Vegan Sausage Rolls Recipe with Gluten-Free Option, Homemade (2024)

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Contents » Recipe : Tips : Substitutions : Variations : Budget : Inspiration

These vegan sausage rolls are easily the best sausage rolls I’ve ever tasted.

No, they’re not raw, and yes, they are amazing.

And if you’re trying to get your kids to eat a little healthier, these vegan sausage rolls are one heck of an addition to your arsenal of “healthy but so delicious they don’t care” recipes.

I adapted this recipe from a vegetarian sausage roll recipe in my friend’s Thermomix recipe book.

They take a little more time and effort than my preferred “chuck it in the blender” approach, but they’re well worth it.

I just make a whole bunch of them at once, chuck ’em in the freezer, and they’re ready to use at a moment’s notice.

I was also fortunate enough to discover a brand of vegan puff pastry in my local family-owned, health-conscious supermarket.

Because there’s no way I have the patience (or the skill) to even attempt making my own vegan puff pastry. (At least, not yet.)

Way back when I was still eating meat, I tried making regular sausage rolls, and I’d have to say they were something of a disaster: dry, flavourless and they cooked unevenly.

An all-round flop.

In fact, I was so discouraged that I’d given up on ever making a good sausage roll.

Until I created these.

And frankly, I think my vegan sausage roll recipe taste better than any other sausage roll I’ve ever had.

And what’s even cooler, is that they look just like sausage rolls.

By the time the walnut & onion mix is all processed and cooked, you really can’t tell the difference.

OK, if you’re a sausage roll connoisseur, then you might notice that these are not your typical sausage roll.

But maybe that’s a good thing.

Because these are most definitely not just your typical sausage roll.

And I’m thrilled to be able to share them with you.

Enjoy!

How to Make Homemade Vegan Sausage Rolls

Make sure to read the tips below the recipe to get the most out of this amazing vegan sausage rolls recipe.

Tips for making homemade vegan sausage rolls

Here’s some handy tips that will make it even easier to whip up a batch of these amazing sausage rolls:

