Vegan Sausage Casserole with Beans

A Vegan or Vegetarian Sausage Casserole is hearty, filling and makes great comfort food. This version combines vegetables and beans in a rich tomato sauce with some herbs and a little red wine. It's easy to do and makes a great one pot dish, perfect for the colder months. You might also like these other sausage recipes where you can use vegetarian or vegan sausages Sausage Tray Bake or Easy Sausage Pasta Bake

Jump to:

• Best Vegetarian and Vegan Sausages
• Nutritional Value of Veggie Sausages
• Recipe Tips and Variations
• How to make a Vegan Sausage Casserole
• Serving Suggestions
• Sustainability
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe

Best Vegetarian and Vegan Sausages

There are vegetarian and vegan sausages. Vegetarian ones might for example contain some egg white. However, some sausages that are labelled as vegetarian, such as Linda McCartney's, are also suitable for vegans! In the list below, you will see that Cauldron and Quorn vegetarian sausages are not suitable for vegans.

There is a broad range of vegetarian and vegan sausages available and you might need to try a few different brands and varieties before you find one you like. They vary widely in taste, texture and nutritional value. Below, you can find a list of the most popular ones.

Nutritional Value of Veggie Sausages

As vegetarian and vegan sausages vary so much in nutritional value, I've put together this comparison table. All values shown are per 100g and are taken from the websites of the various stores so are correct as of Oct 2021. They are in no particular order.

Name	Vegan	Calories	Fat g	Sugar g	Salt g	Protein g
Cauldron	No	182	9.8	1.3	1.3	16.1
Linda McCartneys	Yes	153	6.2	0.7	1.4	18.6
Quorn	No	198	11.1	1.5	1.2	11.2
Richmond	Yes	145	5.4	0.7	1.8	8.8
Heck MF Chipolatas	Yes	192	9.9	1.2	1.6	11
Sainsburys Shroomdogs	Yes	145	4.6	1.9	1.14	7.6
Tesco Taste & Glory	Yes	155	5.6	0.1	1.3	10
Meatless Farm	Yes	211	14.5	0.6	1.54	13.1
Aldi Plant Menu	Yes	133	4.3	1.4	1.2	18
Co-op GRO Sizzlin'	Yes	135	4.2	1.7	1	6.3
Tesco Plant Chef Cumberland	Yes	228	12.3	1.8	1.6	9.3
Waitrose Mushroom & Leek	Yes	111	2.4	1.8	1.02	6.8

Recipe Tips and Variations

• Sausages, choose whatever variety you like and see the information above to help you.
• Vegetables, I've used onions and peppers but a sausage casserole will work well with root vegetables such as carrots, butternut squash, parsnips, swede or sweet potato. Chop root vegetables into bite sized chunks and make sure they are soft before serving. Adding root vegetables is a great way to make this casserole go further. Make sure you have enough liquid to almost cover the vegetables. Adding more tinned tomatoes will give the sauce a thicker consistency. Adding more stock will make it runnier. You can stir in a tablespoon of plain flour to thicken the sauce if you need to.
• Beans. I've used canned baked beans in a tomato sauce as baked beans are such a natural combination with sausages. I use the ones with no added extra sugar to keep this dish slightly healthier. You could also use other beans such as cannelloni or butter beans. If you add beans without the juice of a tomato sauce, you will need to add more tinned tomatoes.
• Herbs. Thyme is a good combination with sausages but you could also use sage or oregano or fresh parsley. If your sausages are already flavoured with herbs it might be a good idea to stick to the same ones, depending on how strong the taste is. Bay leaves add flavour to the dish but remove them before serving as they can be tough.
• Worcestershire sauce. This adds great depth of flavour. The original version of the sauce contains anchovies or fish sauce so is not suitable for vegans. However, you can buy a vegan verion.
• Red wine. Again adding red wine really helps add to the flavour, but you could leave this out if you prefer.

How to make a Vegan Sausage Casserole

Gather together your ingredients. The vegan or vegetarian sausages can be used from frozen.

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1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C /350F /Gas Mark 4. Add the oil to an oven proof casserole dish and heat over a medium heat. Add the onions and peppers and fry for 5 minutes
2. Stir in the thyme leaves for 1 minute
3. Add the sausages (you can add them frozen), the baked beans and tinned tomatoes
4. Stir the red wine and worcestershire sauce into the hot vegetable stock and add to the casserole. Season with salt and pepper and add 2 - 3 bay leaves.
5. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Alternatively keep it on a low simmer on the hob or stove top, stirring occassionally so it doesn't stick.

Serving Suggestions

I like to serve this vegetarian sausage casserole with creamy mashed potato but it also goes well with jacket or baked potato or some fresh crusty bread. As a side, something green such as cabbage, kale, broccoli or garden peas.

Sustainability

As part of efforts to tackle climate change, we are all being encouraged to eat less meat and dairy. Research by Oxford University found that if every family in the UK swapped red meat for a plant based meal just once a week, the reduction in CO2 emissions would be the equivalent to taking 44% or 16 million of the UK cars off the road. Eating more vegetarian and vegan meals is easier than you think and you'll find lots of inspiration on my recipe page.

Eating in season and shopping locally are other easy ways to reduce our carbon footprints.

Storage

You can store this casserole in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. It's often not recommended to freeze vegetarian or vegan sausages once cooked as this can change their texture.

📖 Recipe