A Toad In The Hole Is Worth Two In The Bush. (Linda McCartney Sausages)

Member Name: Emmald

Product:	Linda McCartney Sausages
Date:	04/05/09 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A very tasty offering from Linda McCartney

Disadvantages: None

The late Linda McCartney was nothing short of passionate in her beliefs, Linda herself a long time vegetarian actively encouraged her husband Paul McCartney to embrace and take on her strong beliefs.
Sadly Linda is no longer with us but her range of vegetarian food lives on and only a few weeks ago Paul gave the Vegetarian Society the go ahead to make the most of her recipes in some cooking classes that they are about to introduce.
The Linda McCartney vegetarian food range has undergone yet another revamp on the packaging front, the last major revamp was only just two years ago. I think that the newly designed packaging is contemporary and eye catching. For the most part the recyclable cardboard box is claret coloured and the designers have pictured the sausages looking unbelievably delicious, they sit on a bed of fried onions and herbs.

The box contains 300g or six fat juicy vegetarian sausages. I hold my hands up to being a carnivore but the firm and tasty texture of these are probably far superior to many `meaty` sausages.
For around £1.89 you can buy a pack of Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages in most leading supermarkets.
Anyone with a hearty appetite will be able to tackle three sausages but usually two is ample for me.
Not only is the product suitable for vegetarians it is fine for vegans too. The sausages are free from genetically modified ingredients but they do contain wheat and gluten. They also contain that often necessary evil called Sulphur Dioxide, a preservative that is approved yet monitored by the Foods Standards Agency.

The vast proportion of the sausage is made up of rehydrated textured wheat protein. Textured wheat protein is also known as Seitan, the gluten is extracted from the wheat and then it undergoes a process whereby it takes on the appearance of meat. Among the flavourings are dextrose, onion, salt, yeast extract and the colour Red Iron Oxide. A small quantity of rusk has also been used and a food stabiliser helps to gel the ingredients together.

Nearly all of the meat sausages are encased within a skin but the Linda McCartney variety quite clearly aren't. Each sausage is about the same size as an average meaty Wall's banger but there the similarity stops. The vegetarian sausages have far more colour, even in their raw state.
The Linda McCartney product can be grilled, shallow fried, oven cooked, barbecued or casseroled, but always cooked from frozen. They make a good Toad in the hole too.
Given that they are skinless you may expect the sausage to fall apart during cooking but they stay whole. As you cook the sausages a good spicy aroma rises from the pan, add some onions and that smell becomes irresistible.
As they cook they need to be turned regularly so that they brown evenly and the sausages take approximately 10-12 minutes to cook right through.
I find that the sausages have a closer, slightly rougher texture than the meaty type but in general they have more seasoning and are enjoyably tasty.
My favourite way to enjoy sausages is to serve them with creamed potato, fried onions, fresh vegetables and a thick onion gravy and these have a lot to offer when they are served up like that.


Each sausage contains 101 calories, 11.3g protein, 4.1g carbohydrate of which 1.3g is sugar, 4.4g fat of which 1.8g is saturated fat, 0.8g fibre and 0.9g of salt.
The Linda McCartney products are manufactured in Luton, Bedfordshire.

The Linda McCartney food range can be found in many of the leading supermarkets but both Iceland and Holland and Barrett stock the meat free foods too.
You may be one of those people who would shun the idea of a veggie sausage but I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to turn my back on these tasty offerings.

Summary: These are delicious, make a point of trying them.