• You’ll need a high-speed blender and a tamper to get the almond feta really smooth. However, it will just be mixed up with everything to make the sausage roll mix, so it’s probably not critical if it’s not super smooth. You could also make this recipe in a Thermomix, because that’s where the recipe was adapted from.
• I’m lucky enough to have a neighbour with a massive lemon tree, so I always use fresh lemon juice in my recipes. If you don’t have access to fresh lemons, then you can use bottle lemon juice, but you may need to adjust the amount to suit your taste buds.
• If you want to make this more wholefood, you could experiment with using whole lemon segments. I find that they still impart a great lemony taste, and mean you’re getting the whole lemon and not just the juice. For this amount of lemon juice, I’d use the flesh (not the peel) of half a small lemon.
• If you don’t have any whole garlic cloves handy, you can also use ready-made minced garlic from a jar. It’s not quite as wholefood as using a raw garlic clove, but sometimes it can be a bit more convenient.
• I use pink Himalayan crystal salt in my dishes because it contains lots of trace minerals that are good for you, and apparently it tastes better too. So if you’re going to use salt at all, the pink stuff is the best!
• If you don’t remember (or can’t be bothered) to pre-soak your almonds, it will still work fine. Just use 1/3 cup (75ml) of water instead.
• Once you’ve made the almond feta cheese, you can put it into the fridge while you work on the rest of the recipe, and this will help it to thicken up a bit, which will make a stiffer sausage roll filling. Just make sure you remember to actually put it into the mix (I don’t know what you’re talking about!) before you start making your sausage rolls.
• Leftover almond feta is a delicious spread or dip with veggies or flax crackers. In fact, it’s great in and on all kinds of things. Check out my raw vegan almond feta recipe post for more ideas.
• You can buy flax meal at supermarkets, but unless it’s been refrigerated I wouldn’t recommend it as the sensitive omega 3 fats in the flax geing breaking down within minutes of the seeds being ground.
• You can make your own flax meal by grinding whole flax seeds in a coffee or spice grinder. I’ve also done it successfully in the dry jug of my Vitamix blender, and in my mini Tribest personal blender. Just make sure you use enough flax seeds to get a good grind happening, otherwise they just fly around everywhere and don’t actually break up. And don’t put too much in or you’ll get a big lump of powder mixed in with whole flax seeds that won’t grind at all. Generally I find that 1/4 cup is not quite enough and 1 cup is too much, so 1/2 cup of flax seeds might be about right, depending on your kitchen gadget of choice.
• The flax and water mix will take about 20 minutes to fully thicken up, and it should be like thick egg whites in consistency (but brown in colour). Keep mixing it occasionally as you work on preparing the rest of the ingredients to make sure it’s well mixed and evenly thick.
• You just need to peel and roughly chop the brown onion before putting it in the food processor (i.e. into quarters or eigths). The food processor will take care of the rest, but if you leave them whole, it will be hard to get them chopped evenly.
• You can use just the leaves from the parsley if you like, but it also works if you throw it all in, stalks and all. I’ve done it both ways, and it always works. Using the stalks is especially useful if you’re running a bit low on parsley, because you still get the parsley flavour, and by the time it’s all processed up, no-one will ever know! And you end up wasting less of your ingredients, which is always good.
• I normally use organic raw walnuts to make my sausage rolls, but any walnuts will be fine.
• Make sure you sort through your walnuts before using them, to make sure there are no pieces of shell left. I’ve had this happen a couple of times, and chewed on something extremely hard, so now I pick through every single walnut before putting it in. It’s time consuming, but the last thing I want is for someone to break their tooth on a piece of walnut shell.
• If you’re concerned about phytic acid, you could activate your walnuts before using them, by soaking them overnight (8-16 hours) and then drying them in a dehydrator for 12-24 hours. This will increase the availability of the nutrients in the walnuts, and may also slightly decrease their bitter taste. You could also probably get away with soaking them and then using them wet in the recipe, although I’d suggest increasing the amount of rolled oats, to helps absorb the extra water.
• The oats in this recipe are traditional rolled oats, the kind you’d use to make porridge on the stove, and would take 5-10 minutes to cook and thicken up, and not quick oats. As much as possible I try to use ingredients as close to their original unmodified state as possible.
• The rolled oats give the sausage rolls a great texture, add bulk and help the mixture to thicken up, especially if you can leave the mix in the fridge for an hour or two. Having a slightly stiffer texture for the sausage roll filling makes it easier to roll up the sausage rolls.
• If you’re making your own breadcrumbs, process them in your food processor first, before you add your onion and walnuts and parsley, to save you having to empty your processor in between steps.
• The yeast flakes help to give these vegan sausage rolls a slightly cheesy, definitely savoury taste, so do your best to find some and use them in this recipe.
• If you want to give your sausage roll mix a slightly pink tine, like one of my readers did, just add a few slices of (non-vinegared) beetroot to the food processor with the other ingredients before processing everything.
• You don’t need to over-process your sausage roll mix. If you like it chunky, stop as soon as everything is well combined. But if your kids like texture-free food (like mine), then it won’t hurt to process it until it’s super smooth.
• Leaving the mix in the fridge for a couple of hours makes it easier to shape your rolls, but if you’re in a hurry, you can just go straight from processing to rolling. Your sausage roll mix – and the resultant sausage rolls – will just be a little softer and squishier when handling.
• You may need to roll your pastry loosely to avoid exploding sausage rolls, depending on how your pastry behaves when cooked. I’ve had sausage rolls where the filling spewed out of the ends of the rolls because I didn’t leave enough space for it to expand as the puff pastry puffed into the filling.
• You don’t have to cut your rolls into 4. You can make them as short or as long as you like. Chop them into 5 and make 25% more rolls ;) My kids like calling them “short” and “long” sausage rolls, and I prefer the shorter ones because psychologically it seems like you’re eating more of them!
• If you have leftover mix, you can use it to make ‘sausage shapes’. Just shape it using (simple shaped) cookie cutter as a guide and cook it on a tray alongside the regular sausage rolls. I do find that the flavour of the mix is quite strong if you have too much at once, especially without the pastry to balance out the flavour. I’d suggest eating your vegan “sausages” with rice or potatoes or some other carb to avoid them overpowering the whole meal.
• As I mentioned above, I was lucky enough to come across vegan puff pastry at my local supermarket, that uses vegan margarine and wheat flour. So it’s not gluten free or especially healthy, being so heavily processed. I think I’m going to experiment with healthier pastry recipes at some point.
• You don’t have to make this into “rolls” if you don’t want to. I’m sure it’d be just as great as a filling in other pastry shapes, so feel free to get creative, especially if you’re making them for a party or to impress someone special ;)
• If you have leftover pastry, you can slice it into strips, brush them with milk and sprinkle them with garlic, and then twist them around each other in pairs. Cook at 210°C for 10 mins for ‘garlic twists’.
• These sausage rolls can be cooked straight from fresh or frozen. When I make this, I generally make a double-batch and then freeze them all, because it’s more efficient. But my kids prefer to freeze the mix, and then thaw a small amount to make a small batch more often, and then cook some and freeze the rest. So the mix is pretty forgiving.
• I’ve never tried cooking them and freezing them, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. My kids take them for school lunches by cooking them the night before, refrigerating them overnight and then taking them cold to school. They really are awesome sausage rolls!

