Review: Secret Sausages

Secret Sausages vegan sausages

Chilli and Coriander flavour. Vegan sausages with skins! Gluten-free and packed with veg. The idea behind Secret Sausages is that you can get your kids (or kid yourself) to eat veg, if the veg is disguised as sausages. The range includes six varieties, but at the moment only the Chilli and Coriander ones are vegan. You can grill, fry or barbecue them - and we did!



The company sent us two packs of sausages, which gave us an opportunity to cook them in a variety of ways. The recommendation is to fry them, which we did first.


They need a little brush or drizzle with oil before frying, and take about 10 minutes to cook. The sausage skins are made from rice and seaweed, and are the same skins that you get on Dees Sausages. The skins are fairly resilient, but you need to keep the heat low and turn the sausages often.


A barbecue is the kind of fierce heat that most veggie sausages shrink at the sight of. We were surprised how well these responded to our super hot coals. We brushed them with oil again (a silicone brush is THE essential utensil for vegan barbecues). It's easy to get lovely grill marks on the sausage skins.


Speaking of the grill (or the broiler for our US readers), you'll get the crispiest skins with this way of cooking Secret Sausages. Give them just the lightest brush (or spray) with oil, and cook them on a low heat. Give the ends a dip in oil, as the twists of sausage skin do get a little charred.


These are not mock-meat sausages, but vegetable bangers. They've got the flavour of Dragonfly or Goodlife sausages, but with the skins off Dees sausages. They do have some soya in them (sorry soy-dodgers).

The texture is quite dense, from finely chopped rice, veggies and soya protein. The flavour is oniony, with just a hint of the flavours on the pack - coriander and chilli, and little or no chilli heat. The skins are delightfully chewy and crispy - we love vegan sausage skins!

How could they be better?


We like to suggest ways that products could be even better... These are good sausages, but could be better still. The sausages could be just a little bit fatter, because they shrink a bit in cooking. The flavour is also a bit too oniony and would benefit from allowing the other seasonings some room. 

Verdict


These are a fantastic new addition to the arsenal of vegan sausages now at our disposal. They don't quite reach the heights of Dees sausages, but those are meaty style sausages. We're really looking forward to the company making more of the Secret Sausage range suitable for vegans.

The Good: Crispy skins, robust flavour
The Not-so-Good: A little too oniony


Veganoo Score: ★★★★☆
Secret Sausages - Chilli & Coriander flavour


Footnote: Ingredients
Here is the ingredients panel from the pack we reviewed.



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1 comment:

  1. Bought some of these the other day after seeing them reviewed here. Loved them. I'm a McDougaller so the fact these are virtually fat free is a big plus point. I really liked the texture as well, wasn't meaty per se but wasn't as obviously vegetables stuck together as some others I have tried. The one negative is the taste is rather Indian-centric, nothing wrong with that in itself, I like it but they don't go with a Spanish inspired stew for example unless you're aiming for fusion cuisine. I hope the company make some of their other sausages vegan too.

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