Vegan Longganisa Filipino Sausage

The Filipino breakfast is usually graced by the presence of a cylindrical shaped sausage made of usually ground pork, pork fat, sugar, garlic and other spices.  It is called longganisa.  This vegan version of this popular breakfast Filipino sausage was adapted from the awesome blog Astig Vegan written by the brilliant and creative RG Enriquez. I tweaked Ms. Enriquez's recipe by substituting some of the ingredients with what I have or preferred to use.  I substituted the tofu called for in the recipe with a combination of walnuts with cauliflower which I have used previously in the past in this blog as a meat substitute, see here. For extra oomph, I substituted the chili oil or sesame oil in the list in the Astig Vegan recipe with chili garlic sauce from a bottle. I also dropped the porcini mushroom but kept the shiitake mushroom in my tweaked recipe.  I did not add the pine nuts since it is taken cared of by the cauliflower and walnut meat mixture.  Since I did not have liquid smoke I used instead smoked paprika.

The sausage is easy to prepare and involves only the mixing of all the ingredients in a food processor or blender.  The original pork longganisa are traditionally encased in a casing which is not done with this vegan version.  To keep the cylindrical shape of the vegan sausage, bread crumbs in my case panko crumbs are used.

I experimented with three methods of cooking the longganisa, namely pan frying with coconut oil, baking and microwaving. Every single method is comparable to each other in giving you the satisfaction of eating the original longganisa usually made from pork or chicken. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. If you are in a hurry you can use the microwave method.  If you do not mind the oil added, you can pan fry.  If you have time and want to skip the oil you can bake.  The most moist sausage results from the pan fry method. If you use coconut oil you have that added flavor.  The sausage had a hard time keeping its shape when pan fried.  It might be because I used less oil, one tbsp, rather than three that must have been needed.  The best shaped sausage comes from the baking method which also gives a crispy coating.  One has to be careful not to over bake or the longganisa will get dry and taste burnt. The microwave method cooks the sausage best with its shape intact. It does not have the crispy coating though.  One can combine the microwave and pan frying methods by initially microwaving the sausage and then pan fry it in coconut oil to crisp the outside.

pan frying in coconut oil

baking in a toaster oven

microwaving

When I was tasting the mixture I could not help eating the uncooked sausage since it was that good.  I would suggest microwaving a bit of the prepared sausage and then adjust the sweetness or spiciness or saltiness of the sausage. Cooking sometimes tend to lessen the sweetness or spiciness of the sausage. I decided not to go overboard with any spices in preparing the sausage in order to please most of my family and vegan friends. Next time, however I would add more than 3 cloves of garlic.  I want mine more garlicky.

This is a flexible recipe that you can make your own.  You can go with tofu like Astig Vegan or with the cauliflower walnut meat.  One thing sure, as a vegan or even non vegan, Filipino or non Filipino you will fall in love with the well loved longganisa. Now you have a healthier version to top it all.

I dedicate this recipe to my new found friend Ivy (Vivian) the daughter of my former office mate in the Philippines, the late beloved Mrs K. Ivy requested that I develop this recipe since she plans to go vegan.

Vegan Longganisa Filipino Sausage

Inspired by the recipe in Astig Vegan

• 1/2 cup walnut
• 1/4 of one cauliflower head, cut roughly
• 1 oz dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in a warm water for around 20 minutes, then drained
• 1/4 cup coconut brown sugar or brown sugar
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp balsamic or coconut vinegar
• 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce from a bottle
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• maple syrup to taste
• 1 cup Panko crumbs or vegan bread crumbs
• 3 tbsp coconut oil if frying

Mix all the ingredients except the last two in a food processor or blender until they are well mixed.

Transfer the mixture in a bowl and add the breadcrumbs and mix.

Score the mixture into 8 or more sections and shape each section into a cylinder or pattie.

If frying, heat the coconut oil in a cast iron skillet and fry the sausage till heated through and browned on the outside.

If microwaving, shape the cylinder into smaller sizes and microwave a few at a time for one minute depending on the wattage of your microwave.  This is a good method if you have frozen your shaped uncooked sausage.

If baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees centigrade and bake for 15 minutes, flipping halfway through. Check for doneness half way through.  

The original pork longganisa is usually eaten with eggs and fried garlicky rice.  This combination is called for short Longsilog in the Philippines.  I ate mine with fresh cucumber and tomatoes and fresh leaf spinach. Later I ate it with plain cooked white rice with pickled cucumber and grape tomatoes.