Substitutes for sausage roll recipe ingredients

If you find yourself out of a key ingredient for these sausage rolls, here’s some ideas on what you could use instead:

• Olive Oil: I use cold-pressed organic olive oil in my recipes, but you could substitute this with melted coconut oil, or even flax seed oil or walnut oil if you prefer. Just make sure to choose an oil whose flavour works well with the other ingredients.
• Almonds: You could probably make the nut feta recipe with almost any nut, and it would still turn out well. Cashews, macadamias or brazil nuts would be the best to start with, because they have the most neutral flavour. Sunflower seeds, or maybe even hemp seeds would be worth trying too.
• Whole Almonds: You can also substitute almond pulp instead of whole almonds in the almond feta, to save having to waste the leftovers from making your own almond milk. If you only have almond butter on hand, this can make a suitable substitute for the whole almonds.
• Nuts & Seeds: If you want stay away from nuts and seeds in the almond feta, and you’re happy using soy, you could adapt the recipe to make a “tofu feta” cheese instead.
• Walnuts: You could probably make this recipe with pecans instead of walnuts if you want, and I suspect that soaked sunflower seeds would also work quote well, as would almonds, chestnuts or even pine nuts. Something for me to experiment with!
• Flax: If you don’t have any flax seeds handy, you could try substituting them with chia seeds. Ground chia seeds in water create a similar texture to flax meal in water, and will help to bind the sausage roll mixture together. Try using about 2 tbsp chia to 1/4 cup water to create a similarly egg-like consistency.
• Salt: The salt is not absolutely necessary in this recipe, so if you’re trying to eat a low-sodium diet, you can reduce it, swap it for potassium salt or leave it out altogether.
• Braggs / Soy Sauce: The braggs / soy sauce / aminos are mainly for the salty and savoury taste, so if you want to make this recipe soy free, you could probably use 1-2 tsp of salt instead, or perhaps some coconut aminos. You could also use yeast extract, the soak water from sundried tomatoes with a pinch of salt, a stock cube dissolved in water, the brine from a jar of olives, or even some balsamic vinegar with added salt. These all give a salty, umami flavour, in their own unique ways.
• Soy & Salt: If you want to make this recipe both soy-free and salt-free, I suggest leaving out the salt in the feta cheese and the Braggs aminos, and increasing the nutritional yeast flakes from 1 tsp to 4 to 6 tsp, according to taste. Nutritional yeast adds a savoury, cheesy taste that should balance the absence of the other salty ingredients.
• Gluten: If you want to make this vegan sausage roll recipe gluten-free, you’ll need to make sure you use gluten-free rolled oats, and find or make a gluten-free puff pastry.
• Breadcrumbs: The breadcrumbs are totally optional in this recipe, and we stopped using them a long time ago, and have just been using all rolled oats, which reduces the amount of gluten in the sausage roll mix, especially if you can get your hands on gluten-free rolled oats.
• Oats: The oats in this recipe do two main things – add bulk and absorb moisture – so if you don’t want to use the oats, you’ll need to find substitutes that do these two things, like psyllium husk, ground flax, chia seeds, rice bran, quinoa flakes, ground buckwheat , tapicoa or gluten-free breadcrumbs.
• Whole Oats: If you don’t have whole rolled oats on hand, you might be able to substitute them with oat flour. I would use less oat flour than rolled oats, as it’s likely to be more effective at absorbing water. Start with 1 cup or less and just start adding more until the consistency is about right (nice and firm).
• Pastry: Feel free to use any pastry that you prefer with this recipe. The key is to make this recipe with what you can, and as healthy as you can manage, and that will be light years better than the alternative supermarket-bought variety of sausage rolls.
• Almond Milk: The almond milk is used to help the pastry stick to itself more firmly. If you don’t have any handy, you can use any dairy-free milk, or even water.
• Seasme Seeds: The sesame seeds are there to help garnish the vegan sausage rolls and make them look more like the original version. But you can top them off with whatever you like (see below for some ideas).

