Homemade Vegan Corn Dogs - Yes Corndogs

Drum roll please....

Here are some awesome homemade vegan Corn Dogs.

I had seen vegan corn dogs a couple of years back on a fellow bloggers blog and was mighty curious about them. I had thought it was literally sweetcorn deep fried in batter, then told it was a hot dog sausage covered in golden corn batter and then deep fried.  Very popular in parts of America. 

I have been waiting for an excuse to make them and a little while back when I had a full house of guests the opportunity to make these vegan Corn Dogs were presented to me. had not int

I do have have a deep fat fryer, I do but i don't cook in it often to merit it taking up valuable space in the kitchen.  So made these vegan corn dogs in a deep wide pan, three at a time .  My guests all stood around me and watched me in amazement as I made these vegan corn dogs and took pictures.   

These pictures belong to them, as my hands were busy. 

Vegan Corn Dog drowning in  yellow cornmeal batter

I was pleasantly pleased with the result as well as the fact, that they tasted delicious.  D wants me to make them again, and I have vowed to but I need 4 more people in the house to justify it.  Do you want to be my guest?!  

vegan Corn Dogs sizzling in the hot oil

I am sharing these with Inheritance Recipes co hosted by Solange at Pebble Soup and Coffee and Vanilla as the vegan Corn Dogs will be made every time I have a particular crowd of friends over.

Other Vegan Corn Dog recipesVegan Crunchy Corn Dogs from VegSpinz
Baked Corn Dogs from Go Vegan Meow

Very Red Pepper and Kidney Bean Casserole with Vegan Sausages

It must have been a subliminal message of sorts that got me hankering for a Veggie Sausage Casserole.  For days I went onto D 'I need to pick u some veggie sausages...'  yet always seemed to forget and then I repeated myself all over again 'I have to pick up some veggie sausages', but yesterday - I remembered!  

And so here it is, a rich thyme and smoked paprika infused tomato sauce based casserole with kidney beans and Romano red peppers.  It turned out very red indeed.

You can choose to use any vegetarian or vegan sausage you like, I am not loyal to any particular brand and like to try them all.  If your not a veggie, of course you can opt the real meat variety.  The smokiness from the paprika was just right, not overwhelming at all.   I served this very red vegan casserole with some crushed roasted new potatoes.  It was grand I tell you and well worth the wait.

So some of you may wondering why do I showcase a leek here?!  Well I was going to call this Welsh Leek Sausage Casserole, but the leeks do get lost in this very red dish - so I didn't bother.  I am sharing this with MLLA #93 and hosted this mont by myself. If you want to join in follow this link. 

The Original Glamorgan Dog

Not a Welsh Rarebit in Sight. No Sir!

Why?! Because we have something even better - the Glamorgan Dog; or if you want to be a bit downright dirty, then call it The Vegi  Glamorgan Daug.

In anticipation of St Davids tomorrow, I have been offering Glamorgan Sausage Dogs  (based on the American Hot Dog) all week.  I have to admit, they are not yet as popular as the vegetarian burgers I make or the eyebrow raising and conversation starting Elvis Presley Bagel - but they do certainly get the thumbs up for flavour.

I could easily have served up Welsh Rarebit like many eateries here in Wales, but to me Welsh Rarebit is effectively  just cheese on toast jazzed up a little with some designer leaves on the side.  I guess its the celebrity chef Gary Rhodes affect, some of you may remember when he made the humble and homely Bread and Pudding fashionable to eat at high end restaurants.  So some places can get away charging almost £7 for cheese on toast, but not here - here we are going a little bit modern and its only under £3.  The Glamorgan Sausage known as Selsig Morgannwg in W elsh is made from Caerphilly cheese, leeks, breadcrumbs, mustard, seasoning and binded with egg yolk is freshly made and cooked and then put into a finger roll, that is generously filled with home-made coleslaw and a good squirt of French Mustard, on the side for garnish if you so wish - some salted crisps.  For my Glamorgan Sausage recipe follow this link.

Alongside the vegetarian Glamorgan Dog, I have also been making a Vegetarian Chilli Dog, a fat vegetarian sausage doused generously with home-made chilli (or to keep it strictly Welsh topped with my take on what would be a Welsh Chilli Con Carne) and then prettily tarted up with some jalapeno peppers.  The soured cream and extra Welsh cheddar cheese is optional, but more about that later.

