Cauldron Vegan Sausages

I've bought Cauldron falafel for a nmber of years now and fully recommend them - they're delicious in a wrap with hummus and help make any salad more exciting. It's great to see the brand going into frozen veggie options as well with the launch of vegan burgers and vegan sausages.

I've never liked meat sausages so always have had veggie sausages which I find more interesting, healthier and tastier. These are made simply from a mix of grilled vegetables like red and yellow peppers, courgettes, onions and haricot beans with some bulking and spices including rosemary, paprika and basil and tomato pesto.

You get six in a pack and they are quite small.Two was enough for me but at only 160 calories, you could easily have three. They're pretty guilt free and as they're plant based, you're getting the goodness of vegetables as well as a product that is high in fibre and protein as well as low in saturated fat.

I made a classic 'sausage' sandwich with them but I've also had them just with potatoes and veg ans they're delicious by themselves. They won't feel anyone that they're not meat. They're softer than meat sausages with no hint of meaty taste unlike products like Quorn. Instead these are properly veggie with lots of soft veggie taste that is made delicious by smoky paprika and the tang of pesto. They're rich, tomatoey and a little bit spicy with the odd bit of bite from the haricot beans.

I really enjoyed them and these will be a staple in my freezer now. I'll probably end up trying the vegan burgers too.

Price: £2.25
Bought at: Sainsburys
Nutrition per 2 sausages: 146 calories, 4.2g fat, 0.2g sat fat, 4.1g sugars, 8.1g fibre, 8.6g protein

Quorn Chef's Selection Best of British Sausages Review

I do eat a lot of vegetarian meals but I don’t buy Quorn. I will tend to either go for making something that isn’t trying to replace or be a fake meat like a veg curry or pasta dish or if I do have a veg burger or sausage it’s one that is made only from vegetables rather than a soy based fake product. Quorn are obviously the big brand in vegetarian meals but for me they’ve always felt slightly artificial and I’m not fully convinced by the health credentials. Surely if you want vegetarian it’s better to base your meal around real, natural, wholesome veg rather than a lab type list of ingredients?

However, they are obviously popular and you can’t argue with their lower fat content and high protein messaging and I can see how this might be slightly healthier than eating real susages all the time – not that red meat is out of the question – all things in moderation and all that.

Whilst I wouldn’t pay the full £2.50 for these at a £1 I was willing to give the pack of 4 ‘sausages’ a go. Now usually I would have 2 sausages but as they contain a whopping 1.1g salt each, I didn’t fancy having over a third of my salt for the day from 2 sausages so only had the one. It felt slightly strange to pick up, a lot heavier and  more brick like than a real sausage. As per instructions I brushed it with oil and grilled for 12 minutes. 

It smelt fairly meaty I suppose and I think it could kind of pass for a real sausage but not a high quality, high meat content, less processed sausage. It actually tasted a bit like those cheap smoked frankfurter type things you get and also scarily similar to the canned sausages you get with beans. So whilst authentic, it tastes of a cheap sausage rather than a pure, real meaty one. That’s not to say it wasn’t quite nice, it had the comforting slightly fake taste of frankfurters and felt a bit dirty in a guilty pleasure kind of way. It's soft and meatyish inside with a slight crisp outer coating.

I enjoyed it and would maybe pick these up again in the future but still need convincing that these are actually healthy. If I was going to swap a real sausage for something, I’d rather have something like the M&S butternut sausages or something made purely from vegetables

Bought at: Sainsburys on a £1 promo 

Nutrition per sausage: 111 calories, 5.7g fat, 1.2g sat fat, 0.6g sugars, 1.1g salt

Score: 6.5/10

Marks and Spencer Butternut and Smoked Paprika Sausages Review

The sun's finally here and my entire eating pattern has shifted. Most of my desire to cook has vanished and I just want lots of cold picky bits, deli items and salad. Of course I'll make an exception for the odd bit of grilled summer fare and anything for the barbecue is always a good summery dinner choice. I was browsing the M+S BBQ range, the Grill, and whilst there were loads of tempting looking offering that promised bags of vibrant flavour with exotic twits, it was actually the veggie sausages that won out.

I have to say on the whole M+S isn't great for veggie options. They have a lot of good veggie ready meals and the veggie percy pigs and colin the caterpillars are legendary but there are much better stores for meat alternatives. However, these butternut and paprika sausages were completely different to anything else I've seen and they looked pretty exciting and innovative.

Made of butternut squash, green lentils and soy protein, the sausages also contain brown rice, cheddar cheese, smoked paprikia and parsley for a really unusual combo. I tried both pan frying and grilling them and both times as they cooked the aroma coming out was incredible. Really complex with hints of savoury onion, deep smoky paprika and a really savoury smell that was totally alluring.

Texture wise they wouldn't fool anyone they weren't made of meat. They're much softer and quite easy to mush up if you want to. This actually worked out quite well for me as I had them in a seeded panini with some homemade caramelised onions and a bit of the Tesco avocado spread.

The colour is so warming and golden and the smell so inviting, I couldn't wait to dive in. And oh how they delivered. This is probably the nicest lunch I've had in a long time. The flavour of these veggie sausages is just heavenly. It's super complex and you can't really identify butternut squash or lentils , Instead it just has the most moreish slightly sweet but deeply savoury taste. It's the perfect level of saltiness and the spices are immense. The paprkia is rich, deep and smoky and the whole thing just sings with vibrancy.

Don't get me wrong these wouldn't convert a die hard carnivore but for veggies or anyone open to a meat free option now and again, they are amazing. With their wonderful rich, spicy flavour, I would happily buy these again.

Bought at: M&S
Nutrition per 2 sausages: 115 calories, 2.8g fat, 0.5g sat fat, 2.2g sugars, 1.23g salt

Score: 9.5/10