Vegan sausage roll variations

My kids have had a lot of fun experimenting with variations on these vegan sausage rolls, so hopefully they’ll inspire you to come up with your own creations:

• Cheesy sausage rolls: Add a slice of vegan cheese on top of the sausage roll mix, before rolling it in the puff pastry. Mmmmm, melted cheese.
• Cheese & Vegemite sausage rolls: Before adding your sausage roll mix, spread a thin layer of Vegemite (or equivalent) over the pasty and sprinkle with grated vegan cheese for a classically Australian-tasting vegan sausage roll.
• Herby sausage rolls: Sprinkle your favourite dried herbs on top of the sausage rolls, and create an amazing taste sensation. My kids often used mixed herbs or Italian herbs on top of their sausage rolls. You could also add these to the mix itself for a really herby vegan sausage roll.
• Poppy seed sausage rolls: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Instead of the sesame seeds, use poppy seeds to garnish your sausage rolls.
• Pastry-free sausage rolls: We’ve turned this sausage roll mix into pseudo-burgers, and baked or fried them. We used a cookie cutter to make interesting shapes, or just shaped them into rounds, and then cooked them. Be warned though, the flavour of the mix can be a bit strong just on its own.
• Super long and super short sausage rolls: My kids loving making tiny sausage rolls and especially super-long sausage rolls, so experiment with the length. Seems like a simple enough change, but it can add variety and fun to otherwise ordinary vegan sausage rolls.
• Smoky sausage rolls: You could add some smoked paprika to the sausage roll mix for a slightly spicer, smoky experience.
• Spicy sausage rolls: Try adding some chili powder or even some chili sauce to the mix before making your sausage rolls and blow people away!
• Nut-free sausage rolls: Swap the walnuts for pecans, sunflower seeds or even hemp seeds to make a nut-free version.
• Sweet-potato sausage rolls: Swap the oats for mashed oven-roasted sweet potato and double the flax meal to help bind the mix more firmly. I haven’t tried this myself, but it sounds amazing.
• Curried sausage rolls. Try adding some of your favourite curry powder to the mix to add an “Indian spice” style to your vegan sausage rolls.
• Apple sausage rolls: If you find the standard taste of sausage rolls to strong and savoury, try adding some apple to the food processor with the onions, walnuts and parsley to add a sweet, lighter flavour to your sausage rolls. I haven’t done this one yet, but it sounds like fun.
• Sun-dried tomato sausage rolls: Add in some chopped sun-dried tomatoes to the sausage roll mix. Make sure you use oil-soaked ones, or soak your dried ones in water for a few hours before using.
• Vegetable sausage rolls: Increase the veggie count by adding your favourite vegetable to the sausage roll mix. You could try corn kernels, zucchini, mushrooms, leeks or even beetroot! Just adjust the water balance, especially with the wetter veggies, to make sure your mix doesn’t get too soft to handle.