I will also share you more original Welsh inspired delights over the next few days including the Welsh Chilli Con Carne, just got to remember to take my camera with me.  And if you can't wait, here are some Vegan and Vegetarian Welsh dishes from previous years featured on my blog.  Or click on this link and I mustn't forget my Welsh Eggs!

Seitan Chorizo chowder

The sun came out to tease us, but it was very quickly followed by hail stones - in which, of course I was caught - hitting my face icy cold like shards of sharp glass.

Anyway after getting home, drying my face and hair, a bowl of spicy seitan chorizo chowder was very much welcomed.
Seitan Chorizo chowder
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely sliced
450g floury potatoes such as Maris Piper or King Edward, cubed
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 ½ pints of vegetable stock
200g - 250g seitan chorizo sausages, cut into ½ inch wide sliced. Follow link for recipe.
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large pan and cook the onion, garlic and potatoes for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Add the leek and cayenne and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 20minutes until the potatoes are very soft and beginning to bread up into the soup. Using a potato masher, roughly mash the potatoes into the soup.
In another pan, heat the remaining olive oil. Add the seitan chorizo pieces and cook for a minute then flip over and cook on the other side, then add to the soup, along with the oil from the pan. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Check the seasoning, ladle into bowls. Adapted very slightly from Ainsley Harriots Gourmet Express 2

Chorizo, potato and thyme quesadillas

Did I say I was not going to eat any lazy food, well I guess I’m a fibber then.

After making the vegan chorizo sausages I had to find ways of consuming it.

First it was chorizo hash, then Quesadillas.

The chorizo sausages sliced beautifully and then upon cooking, they kept their shape well. The spicy flavour of the chorizo sausage infused the other ingredients. It was really good. I have frozen three of the sausages for when D returns, I think its only fair he tries some too.

Chorizo, potato and thyme quesadillas
Serves 2 greedy people

Ingredients
1 large potato, chopped into cubes then boiled until tender, drain and set aside
½ onion, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced
200g chorizo sausage, sliced or chopped
A couple of sprigs of thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
2 – 3 flour or corn tortilla wraps
Cheddar cheese, grated
Olive oil

MethodHeat oil in pan, add the onion and cook until soft then add in the potatoes and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, then add in the chorizo and fry for a further 5 minutes. Mix in the thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble the quesadillasSpread half of the chorizo mixture on one half of a tortilla wrap. Sprinkle generously with cheese, then fold over so you have a half moon.
Heat a tablespoon olive oil in a wide frying pan, then place the tortilla gently in the frying pan and cook for a minute before flipping over for the other side to be golden and crisp. Serve immediately. Repeat with the remaining tortilla(s). Cut in half and enjoy with salsa. Adapted from Thomasina Miers Mexican Food Made Simple.

Vegan Chorizo 'Sausages'

For those who follow either a vegetarian or vegan diet, seitan sausages may not be a revelation to you, but it may be for some of my other readers.

Seitan is wheat gluten. It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as an elastic mass which is then cooked before being eaten. Wheat gluten is most popular in China and Japan where it was first developed, as well as in the cuisines of other East and South east Asian countries. Over the past few years, seitan has become a much valued ingredient in the West, especially in vegan cookery. It is often used in place of meat in vegetarian, vegan and macrobiotic diets. So it should not be a surprise that has been dubbed as ‘vegetarian wheat meat’.

I’ve made many vegetarian sausages in the past usually with cheese, but never with seitan, namely because I have had great difficulty finding the essential ingredient in the U.K: vital wheat gluten, and when I did locate a place that sold some, it could only be purchased in bulk orders. Having never cooked with it, I just wanted to purchase a small quantity, but the company made that difficult as small packets were hit with heavy postal charges.
Well my search for vital wheat gluten came to a halt when a big hearted blogger friend posted me a small package to allow me to experiment. The packet has been in my cupboards for a few good months. With D away, I found myself in the kitchen yesterday evening tempted by a Chorizo sausage recipe from Terry Hope Romero latest book Viva Vegan.

I’ve never ever had chorizo – Spanish or Mexican, but as a 'spice head' I have always liked the idea of a spicy vegetarian sausage and have been waiting in patience for one to appear at the health shops, but nothing appeared. This recipe gave me the opportunity to make my own. A lot of ingredients go into making these sausages: vital wheat gluten, chickpea flour, vegetable stock, olive oil and loads of flavourings such as tomato paste, nutritional yeast, garlic, cumin, coriander, oregano, chilli flakes, paprika and cayenne, but it is so worth it. I really enjoyed the mixing and kneading process. The spicy aroma was wonderful, lingering on the palms of my hand like good perfume. Then wrapping them up in foil like Christmas crackers for the final baking process.
I was so delighted when I took them out of the oven. The sausages looked fantastic. Even I was blown away by how real they looked. I tell you, had I not made them myself I would have been doubting the sausages suitability for vegetarians, not just vegans. It really is hard to believe that these were made without any meat! Not only was it an interesting and exciting culinary experiment (to work with vital wheat gluten), the result tasted absolutely amazing. The chorizo sausage was bursting with spicy flavours and lingered on the tongue afterwards.

