Vegetarian friends are coming to stay. I've stocked the freezer with lovely homemade veggie lasagne; veggie chilli and roasted vegs for stuffing fajitas. Not a bad menu and in the summer months this can be supplemented with super quick salads and cheesie sarnies. But in this weather I struggle for the quick warm snack that doesn't involve a burger or a fish finger or chicken pieces....

Enter stage left-
Quorn sausages

Well, okay, I went to the shops and had a good rummage in the freezers and discovered the mysterious world of Quorn:
Quorn sausages are apparently high in protein and low in saturated fat and grill from frozen in 12-14 minutes. 'Sound healthier and quicker than meat sausages.

The quorn website: http://www.quorn.co.uk encourages consumption with the handy fact: Swap 2 pork sausages for delicious Quorn Sausages and save yourself 236 calories. That's the equivalent of a 35 minute jog!
Ingredients:

Mycoprotein (34%), rehydrated free range egg white, water, textured wheat protein (wheat protein, wheat starch), onion, flavouring (with colour: iron oxide), milk proteins, rapeseed oil, tapioca starch, gelling agent: pectin. Mycoprotein, my sleuthing tells me, is the main ingredient in all Quorn products. It's made from a member of the fungi family (like mushrooms and truffles) and is a high-quality meat-free protein that's naturally low in fat, with very few calories. It's high in dietary fibre (important for your digestive system) and has the essential amino acids your body needs, with no cholesterol or trans fats at all. Woopee!

Curiously, though, the cooking instructions on the packet of quorn sausages recommend brushing them with oil before cooking. Surely this will add to the fat content? I guess if you use high quality vegetable oils you are ok but this took me by surprise. I have cooked the sausages without oil and although they cook well enough they don't brown and thus look less attractive and slightly less crispy.

Taste and aesthetics:

The sausages are uniform in structure and are quite dry on the surface. They brown up nicely when brushed and are attractive to look at. When you bite the sausage comes away neatly with an even texture. The interior texture is curious. It is has a slightly fluffy, slightly rubbery feel to it and is quite dry rather than the fatty texture of meat.

The taste is fairly bland and the onion and flavouring are hard to identify. In this respect the sausages are a bit of a non-event. However, this can be an advantage as teemed with some rice and fresh veg the sausage is not overpowering and allows you to taste the veg or accompanying sauce. They allow you to adapt them for your audience ie plainish for the wary child and in a hefty wine and basil sauce for the more adventurous. Quorn do also make Bramley apple, Cumberland and Tomato and basil varieties so the tastier palates are catered for.

Reading back I'm not making these sound too attractive. In truth, they are not regular sausages and if you approach them as a meat sausage lover you are unlikely to enjoy. If, however, you are looking to reduce or eliminate your meat intake and you see these as a product in their own right they are pretty edible and will fill a gap nicely.

**Some questions for the curious:

Where will I find them?
Quorn products are always in the frozen section. You can cook them from frozen and so are handy to have in the back of the freezer.

How much will they set me back?
250g or 6 sausages require you to part with:
£1.97 tesco;
£1.97 Asda;
£1.00 special offer at sainsburys - go get it!

Can anyone eat them?
They contain egg, milk and wheat gluten so take care if you have allergies.

I'm not a veggie so why bother?
Well, they're low in saturated fat and therefore low in cals so can help on your latest healthy lifestyle attempts. The mycoprotein is completely free from cholesterol and studies suggest that it helps maintain and may even lower blood cholesterol levels, helping towards a healthy heart.
Low in salt so good for the blood pressure.

And a final plus:some studies have suggested that mycoprotein may improve levels of satiety -satisfying your appetite for longer on fewer calories.

Got to be a good thing!