I've been pescetarian for 20+ years now, but every year about this time, I start craving a childhood comfort food: sausage, green beans and potatoes in the crock pot.
I've managed to create a reasonable facsimile using just green beans and potatoes and Penzey's Chicago Steak Seasoning. I think it's mostly about the smoke, though, because I sometimes even end up adding a little extra smoke flavoring.
With all the new plant-based options available these days, I've been hoping for something like the old-school smoky links, and yesterday I spotted Field Roast Smoked Frankfurters. Have any of you tried those? Are they any good?
And now looking at the Field Roast site, I see they also have Smoked Apple and Sage Sausages. What's the verdict on those? https://fieldroast.com/products/#sausages
Are there any others I should be on the lookout for?
by echos2
8 Comments
Those tiny sausages are AMAZING! I usually can only find them in Target or Publix. My meat eating husband loves them too
I’ve had the apple and sage, and also the Italian ones and both were good. I had no complaints at all.
We love the Field Roast Apple and Sage for almost exactly what you’re describing. We do potatoes and onions, those sausages, a bit of saur kraut and spicy brown mustard. Yum.
There are also Field Roast Classic Smoked plant based ‘hot dogs’, not sure if they may be more what you’re looking for.
https://fieldroast.com/product/frankfurters/
I just made jambalaya with the field roast apple sausages, and I had some regrets about that choice. It actually tasted pretty good in the end, but while it cooked, the apple sage aroma was quite strong and overpowered the other aromatics. Also, they mostly fell apart while the rice cooked, so if you’re going to throw them in a crock pot with liquid, I would probably brown them separately and add them near the end of cooking.
I can’t speak to the flavor of the smoky frankfurters, but I suspect they would have the same integrity issues if you left them simmering in liquid for more than 30 min.
I just made the apple & sage with sauerkraut for New Year’s Day (others were eating pork) … It was awesome, did the same thing last year.
might be simplest just to add liquid smoke if you’re specifically missing it. But I’ve found good luck with other umami flavors as a substitute: dehydrated mushroom powder, nutritional yeast, msg, seaweed, fermented/pickled foods, vegemite, etc.
Field Roast can be almost *too* real but they are definitely good
For your recipe look for the field roast breakfast sausages and just add a touch more liquid smoke definitely don’t cook them forever though. They’re small and keep a snappy exterior if you pan fry and slice then add to your dish towards the end
Creepy to me tbh but my omni fam was really into them