Pan-Fried Italian Vegan Sausage with White Beans and Walnuts
Sep 25, 2025 by Hannah Sunderani
Say hello to these scrumptious vegan sausages! Made with white beans and walnuts, it’s a delicious vegan and gluten-free sausage recipe that’s pleasantly chewy and loaded with Italian herbs and flavour. All-in-all these sausages are a great meat alternative for plant-based and vegetarian eaters.
The recipe uses simple ingredients that you likely have in your pantry, making them my preferred plant-based choice over store-bought versions (often made with ingredients I cannot pronounce).
So, let me tell you exactly how to make them so you can enjoy them pronto!
Why You’ll Love My Recipe
In my 10+ years of plant-based cooking, I’m always making up hearty meat alternatives to my favourite childhood dishes. Take my plant-based ground for tacos for example or my nut roast, two classic meat-alternative dishes that we have on repeat!
These sausages remind me of the ones we used to enjoy every Sunday morning for breakfast during my childhood, they’re pleasantly chewy, and have tons of flavour from Italian spices to sun dried tomatoes, smoked paprika and fennel.
The recipe is simply prepped together using simple at-home staples and it’s quickly fried up in a pan when you’re ready to eat, and they hold their shape really well!
Hannah xx
These vegan sausages are….
- Chewy and delightful
- Made with simple pantry ingredients
- A delicious gluten-free meat alternative
- Cooked in a skillet on the stove top
- Loaded with flavour
- Easy to freeze and meal prep
Ingredient Notes
- Flax Eggs – A great vegan alternative to traditional eggs are to use flax eggs. I have a whole blog post on how to make chia eggs and how to use them in cooking and baking. This recipe uses 3 flax eggs. If you don’t have any flaxseeds you can also use chia seeds to make chia eggs. I recipe tested these vegan sausages with both and they both work great in this recipe!
- Cannellini Beans – The base of this vegan recipe as opposed to ground pork or beef. Cannellini beans mash really nicely for this recipe and offer a beautiful creamy texture. I recipe tested this with black beans but they were too overpowering in flavour, and chickpeas were not the right texture.
- Walnuts -Another great alternative to meat in plant-based dishes. Ground walnuts are also often used as a binder in plant-based meat alternatives (see my vegan wellington for example). They offer a beautiful nutty flavour to the dish.
- Oats – Rolled oats are also used in this recipe for binding the sausage and keeping its shape.
How to Make Italian Vegan Sausages
I hope you love these vegan sausages as much as I do! If you do make this recipe, please let me know in the comments below what you think and check out The Two Spoons App for more wholesome vegan recipes like this! I truly love hearing from you, and I’m always here to answer any questions you might have.
And of course, tag me on Instagram with your pictures using the hashtag #twospoons. Nothing makes me happier than to see your recreations.
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Pan-Fried Italian Vegan Sausage with White Beans and Walnuts
Ingredients
- 3 flax eggs
- 1.5 cups cooked cannellini bean rinsed + drained
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp to fry
- 2 shallots finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes finely chopped
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 2/3 cup walnuts
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tbsp parsley finely chopped
- 1.5 tbsp tamari
- 1.5 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1.5 tsp fennel seeds
- 1.5 tsp smoked paprika
- 3/4 tsp sea salt , finely ground
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
- 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a small bowl, prepare the flax eggs by mixing 3 tbsp ground flax meal with 9 tbsp of water (3 flax eggs) and set aside.
- Drain and rinse the white beans and lay on a kitchen towel. Dry really well.
- Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Sauté the chopped shallots until soft, about 4 minutes. Toss in the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, and cook for 1 minute. Set aside.
- In a food processor (or blender), add the oats and walnuts. Pulse until coarse in texture.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the food processor: white beans, cooked shallot mixture, nutritional yeast, tomato puree, parsley, tamari, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Pulse again a few times to slightly combine. Don't over-process so they don’t become mushy. Transfer the mix to the freezer to chill, 40 minutes.
- When chilled, remove from the freezer and form the sausage mixture into 8 long sausage shapes with your hands. It helps to put a bit of olive oil on your hands to help shape them. (I shaped them into sausages with my hands and then rolled them on a cutting board).
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and bring to medium heat, cook the sausage until golden, about 2 minutes per side for a total of 7 minutes. Serve hot with your favourite sides like baked beans, sautéed spinach and roasted tomatoes!
Notes
Approvals
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