Will our survey of supermarket meatless sausages reveal hearty but healthy veggie bangers or rubbery tubes mechanically stuffed with joyless compost?
• The best (and worst) vegan cheese, tested
I was vegetarian in the 1980s, so I know how far meat-free sausages have come. In fact, some now taste almost identical to their ultra-processed meaty counterparts. Whether that represents progress depends on your perspective: are we creating healthier, more sustainable alternatives or simply replicating the industrial food system’s problems in plant form?
Veggie sausages split into two main categories. The first are what I call meat analogues, which are usually made with pea protein isolates (plant-based protein) or textured vegetable protein (TVP), a byproduct of the soya bean oil extraction process, and designed to imitate processed sausage meat. The second are made from mashed whole foods, such as chickpeas and vegetables, and are a less processed and more textural veg-love affair.
