Earlier this year, I wrote a post about my love of sausages as a meat eater (link here). I decided to set myself a challenge – henceforth to be called The Quest – to find a viable vegan sausage; one that would fill the void I currently have in my life. Something I could turn to in difficult – and hungover – times, to gain the comfort and succour that only a good sausage can deliver. The Quest will take me far and wide (remotely), as I sample and review as many vegan sausage offerings as I can. I will give my opinions on each individually, and then eventually write a comparison round-up of them all, at which point I will hopefully crown a deserving winner.
And so to our first contender: Morrison’s Ultimate Meat-Free Sausages (part of their ‘The Best’ range). I’ll be honest with this one, I just grabbed these because they were there in the freezer and I thought “I need to try as many sausages as possible for my blog”. I had never considered buying these before, and possibly never would have, were it not for The Quest. So, I didn’t have particularly high hopes…
Tastes like meat?
Maybe due to my low expectations, I was quite surprised by these. The true test of an alternative sausage is how well it holds up to being eaten in a sandwich, with just a splat of sauce to mask any shortcomings. And these make a decent sandwich. The texture is a little softer than real sausages, particularly Lincolnshire style which these are labelled as. And for my taste, I think they need a good bit of seasoning. But, they don’t suffer the curse of ‘Too Much Onion’ which is the main flaw of many veggie sausages.
Easy to cook with?
Yep – just like normal frozen sausages; 10 minutes of shallow frying and they were good to go. Easy to cut when cooked (I prefer to bisect my sausages when building my sandwich) – neither too mushy nor too plastic-y. And what’s more, they really look the part, which is a big deal for me.
Value for money?
Being Morrison’s own, these are slightly cheaper than some of the other vegan brands. I got these for £2, which is a pretty good price on the whole. However, I always find it disappointing when sausages are sold in packs of six. As a bit of a traditionalist, I believe that sausages should always be sold in packs of eight, allowing two big meals of four, or three meals – two threes and a two. So, for that reason these don’t get full marks despite being reasonably priced.
FINAL VERDICT
So, a bit of a surprise for the first review in The Quest. Whilst these aren’t great as sausage substitutes, they are definitely better than I expected, and actually, pretty decent on the whole. Perhaps this is just in comparison to some other disappointing veggie sausages I’ve tried (of which there are a few, and I will come to them in later reviews), but either way, I can see myself buying these again in future as a cheap and cheerful filling for a morning-after sandwich.