Have fun experimenting!

Budget for my vegan sausage rolls

Here’s roughly how much my sausage rolls cost me to make:

Keep in mind:

• All prices are in Australian dollars
• Your costs may vary quite a bit depending on whether you buy in small or large quantities, as conventional or organic, which supplier, and the time of year.

Reducing the cost of this recipe

• The ingredients that contribute the most to the cost of this recipe are the walnuts, the puff pastry and the almonds. You can reduce the cost of your walnuts and almonds by buying in bulk, buying cheaper forms (e.g. pieces), using pesticide-free or conventional nuts or by using something cheaper per kilo, like sunflower seeds. To reduce the cost of the puff pastry, your best bet is top shop around for a vegan puff pastry in your local stores, and then buy it in bulk.
• The onion and rolled oats contribute some of the base costs as well, so try to buy in bulk.
• If you’re lucky enough to have a lemon tree (or your neighbour does) then your lemon juice won’t cost you a cent.
• Parsley is one of the easiest herbs to grow, and self-sows like crazy, so find a variety that suits your local conditions, and you’ll never need to pay for it again!
• You can swap the Braggs aminos for regular salt, which will save a little more in costs, and the same for the nutritional yeast.
• You can use any vegetable oil you like, or even leave it out of the feta entirely, which could shave a few more cents off the cost of this recipe.
• You can just use water instead of almond milk for sealing up and “glazing” your sausage rolls.

FAQs about vegan sausage rolls

• Are the breadcrumbs dry or fresh?
• Do I need to remove the almond skins?
• What gluten-free pastry options can I use?
• Can these sausage rolls be frozen?
• Can I freeze these sausage rolls after cooking?
• What dips or sauces go well with vegan sausage rolls?
• Is a vegan sausage roll healthier?
• What are vegan sausage rolls made of?
• What do vegan sausage rolls taste like?

Are the breadcrumbs dry or fresh?

If you decide to use the optional breadcrumbs in this recipe, it doesn’t matter too much whether they are dry or fresh.

Generally, when I use breadcrumbs in my recipes, I take the crusts of many loaves of bread that no-one has eaten and that I’ve stored in the freezer for months. I process the crusts in my food processor into a fine crumb and then use these breadcrumbs in my recipe.

So my homemade breadcrumbs are neither fully dry nor fresh – they’ve been sitting around for a while in the freezer, so they’re quite dried out, but they also still have moisture in them, so they’re not fully dry either.

This means that it’s not super critical whether your breadcrumbs are dry or fresh. It may just mean that you need to adjust the water in your sausage roll mix to suit the moisture content of your breadcrumbs.

If you’re using purchased breadcrumbs, then they are usually very dry, so you’ll want to add a little extra moisture – perhaps in your flax mix – to ensure that the sausage roll mix doesn’t get too dry.

Alternatively, if you want to use fresh bread, then it will have more moisture in it, but that shouldn’t affect your mix too much, and you’ll probably find that you don’t need to reduce your additional water input much, if at all.

If you’re making your own homemade breadcrumbs, the best bread to make these with is generally bread that’s a few days old and has been left out on the bench to dry out and harden up a little.

If you only have fresh bread, then you can dry it out first by slicing it and toasting it, before allowing it to cool. Then you can process it as normal to make fantastic, fresh, homemade breadcrumbs,

Of course, the breadcrumbs in this recipe are totally optional, and these days I just replace them entirely with rolled oats.