On my first bite, I was reminded of my meat eating childhood days. It was very much like Shish or Sheesh kebab, a spicy sausage snack consisting of meat threaded on a skewer and grilled. But the fact is this was a vegan chorizo sausage and it tasted really, really delicious. Oh I have so many ideas of what to do with the chorizo – so watch this space.

The recipe comes from Viva Vegan, as this was my first time ever playing with seitan, I’ve not tampered with the recipe at all and would have been happy to post it here to share. But out of respect, courtesy and without the permission of the author I am not going to and recommend that you purchase the book. Also you may want to check out Terry Hope Romero here making seitan potato tacos from her book, or check out her site Vegan Latina.

Updated 09/02/2011
I am delighted to report that I have heard from Terry Hope Romero and she has been gracious to permit me to post the recipe here. Knock yourselves out!

Chorizo Seitan Sausages
Makes 6 - 7
Ingredients
325ml/1 ½ cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons sun dried tomato paste
3 tablespoons Annato infused oil (or olive oil) - see here for recipe
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 cloves garlic, grated
210g/1 2/3 cups vital wheat gluten
40g/1/4 cup chickpea flour
3 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
4 teaspoons hot or smoked paprika
4 teaspoons ground chilli powder (or 2 teaspoons ground chilli powder and 2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes)
3 teaspoons Mexican oregano or dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons ground coriander
1 ½ cayenne
1 ½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Method
Tear  off 6 to 7 pieces of foil about 8 inches wide each. Preheat the oven to 4.
Whisk together the vegetable stock, tomato paste, oil, vinegar and garlic. In a large bowl combine the gluten, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, paprika, chilli powder, cayenne, cumin, coriander, salt and oregano.
Make well in dry ingredients and pour in liquid ingredients, stir well with rubber spatula until dough leaves side of the bowl. Knead for 3 minutes and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Knead again for a couple of minutes.
Divide dough into 6 or 7 equal pieces. Place piece of chorizo on foil and shape into sausages about 6 inches long. Bring wide ends of foil together and wrap firmly around the dough. Leave a little room under the foil for the chorizo to expand during baking. Twist ends of foil to secure filling. Repeat with the remaining pieces.
Place each directly on the middle rack and bake for 40 – 45 minutes Allow to cool for an hour before using, or for best results chill overnight. Store it in fridge tightly sealed for up to 2 weeks or freeze.
To use, slice or chop and fry before adding to your recipe.

Updated 06/2011: This recipe has also been made by Bekkitae of Greenisms.  Please do check out her version of this vegan chorizo, she has written some fantastic information about the ingredients.
Updated 16/02/2012: Made by Vegan in Montreal too.

Sunshine and sun dried tomato vegan sausages

The weather girl predicted good weather for the weekend, and it certainly has been. The sunshine came out and decided to hang around for a long while.

Yesterday we went to a Country Park in the South West of Scotland, and today, we've been busy working in the garden plot. I'll tell you more about them both during the week, otherwise this entry will be way, way too long. For now may I share with you these home made vegan sausages, which we had for our brunch.
I am so glad I made them in advance as after the gardening, weeding and digging my back is feeling a little sore and now all I want to do is sit down and rest, maybe even have a long bath.

These olive and sun dried sausages don’t look the prettiest in their raw state. Even the flecks of red and black don't make them look particularly inviting, but once cooked, they were transformed and became rather appealing. These were substantial like good Glamorgan sausages and packed with flavours from the olives and sun dried tomatoes. D said it reminded him of vegetarian haggis, but I completely disagree. I think in his head he was making this equation because of the generous amount of oats. I would recommend making these the day before and allowing to chill in the fridge overnight, so the oats can swell. Also the mixture is quite soft and wasn’t particularly easy to roll into sausage shapes, so another idea would be to turn them into patties if you so wish. Or if your feeling more adventurous, perhaps using the filling for individual pies.

These vegan sausages were fab for breakfast or brunch, but I don’t think there would be any harm having them in the evening either. I'll be doing that one of these coming evenings, as we have another four left to enjoy.

