and mix well.

Cover and return to the fridge until thoroughly cold – as with making normal sausages, there is scope for food poisoning, though admittedly the risk is much lower, but still, keep everything scrupulously clean and cold from here on in.

Once chilled (or the next day if you wish), remove from the fridge, beat the eggs and stir them in, and mince on the coarsest plate  until you have a coarse texture, if a food processor is what you have.

Now then, this is where I part company with most of you, as I have a sausage-stuffing machine.

This will enable me to produce cylindrical sausages of an even size ,I went with the collagen casings and left them on. A mere 7g of casings gave me almost 1.5kg of sausages.

So, while I press on with the machine, you can hand-form them.

And this is the finished product, in the pan.