Do I need to remove the almond skins?

No, when you’re making the almond feta for this recipe, it’s not necessary that you remove the skins from the almonds.

The almonds are blended up into a paste with water, salt, olive oil and garlic to make a vegan feta substitute, so the skins basically disappear into the mix, and give the almond feta a nice texture.

However if you would prefer to remove the skins from your almonds, then the almond feta will still turn out just fine.

To remove your skins, you’ll need to blanch your almonds in boiling water for about a minute, drain them and rinse them with cool water, and blot them dry. You should be able to remove the almond skins by gently squeezing each almond between your thumb and forefinger, leaving you with the white almond flesh, minus the brown skin.

Peeling your almonds will give you a much whiter almond feta cheese, but does also involve heating your almonds in boiling water, making them more processed and less raw. It may also remove some of the enzymes in the almond skins that can reduce nutrient absorption, but this can also be addressed by pre-soaking your almonds in water for several hours before using them.

But of course, whether you choose to remove your almond skins or not, you’ll find that the almond feta is completely mixed into the sausage roll mix, so that you can’t see how white or brown it is either way, so visually there’s no difference.

Some of my readers have chosen to keep the feta separate, and add it alongside the remaining mixed ingredients, in which case, the appearance of the almond feta with or without skin might become more important.

I leave it up to you!

What gluten-free pastry options can I use?

If you’re looking for some gluten-free pastry ideas for these sausage rolls, here’s some different options for you to consider.

Firstly, you can try making your own gluten-free puff pastry. This generally involves finding the right flour blend that will hold together as a pastry, and using something like coconut oil or vegan margarine in place of the usual butter.

And then the usual process of rolling and folding the pastry over itself in order to create that layered pastry effect.

Here’s some recipes – that are vegan, gluten-free or both – to get you started:

• How To Make Vegan Puff Pastry @ Vegan Baking (not gluten free)
• Gluten and Dairy free Puff Pastry (Vegan,sugar free)
• Step-by-Step Gluten Free Puff Pastry @ Bob’s Red Mill (uses butter, but you should be able to substitute a vegan butter)

You can also buy vegan puff pastry from some health food shops, so it’s definitely worth taking a look at your local store to see what they have to offer. It’s certainly a lot less effort than making your own!

We’ve found that some of these pastry products can be less than fabulous, so be sure to test them out with a small batch of sausage rolls to see if you like it before using it for your entire batch of sausage roll mix.

If you’re not set on the idea of having to use puff-pastry, then there are lots of gluten-free and vegan pastry recipes out there that are more like a shortcrust pastry, often used as a pie crust.

One of my readers used a vegan, gluten-free and paleo pastry made from sunflower seeds, almonds, tapioca starch and psyllium husks, to make these sausage rolls, and they turned out really well.

Many of these recipes use almond flour or gluten-free flour, and often suggest using a pre-made vegan butter. Just try to choose a recipe that uses ingredients that are a bit healthier (ie less processed), to maximise the nutrients you’re getting from it.

Here’s some vegan and gluten-free pie crust recipes to get you started:

• Healthy Vegan Pie Crust (Gluten-free, Oil-free) @ My Quiet Kitchen
• Gluten Free, Vegan Shortcrust Pastry @ FriFran
• Easy Healthy Pie Crust (Vegan/Gluten Free/Oil Free) @ Nora Cooks

You may also be able to find vegan gluten-free shortcrust pastry at your local health food store, so it’s worth a look if you don’t want to make your own.
And finally, one of my readers used filo pastry for her sausage rolls, instead of puff pastry, so this is another option for you.

You can make your own:

• Gluten Free Phyllo Dough (Fillo) and Spanakopita @ Gluten Free on a Shoestring
• Gluten Free Vegan Filo Pastry @ Vegans Have Superpowers

or see if you can buy a ready-made vegan gluten-free version.

