A while back, I bought a pack of veggie bratwursts made by viana. I loved the taste and texture of those sausages and — as luck would have it — the ingredients listed the percentages of the two main ingredients (tofu and gluten). Using that info & the nutritional values, I “back engineered” a recipe.
The bratwursts that I made using that recipe were great. My FIL (who is omni) tried them, and I overheard him telling someone a few days later that they’d be hard-pressed to distinguish them from the type containing dead animals (well, he didn’t put it quite like that, but that was the gist).
After that successful experiment, I turned my attention to making veggie hotdogs… or weiners, wieners, frankfurters or whatever you want to call them! I thought it should be pretty easy, considering it was just a matter of fiddling with the spices and making them a tad softer and smaller than sausages. The first time I made them, I was in vegan heaven, because not only did they taste better than store-bought veggie hotdogs, they were a whole lot cheaper to make.
You’ll notice that the base ingredients are the same as my Vegan Deli Slices, because that recipe was also derived from the original bratwurst recipe. I won’t repeat the info on ingredients, so you may want to peruse that recipe if there’s any ingredient you’re not sure about.
Edit: I now add a teaspoon of arrowroot to the gluten flour before mixing in the wet ingredients. This makes a more “cohesive” dog.
Enjoy!
Veggie hotdogs
| British | American | |||
| 30g | ground almonds | 5 tablespoons | ||
| 250g | tofu | 9 ounces | ||
| 2 tablespoons | soy sauce | 2 tablespoons | ||
| 3 tablespoons | mild vegetable oil | 3 tablespoons | ||
| 34g | finely chopped onion | 1/4 cup | ||
| 2 teaspoons | smoked sweet paprika | 2 teaspoons | ||
| 1-1/2 teaspoons | granulated sugar | 1-1/2 teaspoons | ||
| 1 teaspoon | minced fresh garlic | 1 teaspoon | ||
| 1 teaspoon | salt | 1 teaspoon | ||
| 3/4 teaspoon | freshly ground black pepper | 3/4 teaspoon | ||
| 1/2 teaspoon | ground coriander | 1/2 teaspoon | ||
| 1/2 teaspoon | black mustard seeds | 1/2 teaspoon | ||
| 1/4 teaspoon | mace | 1/4 teaspoon | ||
| 1/4 teaspoon | ground cardomom | 1/4 teaspoon | ||
| 1/4 teaspoon | ground cumin | 1/4 teaspoon | ||
| 140g | vital wheat gluten flour | 1 cup + 1 tablespoon | ||
| 1 teaspoon | arrowroot | 1 teaspoon |
1. If you’re starting with whole almonds, grind them in the blender first while it’s still clean and dry, then remove and set aside.
2. Crumble the tofu into the blender. Measure the soy sauce into a measuring cup and add enough water so the mixture equals 100ml (6-1/2 tablespoons). Add this to the blender.
3. Add remaining ingredients to blender EXCEPT gluten. Blenderise until completely smooth. Empty into a large mixing bowl.
4. Add wheat gluten flour and mix until evenly combined. You’ll have a soft dough.
5. Divide dough into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a hotdog shape (make sure you don’t roll them longer than your steamer!). Wrap each hotdog in parchment paper and then in aluminium foil. Lightly twist the ends together.
6. Bring water to boil in a pot that has a steamer insert. Arrange wrapped hotdogs in your steamer insert with the seam side down. There is less chance of the hotdogs bursting the foil if they are packed tightly in the steamer. I arrange four dogs on the bottom, then another four at a 90 degree angle on top.
7. Steam for 45 minutes over gently simmering water. If you’ve arranged your dogs in two layers, switch their positions halfway through the cooking time (bottom ones on top and top ones on bottom). Turn heat off and let cool.
8. To cook, simmer unwrapped dogs in water for 5 minutes.
Can be frozen for future use (leave them wrapped in parchment/foil, and place in a plastic freezer bag).
Makes eight hotdogs.
I was just watching Little Bill and it was called Going Fishing little bill janette and her father and little bill’s father went fishing at first everyone was catching fish except for Little Bill then they ate Veggie Dogs for lunch and they were putting different things on it like peanut butter and little bill learned that everybody likes different thing and little bill said that the fish might like Veggie Dogs insted of their BAIT.When they finished eating lunch they got back in the boat and they put a peice of Veggie Dog on it .It was sooooo suprising Little bill put the line in the water with out plain bait but with the Veggie Dog on it and Little bill acctully catched a Huge fish WITH A VEGGIE DOG.I just went in the living room and told my mother what happened and she was also suprised too she told me to get on the computer and print out this recipe .She also said we will try and see if it acctully works in real lifeif it doesn’t work she we wil eat the veggie dogs and use plain bait for fish.
I’ve only recently been introduced to okara and this recipe was a welcome find. I made the sausages last night but they turned out much redder than yours in the picture. Also, the texture was kinda flaky – any idea why that might be? Thanks for sharing!
Hi Abs — hmmm, the only reason I could think of as to why they may be redder is the brand of paprika you are using must be darker red than the one I used. As for being flaky… sorry not really sure on that one either, if you want a firmer dog you can try adding a bit more arrowroot.
I realize this is a very late response, but I just found this post and would like to know of a possible substitution for black mustard seeds and mace. Would yellow mustard seeds in lesser quantity work? Could I just leave the mace out?
Aha! The reason they were flaky is because I was using your okara alternative recipe and I didn’t blend the okara enough, so it was still very textured. Attempt no.2 soon!
Hi Kristy — You can sub yellow mustard seeds for the black (I have done so myself). According to this, you can sub nutmeg for the mace. Or you could just leave it out, would change the flavour slightly, but I’m sure they would still taste good!
Hiya! I’m a baby vegan, and vital wheat gluten flour has been my nemesis for months, because no stores around here have it.
Think I could get away with making seitan the hard way with whole-wheat flour and mixing it in?
Hi Buttface (
) — I’ve never tried that, so don’t really know how easy it would be to mix in the other ingredients if the seitan were made first from flour. If it’s too difficult by hand, then perhaps a heavy-duty mixer or bread machine would be able to do it. If you try it, do post again and let me know how it went.
I can not wait to give recipe a try.
Thank you,
spelek
What type of tofu do u use? Silken, or regular. And soft, firm? I’m really loving the way these look and cant wait to make them. Thanks for sharing!!!!
hi jessica — I used regular tofu, medium. Hope you like them
How would you make this recipe soy-free? I’m thinking of trying this with cottage cheese blended instead! I’ve had to use that before instead of tofu but it changes the consistency of patties. I’m open to ideas as my husband and eldest child are soy allergic!
Hi Laurina — I have made seitan sausages successfully using cooked beans (eg butter beans, navy beans etc) instead of tofu. The texture is slightly drier than with tofu, but you could compensate by adding a bit of extra oil.