Gluten Pups: Meatless Hotdogs/Sausages

If you are a vegetarian or vegan who isn't a fan of the faux meat available on the shelves but wants to be eating hot dogs from the grill, then this recipe is for you.  It sounds daunting, but it's super easy!  Just takes a little prep work.  I first heard of this recipe from The Vegan Ronin, check out what she has to say about it HERE.  (She found the recipe from Vegan Dad, who I believe found it from someone named Isa?)  I always end up with more than the recipe says it makes, about 8 hot dogs or about 15-20 breakfast links.  And I like to leave the dogs in the steamer for closer to an hour.

I've tried this recipe a few times now and my advice is this: it's crucial that the sausages are wrapped up all snug or you'll end up with seitan lumps that are yummy, but not visually appealing.  And here's how to make sure they're all snuggy:

Take a good handful of dough...

...and make a little log.

Now tuck the tinfoil snuggly around and underneath the dough and roll it up.

Twist the ends of the foil into a tootsie roll shape until it's tightly wrapped and fold the ends up.  Now it's ready for the steamer.

I don't own a steamer and to be honest, my kitchen is so full I'm not interested in getting one.  So I jerry-rigged my own using a frying pan and my lil veggie steamer basket held up by an aluminum pan that I poked full of holes, and I used the lid from my dutch oven.  Ta da!  The only drawback to this design is that I can only fit about four regular sized dogs in it at a time.

One...

Two...

Three!

So now your gluten pups are steamed and ready to eat.  At this stage they can be baked, grilled, or pan fried for extra crispiness but this is a matter of preference.  YuuuuuMEE!