Yesterday I shared my basic homemade vegetable broth recipe and promised to reveal the very first thing I made with the stock – vegan sausage (seitan)! But first, a little background on the base recipe.

Recently I shared my very first seitan recipe. As one of a zillion food bloggers in the universe I realize that far more people will read my recipes than make them. Occasionally I get some feedback (tweets like “I tried your chili, loved it!”) and it brings me joy. I’m not writing this blog for me – I write it for people who are on a vegan or plant-based journey. So when I posted my Cinnamon-Ginger Seitan & Veggies in Coconut Gravy recipe it was with excitement and trepidation. I loved the dish; I mean I was cuckoo for it. But I’m never all that sure my culinary experiments translate into success in your kitchen. Imagine my delight and surprise to read this feedback:

This kind of encouragement keeps me going! Thank you!

Confident that I have found the perfect seitan formula for my taste — a just right wet-to-dry ratio, plus a cooking method (use a stand-mixer to knead the dough for five minutes and use a pressure cooker to cook it) that results in a texture that pleases both the vegan and the omnivore in this house — it was time to branch out.

Vegan Pepperoni Sausage by JL goes Vegan: Food & Fitness with a side of Kale Serves 8 – 10 Ingredients 1.5 cups vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoon all-spice (or a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon and clove to equal 1/2 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon anise seed, crumbled

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, crumbled

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 cup vegetable broth (add more if too dry)

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/2 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)

Cooking broth: 3 cups water, 3 cups vegetable broth, and 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce Instructions Bring cooking broth ingredients to a boil in an uncovered pressure cooker. Mix dry ingredients together n a stand mixer bowl mix wet ingredients in a small bowl Add wet ingredients to dry, mix well, then knead with the dough hook of the mixer for 5 minutes. Break dough into half. Roll 4 small sausages and wrap individually in cheesecloth, tying ends with string. Take the remaining half and roll into a larger sausage and wrap in cheesecloth, typing ends with string. Place in boiling cooking broth, cover the pressure cooker and bring to pressure. Cook at pressure for 30 minutes. Allow for a natural release. Remove sausages from the broth to cool before handling or serving. For pepperoni slices, freeze the sausage overnight and then use a food processor (use the slicing disc) for nice, thin spicy pieces of sausage. Store whole sausage, in the cooking broth, in an airtight container in the refrigerator or in a sturdy bag for the freezer. Powered by Recipage

You can slice, dice and crumble this sausage for all kinds of recipes.

Tomorrow I’ll share three (yes, three!) recipes…

…made with just half of this batch of seitan-sausage.