Don’t forget that the pastry on these sausage rolls is also optional, and the mix works quite well made into sausages or burgers and cooked that way instead, so you should be able to find a way to enjoy this recipe regardless.

Can these sausage rolls be frozen?

Absolutely, yes! In fact that’s exactly what I do when I make a batch.

There are actually three different points where you might want to freeze this recipe:

1. The sausage roll mix
2. The uncooked sausage rolls
3. The cooked sausage rolls

I prefer to freeze mine as finished, uncooked sausage rolls.

I’m all for being efficient in the kitchen, so I make a double batch of sausage roll mixture (which barely fits in my food processor), and then make all of the mix up into sausage rolls (about 120 to 140 of them).

I put them into big square, flat plastic food storage containers, that I can fit about 20 rolls into, and then chuck them straight into the freezer.

When my kids want to make themselves some sausage rolls, they just grab some out of the freezer, and put them straight onto an oven tray and into the oven, and they turn out beautifully.

On the other hand, my kids prefer to make a batch of mix, and then freeze the filling, so they can make a small batch more often.

The first batch will use fresh mix, and then they’ll put them in the freezer like I do, but the subsequent batches require thawing the mix overnight in the fridge. They then make up the sausage rolls as per normal, and put them back in the freezer.

Yes, this means the mix has been frozen twice and they still turn out perfectly!

Can I freeze these sausage rolls after cooking?

Your final option is to cook the sausage rolls and then freeze them, ready to be thawed (and possibly reheated) for a quick meal another day.

This is the only option I haven’t actually tried myself, but my readers have certainly experimented with it, and it seems to have worked out OK.

But, what my kids often do that’s close to this, is to cook some sausage rolls the night before, and then put them in a container in the fridge, and then take them cold for school lunches, which also works really well, so there’s a good chance that freezing them post-cooking would also be fine.

So basically, yes, you can freeze these sausage rolls, and it works well!

What dips or sauces go well with vegan sausage rolls?

These vegan sausage rolls taste great on their own, and our favourite condiment to have with them is your classic tomato sauce / ketchup.

And because these vegan sausage rolls taste so much like the original meat-filled version of them, you can basically pair them with anything that you’d normally have with sausage rolls.

If you’re looking for some more creative ideas for dips and sauces to pair with your batch of delicious vegan sausage rolls, here’s a list to get you inspired.

• Sweet chili sauce – Try making your own healthier version with fresh chilies, vinegar, coconut sugar and garlic
• Sweet mustard sauce – These often use honey, but you can substitute any liquid sweetener to make it vegan
• Spicy mayonnaise
• Tomato salsa
• Apple sauce
• Beetroot chutney
• Barbecue sauce

The sky really is the limit when it comes to what to pair with your sausage rolls.

Just try to choose a healthy vegan product or ingredient to maximise nutrition and minimise processed foods.

Is a vegan sausage roll healthier?

A vegan sausage roll is not automatically healthier than a meat-based alternative, because the healthiness of dishes comes from the ingredients used to make them.

A plant-based sausage roll may generally be healthier than an animal-based one, because of the absence of inflammatory animal products, but it’s not possible to make a blanket statement about all vegan sausage rolls.

My recipe for vegan sausage rolls is definitely healthier than a regular meat-based sausage roll, because it is:

1. Homemade
2. Plant-based
3. Contains lots of wholefood ingredients

At the same time, my recipe is not the healthiest possible recipe, because it does make use of store-bought puff pastry, which is more processed than I would normally like.

Equally, if you’re looking at a vegan sausage roll recipe that uses lots of highly processed, refined ingredients, like white flour and margarine, then it may not be especially healthy.

If you’re interested in store-bought vegan sausage rolls, then you really need to read the ingredient panel and understand what ingredients they use, and whether you’re happy to eat those ingredients.

So, take a look at the ingredients in your sausage rolls, and ask yourself:

• How plant-based are they?
• How unprocessed are they?
• How few additives do they have?

and the better the answer for each of those questions, the healthier they will generally be.

