vegan breakfast sausage

(The picture is blurry because the lens got steamed up)
Yes, vegan breakfast sausage. It's delicious and made of cracked oats and lentils...

It's a recipe from my Aunt Janet and it's actually called goetta (though my sisters and I like to call it "getto"). I LOVE it. My aunt made it at a family reunion many years ago and I have gone in and out of phases where I eat it every day.

I recently was craving it and made a big batch which made me want to share the recipe because I think it's so tasty.

Vegan Goetta (aka vegan breakfast sausage)

1 cup pearled barley

2 cups cracked oats

1 1/2 cups green lentils

1/2 cup diced onion

1/2 cup soy sauce or Bragg's amino acids

2 Tsp salt

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)

2-3 Tbsp crushed fennel seeds (important!)

8 whole bay leaves (important!)

2 cloves crushed garlic

cayenne, red pepper flakes, etc to taste

other herbs like thyme, sage, rosemary, etc.

The directions are simple: boil everything in a large pot with enough water to make a thick "porridge." Taste to make sure grains are tender and cooked through and to adjust the seasonings. I like my goetta with extra fennel seeds. Make sure the mixture is really thick, and then pour into bread pans or a casserole dish of some kind. Cover with plastic and refrigerate to harden.

Cooking directions: cut slices of goetta 1/2" - 3/4" thick and pan fry in butter or oil (or bacon fat) until crispy on both sides. Sometimes it falls apart, which is fine. You can eat it plain or with some kind of sauce. I like to serve it with sauted kale/chard and a poached egg - it's so good!

For some reason, I had never googled what goetta actually is. I now have googled it and: it is a German food made from ground meat and oats that you put into sausages or let harden in a container before slicing and pan frying it. Which is exactly how you make the vegan goetta. I was surprised to learn there was an actual meat based food that this vegan goetta was copying, because the vegan recipe had such strange preparation.

Try it out, it's so satisfying. Cracked oats and lentils flavored like breakfast sausage Mmm, mmm, mmm.

*Goetta is really popular in Cincinnati (which makes sense that my Aunt and Uncle love it because they lived there for a while) - maybe even more popular than it ever was in Germany - and they have an annual goettafest.

*Another goetta fact: the largest commercial goetta producer sells 99% of it's product in Cincinnati.