Toad in the hole is one of those iconic English dishes everone’s heard of. Most people have no idea why it it’s called what it is however. Of course the original wouldn’t have been even close to being vegan – but this recipe is fully veganised. It’s also better nutritionally, because it uses over 50% whole meal flour.
My favourite sausages to use are linda McCartney ones – either the rosemary & red onion, or just the regular variety. However, Richmond do a very good sausage too, as well as many other brands. I would however steer well clear of the Quorn ones, because they are pretty tasteless, and have a very cardboardy texture.
Protein wise this is a pretty good dish, because you have plenty of protein in the sausages, and more in the mainly wholewheat batter. Add in some hummus and you’re well sorted on the protein front. I think it would also go well with a few slices of my delicious garlic bread.
One of the problems with Toad in the Hole is arranging the sausages neatly so everyone gets a sausage. Pouring the batter in first and then placing the sausages afterwards is one option. However, I think my cunning trick of placing the sausages first, and then putting some half baby plum tomatoes in between works well too. It stops them moving about as you pour the batter in, and adds a nice but of juiciness!
Toad in the Hole
Equipment
- Deep baking dish - metal - 25cm by 35cm
- electric or hand whisk
Ingredients
- 12 to 14 vegan sausages – any is ok – a variety is good. 14 is fairly close spacing but will still fit baby plums cut in half
- 70 g white self-raising flour
- 110 g wholemeal self-raising flour 55g spelt & 55g wholemeal is great
- 3 flat teasps. Baking powder
- 3 flat teasps. No egg or any other egg replacer
- 2 flat teasps veg stock
- 1 flat teasp smoked paprika
- 1 heaped teasp yeast flakes
- Heaped teasp oregano
- ¼ teasp white pepper
- 1 teasp soy sauce
- 500 g of unsweetened soya milk – possibly more.
- 9 g sea salt
- 150 g halved baby plum tomatoes Half box of
Instructions
- Put the frozen but separated sausages in the large stainless moussaka pan with 30g of oil – roll sausages in the oil to cover them.
- Cook for 10 mins in oven at 200°C.
- While this is happening, whisk the flours together to mix the dry ingredients
- Add the milk and continue whisking. It should be ready just before you finish part cooking the sausages.
- Take sausages out, and turn up oven to 210°C
- Take tray out of oven and place halved tomatoes in between the sausages. This helps keep them apart, and adds a nice juiciness to the risen batter.
- Quickly pour in batter, make sure not to pour over or cover the sausages – it should be near the top of the sausages but not covering them.
- Gently shake to level the mixture if necessary. Reposition any sausages disturbed by pouring, you could sprinkle the top with a little cheese and dust with paprika before you do so.
- Quickly replace in oven and bake for 10 minutes on 210°C
- Turn oven down to 190° and cook for a further 20 minutes or so.
Notes
- if you space the sausages out as shown, you can slip baby plum tomatoes in between which adds a bit of interest.
- The sausages stick to the bottom of the pan - which means they generally stay in the right place as you pour in the batter.
- Mixing the batter in a large jug is better than a bowl as it's easier to pour in-between the sausages.
- It's nice to have a mix of different sausages, Linda McCartney ones are good - they have 3 varieties, Richmond ones are good too.