What are vegan sausage rolls made of?

Vegan sausage rolls can be made from lots of different ingredients, but of course they’re always plant-based.

They might contain things like nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews), seeds (flaxseeds, sesame seeds), grains (oats, breadcrumbs), vegetables (onions, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, celery), legumes (lentils, tofu), herbs & spices (pepper, parsley, mustard, sage, thyme, basil).

Some vegan sausage rolls, like Greggs, use a Quorn-based filling which is a new mycoprotein-based protein. This is a protein derived from fungi, which is not technically a plant or an animal, and may be suitable for your body’s needs.

We have tried Quorn-based products and found them to be enjoyable and very “meat like” in flavour and texture, but also create a mild inflammatory response in our bodies, so we’re using a “wait and see” approach with these foods.

My vegan sausage roll recipe uses onions and walnuts, along with almond feta cheese and rolled oats, to create a hearty, filling and delicious sausage roll substitute.

What do vegan sausage rolls taste like?

Vegan sausage rolls are generally made to taste very similar to their meat-based counterparts. They typically have a strong savoury, meaty flavour, with a good soft but chewy texture.

In fact, when I came up with my sausage roll recipe, I thought they tasted exactly the same as the original thing, only slightly better!

And many of my readers have said that their meat-eating friends can’t tell that my sausage rolls are meat-free, and just love them, which is so awesome to hear.

So if you’re looking to help your meat-eating friends enjoy more plant-based foods, then my sausage roll recipe is a brilliant place to start.

We’ve also tried a number of store-bought vegan sausage rolls, like Linda McCartney’s and Quorn’s, and they all have a very similar meaty, savoury flavour and texture.

Vegan sausage roll resources

I’ve put together some resources to help you make the most of my sausage roll recipe.

Here’s a great article on the nutritional benefits of walnuts:

• 13 Proven Health Benefits of Walnuts @ Healthline

Read more about Borg’s vegan puff pastry:

• Puff Pastry @ Borg’s

Learn about the best ways to store flax seeds and flax meal:

• Flax Meal @ Flax Council of Canada

For tips on growing and harvesting parsley:

• Planting, growing & harvesting parsley @ The Old Farmer’s Almanac
• How to Grow and Harvest Parsley @ Happy DIY Home

Here’s a handy trick to help separate walnuts from shell pieces:

• How to Separate Nut Shells from the Nut Meats @ WikiHow

If you debating whether to pre-soak your nuts, here’s some articles to check out

• Do I Really Have to Soak Almonds? Pros and Cons@ Tatyana Deniz
• That’s Nuts! A Complete Guide to Soaking Nuts and Seeds@ The Radiant Life Blog

And for making your own vegan and gluten-free pastry, here’s some recipes to get you started:

• How To Make Vegan Puff Pastry @ Vegan Baking
• Gluten and Dairy free Puff Pastry (Vegan,sugar free)
• Step-by-Step Gluten Free Puff Pastry @ Bob’s Red Mill(uses butter, but you should be able to substitute a vegan butter)

My inspiration for making this easy vegan sausage rolls

A friend of mine bought a Thermomix a while back and shared a great recipe with me from the Thermomix cookbook for vegetarian sausage rolls, which looked amazing, but still contained dairy products.

So I got my thinking cap on, and adapted the recipe to be fully vegan, and as wholefood as I could manage.

(I think there’s some more I can do though. Time to experiment!)

I was also pretty excited when I discovered vegan puff pastry at my local supermarket, and even though it’s a little more processed that I’d normally like, it’s a compromise I’m willing to make for these amazing vegan sausage rolls that everyone loves, especially my kids.

And that typifies my approach to plant-based healthy eating:

Get as close as you can, but don’t stress about the parts that are too hard right now.

Just keep taking steps in the right direction every day and you’ll get there before you know it!

Have an awesome day!