Sausage-Style Walnut Meat
This vegan sausage-style walnut meat recipe is easy to make in your food processor with fresh California walnuts and a few plant-based kitchen staples. The smoky savory flavor is just incredible! Walnut sausage is the perfect no-cook vegetarian topping for pizzas, baked pasta dishes, or vegan breakfast tacos. Thank you to our friends at California Walnuts for sponsoring this post!
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Have you tried walnut meat yet?
We’ve been making it for years, and it’s incredible stuff. I’m not usually a huge fan of walnuts, but the texture and flavor fresh California walnuts take on when ground up with the right spices and herbs is out of this world.
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The walnut meat recipe we’re going to share with you today is a little different from others we’ve seen out there that are usually seasoned to taste like ground beef. If you’re looking for a recipe like that, check out our Spicy Beef-Style Walnut Meat!
Today, we’re talking about Smoky Walnut Sausage!
Ingredients in Walnut Sausage
This sausage-style walnut meat recipe was born out of a random weeknight epiphany. One day, when we were cooking dinner together and noticed our spice cabinet was running a little low, we realized if we could make a beef-style walnut meat, we could totally make a sausage-style one.
And thus, we got to work.
But actually, it didn’t take much work. We just went with the same methods and swapped a few seasonings:
We kept the soy sauce and olive oil and swapped out the beefy spices for more sausage-y spices (very technical terms, I know) like: liquid smoke, Italian seasoning, onion and garlic powder, ground fennel, celery salt, and smoked paprika.
And bing, bang, boom, this easy walnut sausage was born!
How to Make Sausage-Style Walnut Meat
Like I said, this no-cook vegan ground sausage is so easy to make. We especially love making walnut sausage in the summer because you don’t even have to turn on the oven!
All you have to do is soak a cup of California walnuts in cool water for about 20 minutes, drain and rinse them, then throw everything in a food processor, pulse a couple times, and EAT.
How to Use This Walnut-Based Vegan Sausage
We love this smoky plant-based meat on:
ALL. THE. PASTA! Stuff this walnut sausage into meatless lasagna, toss it with penne, or add it to baked ziti! Seriously ALL the pasta.
PIZZA! From a classic sausage and pepper pie to a less traditional pesto pizza, this sausage-style walnut meat is going to be your new favorite pizza topping.
One word: Breakfast. Stuff it in breakfast tacos or use it to top a tofu quiche. Or just throw it right on top of your morning tofu scramble served next to a mountain of roasted potatoes. This plant-based breakfast meat is a total game-changer!
Dips + Appetizers! This sausage-style walnut meat is amazing in or on top of hot dips. We also use it in these cute stuffing balls that are perfect meat-free appetizers for the holidays!
More Walnut Meat Recipes
- Spicy Vegan Walnut Beef
- Chorizo-Style Walnut Meat
- Vegan Walnut Stout Pie
- Can’t get enough walnut meat?! Check out our full Walnut Meat Guide to make your own variations!
If and when you give this walnut meat recipe a try, we’d love to hear what you thought and how you used it!
Leave a comment and rate the recipe below or tag us in your photos on Instagram. If you’re not already hanging out with us over there, we are @theplantpowercouple with the “the”.
ENJOY!
Sausage-Style Walnut Meat
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw California walnuts soaked in cool water for 20 minutes
- 2 Tbsp ssoy sauce use tamari for GF
- 1 Tbsp olive oil omit if you avoid oil
- 1 tsp liquid smoke
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp celery salt
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the walnuts and add them to a food processor with the remainder of the ingredients.
- Pulse the mixture 6-7 times or until the walnuts are well-combined with the spices and they look like the texture of ground meat. Stop to scrape down the sides as needed.
- Enjoy this walnut sausage on pizzas, pasta dishes, tofu scramble, etc.!
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