Easy vegan sausage crumbles are so easy to make, incredibly realistic in taste and texture, and much healthier than store-bought vegan "meat". This recipe is also completely oil-free.
These easy vegan sausage crumbles are so versatile and so close to the real thing it’s scary. And, you WILL NOT believe how simple they are to create.
Something this good and easy ought to be illegal. FYI, it’s not illegal.
I realize I already have an Italian crumbles recipe. But, I wanted to make another one that was more like a country sausage. And, yes, it’s amazing!
The flavor, aroma, and even the texture are so realistic no one would ever know it’s vegan. And, not just vegan but healthy.
Sprinkle these savory bits in your pancake batter for one amazing breakfast recipe. Or, toss them into this vegan queso for a truly memorable dip on game day.
Ready? Salivating? Then, let’s do this!
What Is A Vegan Substitute For Sausage?
There are several different options when it comes to making a sausage substitute. The key is texture. The most common are TVP (textured vegetable protein), extra-firm tofu, and tempeh.
They’re firm, meaty, and great for making crumbles that are excellent for tacos, pizza, and salad toppings.
But, if you’re looking for an actual sausage patty and one that doesn’t use soy protein then try my Spicy Vegan Breakfast Sausage Patties. They’re made out of oats and chia seeds. I know it sounds weird but they’re actually pretty amazing.
What Are Meatless Crumbles Made Of?
These meatless crumbles are made using TVP and a variety of spices. Sage and fennel seed are an absolute must for sausage. And, sometimes I’ll toss in a pinch or two of thyme if I’m feeling wild and crazy.
I prefer using TVP because it’s so easy to work with and the texture is spot on when using it as a meat replacement.
Ingredients
You need a very simple set of wet and dry ingredients to make the most realistic and delicious vegan sausage crumbles.
The right combination of herbs and spices creates the most amazing sausage flavor in this recipe.
Wet Ingredients
- Boiling Water: for rehydrating the textured vegetable protein.
- Bragg’s Liquid Aminos: an all-purpose seasoning from soy protein. It adds the “salty” and savory flavor. I prefer the flavor of aminos over low-sodium soy sauce and it eliminates the need for any extra salt.
- Pure Maple Syrup: a touch of sweetness that pairs perfectly with salty.
- Liquid Smoke: I love the smokiness and aroma this adds to the vegan sausage crumbles.
- Blackstrap Molasses: a hint of earthy depth but also helps in adding a darker color that resembles sausage once it’s cooked.
Dry Ingredients
- TVP: I perfer TVP for the meat replacement but you could also used crumbles tofu or tempeh as well.
- Nutritional Yeast: adds a savory nuttiness.
- Garlic Powder and Onion Powder: great for seasoning and brightnes the flavor of recipes that are lower in sodium.
- Ground Sage: sage is the signature essence of sausage. DO NOT leave this out if want realistic flavor.
- Ground Fennel: fennel seed is another necessary herb for sausage.
- Black Pepper and Cayenne Pepper: changes the flavor of food, adding depth and some spice with a little kick.
How To Make Vegan Sausage Crumbles
Easy vegan sausage crumbles are simple and come together in less than 10 minutes including prep time.
- Whisk all of the wet ingredients together in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- While waiting for the wet mixture to boil, add the dry ingredients to a small bowl and mix them together.
- Once the liquid begins to boil lower the heat and add the dry ingredients and stir until all of the ingredients are completely incorporated. Turn off the heat and let the TVP sit for 5-10 minutes until all of the moisture is absorbed.
- Preheat a nonstick skillet or frying pan over medium heat and cook the crumbles for about 5 minutes while occasionally stirring.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve over whole-grain pasta with fat-free marinara sauce.
- Add to this delicious hash brown casserole or vegan fritatta to make some amazing breakfast dishes.
- Use as a topping on your favorite vegan pizza.