Olive and Sun dried Tomato sausages
Serves 4
Ingredients
100g red lentils
250ml vegetable stock made with1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder
50g pitted black olives
2 medium leeks, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
2 tablespoons mint leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
75g medium oats
75g jumbo porridge oats
Dash of Tabasco
2teaspoons Tamari
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes from a jar, drained of excess oil and minced
Handful of parsley, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Cornmeal flour for rolling
Sunflower oil for shallow frying
Method
Preheat oven to Gas mark 6. Cook the red lentils with the stock until soft. My lentils absorbed all the stock, but if yours doesn’t drain and set aside. Roast the olives, leeks garlic and sage leaves in the olive oil for 20 minutes of until soft. Blend the roasted vegetables, mint and the sun dried tomatoes in a food processor to form a rough paste consistency. Place the oatmeal and oats on a baking tray in the pre-heated oven and toast for 7 minutes until golden. Mix together the roasted vegetables, cooked red lentils and toasted oat. Season well. Shape into 8 sausages. Lightly rolling cornmeal and chill in the fridge. Shallow fry in sunflower oil until crisp and lightly browned. Serve as part of a veggie breakfast or with mash and gravy. Adapted from Demuths Green Seasons.

Vegetarian sausages with puy lentils

I didn’t realise that Toscana di Nero kale had so many names, such as Cavolo Nero (which is what most people know it by), but also Dinosaur kale, Tuscan Kale, Palm Tree Kale, Palm Tree Cabbage and even Black Cabbage. They are all the same vegetable with slight variations being primarily in the shape and texture of the leaves. Interesting don’t you think?

Toscana di nero tastes so different from the curly kale I’m used to eating. 'Which one do I prefer?', I like them both, but it I had to choose, I think I would opt for curly kale. For me it has more flavour.
This recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson Italian Sausages with lentils from Nigella Bites. I have substituted the meat sausages with vegetarian ones, plus added toscana di nero. It worked out not too bad actually.

Vegetarian Welsh Recipes

See the previous post for Welsh Cakes and Glamorgan sausages to delight the eye.

I am fortunate to own a smooth griddle. If you don’t have one, a cast iron frying pan will work just as well. You will also need an 8cm crinkled round cutter. Traditionally, welsh cakes are made with lard. This one is vegetarian.

Welsh cakes
Ingredients (makes about 18)
125g cold unsalted butter
250g self-raising flour
75g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
½ teaspoon ground allspice
100g mixed dried fruit raisins and sultanas
1 large egg, beaten
Rub the butter into the flour as if you were making pastry, then stir in the sugar, spice and raisins. Add the egg to make a soft dough. Cover with cling film and leave in fridge for about 20 minutes.

Roll out on to floured surface to a thickness of about ¾ cm and cut out cakes; you will need to re-roll the dough now and again.

Heat your un-oiled griddle or pan and cook the cakes for about 3 minutes each side until golden-brown – be careful not to overdo them. Remove to a large plate and sprinkle with caster sugar.

These are best eaten warm as they will melt in the mouth.
Glamorgan sausages are traditionally made with leek, but as we were having leek mash, I have decided to use onion in its place.

Glamorgan Sausages
Serves 2 - 3 (makes 6)
110g Caerphilly cheese, cheddar will also work well, grated
2 teaspoons of mixed fresh herbs, I used sage, thyme and a bit of rosemary or you could also use 1 teaspoon of mixed dried herbs.
150g fresh white or wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 medium onion, finely minced or grated
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 large egg yolk
Salt and pepper to taste

For coating and frying
30g fresh white or brown breadcrumbs
1 large egg white lightly beaten or whisked (optional - I like it whisked as it gives it a tempura like texture).
2 – 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Place 150g breadcrumbs in a large mixing bowl along with the onion, cheese and herbs. Then add the mustard powder and seasoning of salt and pepper. Now add the egg yolk and stir to bind together. I tend to use my hands. Then divide the mixture into six equal portions and then using your hands roll each piece into a sausage shape, squeezing gently to hold it together.

Before frying the sausages, gently roll each sausage into the egg white and then into the breadcrumbs, coast evenly.

Too cook the sausages, heat a shallow layer of oil in a large frying pan and fry them, rolling them gently in the hot oil for 7 – 8 minutes till all sides are crisp and golden.

For the leek mash
Make mash as you normally would, and add some leeks that have been softened in either butter or olive oil, then season and mix in the leeks with the mash.