- Stir these into this delicious vegan tofu ricotta and make some amazing vegan lasagna rolls or stuffed jumbo shells.
- Spread some of my garlic herb vegan cheese on a piece of toasted whole-wheat beer bread then top with tomatoes and sausage crumbles. Pretty amazing.
Helpful Notes and Tips
- This is a basic sausage crumble recipe. But, you can add other herbs and spices that work incredibly well. Some of my favorites are paprika, basil, oregano, and parsley. It would essentially be like making my vegan Italian sausage crumbles.
- Make this recipe gluten-free by using tamari in place of the liquid aminos.
- If you don’t have a good nonstick skillet simply spread the crumbles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. And, bake in the oven at 350˚F for 10-15 minutes. But, it’s not necessary.
Try These Other “Meaty” Plant-based Recipes
I hope you enjoy this Easy Vegan Sausage Crumbles recipe. Please leave a comment below with a star rating. And, be sure and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #shaneandsimple. I want to see your work. Enjoy!
Easy Vegan Sausage Crumbles
Easy vegan sausage crumbles are so easy to make, incredibly realistic in taste and texture, and much healthier than store-bought vegan "meat". This recipe is also completely oil-free.
- Prep Time: 5 mins.
- Cook Time: 10 mins.
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Vegan Breakfast Recipes
- Cuisine: Vegan
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup Bragg’s Liquid Amino’s (sub with low-sodium soy sauce or tamari)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- ½ teaspoon blackstrap molasses
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup textured vegetable protein (TVP)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground sage
- 1 teaspoon ground fennel
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Whisk all of the wet ingredients together in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- While waiting for the wet mixture to boil, add the dry ingredients to a small bowl and mix them together.
- Once the liquid begins to boil lower the heat and add the dry ingredients and stir until all of the ingredients are completely incorporated. Turn off the heat and let the TVP sit for 5-10 minutes until all of the moisture is absorbed.
- Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook the crumbles for about 5 minutes while occasionally stirring.
Notes
This is a basic sausage crumble recipe. But, you can add other herbs and spices that work incredibly well. Some of my favorites are paprika, basil, oregano, and parsley. It would essentially be like making my vegan Italian sausage crumbles.
Make this recipe gluten-free by using tamari in place of the liquid aminos.
If you don’t have a good nonstick skillet simply spread the crumbles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. And, bake in the oven at 350˚F for 10-15 minutes. But, it’s not necessary.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 31
- Sugar: 1.7 g
- Sodium: 244.5 mg
- Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 3.8 g
- Fiber: 1.4 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Wow! This is soooo good. I’ve been playing with TVP because of the huge protein boost and low fat. It’s amazing stuff. I started looking for recipes to prepare this largely tasteless stuff and found this recipe.
I mixed it up and topped a macaroni and stewed tomato dish. So perfect. And nutritionally excellent and so tasty.
Thanks. Shane. This recipe is brilliant. I’m pinning it for regular use.
This looks great! The yield says 16… does that mean 16 oz? The serving size also isn’t noted in the nutritional info. I’m trying to substitute this in a recipe that calls for a pound of sausage. Should I use this recipe as is, double it, etc?
I’ll check it and thanks for letting me know. You will be fine using this in place of 1 pound.
Wow so good!!! I pulsed the dry ingredients in the food processor to chop the oats a bit then added the wet, pulsed a few times and let it sit, so prefect! The flavor is amazing, texture very pleasing, so easy to make the patties and cooks fast with no sticking at all! I tried making vegan sausage once when we first went WFPB last year and they were not appetizing so I was buying Morning Star. (Lower in fat than most) Hubby said he likes them better than the store bought! Yay!
So easy and just delicious in the gravy for biscuits and gravy! Thank you for using TVP and all of your amazing recipes.
Where’s the Sixth Star! Where is the Blue Ribbon! This vegan sausage crumbles recipe is a rare, for me, occurrence of a faux-carnivore food that actually delivers as much, if not more, than it promises. I have not had sausage in decades and I haven’t missed it after going plant-based but, in a blind comparison taste test, I might very well ID this by mistake as better than my memory of the real thing…just…just…WoW! If you go public, I’m buying shares.
THIS IS SOOOOOOO GOOD! Ohmygoodness, Shane! What a WINNER!
You really NAILED the ingredients and the flavors. It really does check alllll the boxes for “sausage”, and I will be making it again and again!
Thank you!
So yummy! I used tofu for the TVP and it turned out great. Many thanks and many blessings!
All I have is regular molasses. What can I use instead of the blackstrap?
That will totally work.
These were really good and so so easy to make. I cheated a bit and just nuked the wet items and added dry once done. 🙂
The flavors are great and very close to some commercial ones, such as the hard to find and high fat Beyond Meat Breakfast Sausage Patties.
These will be part of the brunch feasts for sure.
Thanks for sharing.
This was amazing! My husband loved sausage biscuits & gravy in his former food life & I was happy to make it for him & he loved it. I was never a fan of it but I absolutely loved this recipe & had to stop myself from nibbling on it while it was cooking. Loved it so much I’m making another batch to bring to work for my breakfast instead of oatmeal.
I am so happy I found your site, you make it easy for those of us who are not kitchen wizards.
Thanks for the sweet potato reubens, corn muffins and all of your positivity.
Happy New Year!
That’s so awesome! Thank you!!!
Shane after reading your Italian sausage crumbles recipe I was pleased to see this one. Both this recipe and the Italian one are what I have been looking for. Whether for pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, dips, or gravy, I know these two recipes are going to be great.
Thanks so much Shane!
Awesome, Frank and thank you for the kind words.
One of my favorites!! So easy to make and it can be added to so many different things. Love your recipes Shane!
I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this stuff. It is absolutely delicious.
I have tried several of your recipes and they are great! That being said, this recipe was too sweet for me. So I added to a large frying pan pan of pinto beans with some Ortega chills and some chili powder, cumin, garlic salt and oregano and it turned into some of the best chili beans I’ve ever had or made. I will make this again. Thank you.
Thanks, Charlene! Always make it fit your taste. You can scale back on the maple syrup if you wish. Blessings.
Great recipe! I made the sausage to top pizza and loved the result. Just the right amount of spice for my somwhat wimpy palate. Thanks!
Awesome!!!
Hi, can this recipe be frozen and then reheated?
Hi, Dee!
These do not freeze well. But, you can keep them in airtight container in the fridge or at room temp. for up to a week. The batch doesn’t make a ton so you should have no problem using them up.
Hope this helps.
peace,
shane
So good! Will definitely be making this again! Thank you!
Hi Shane – I made this tonight and it is very tasty! My non vegan wife could not stop eating it. I’m thinking taco meat for tomorrow night!
Keep the good recipes coming,
Steve G.
That sounds like a plan! Thanks so much, Steve.
Blessings,
shane
Hey Shane – Thanks for the recipe, looking forward to trying it.
I’m new to TVP. Could you make ‘sausage crumble’ and add it to a slow cooker recipe such as a spaghetti sauce? Or will the TVP react poorly to sitting in extra moisture?
I would add the sausage crumbles after the spaghetti has cooked in the slow cooker. But, should hold up well.
Happy New Year, Shane.
Looking forward to trying these. Can I substitute soy curl crumbs for the TVP?
Absolutely!
Easy vegan sausage crumbles are so easy to make, incredibly realistic in taste and texture, and much healthier than store-bought vegan “meat”. This recipe is also completely oil-free.
I am not understanding this recipe. So you are using TVP to make tvp? Isn’t TVP full of other ingredients like Morningstar Farms foods, etc.
Hi, Joyce. The TVP is used to make the sausage crumbles. TVP itself is bland and just dehydrated soy flour. Companies like Morningstar Farms, etc. add everything else.