Toad in the Hole with Rosemary – Vegan and Gluten Free (Vegan MoFo)

Today I am sharing another sausage classic which is perfect for this autumnal weather. Toad in the hole is sausages baked within a yorkshire pudding base, I added some red onions, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms in with the sausages and I added rosemary to the batter to add a little twist.

When done well the yorkshire batter is crispy on the outside but slightly stodgy in the middle without being too heavy. Traditionally yorkshire pudding batter is made out of eggs, flour and milk but my version is completely vegan and gluten free!

I found this recipe quite hard to adapt at first but once I worked out where I was going wrong it turned out to be a very easy dish to put together.

These are the ground rules I followed to make this a perfect toad in the hole –

1. Use self raising flour (gluten free variety of course) and not plain flour. You need it to rise!
2. Use a metal baking tray (I started off with a ceramic baking tray and it didn’t get hot enough)
3. Get your oil super hot before adding the batter to the pan.
4. Do not open your oven whilst this is cooking, don’t poke it, shake it or disturb it.

I also found that the vegan batter came out very pale (almost pure white) and didn’t have that golden glow of a well baked batter so I added some turmeric to it and it looks much more appealing!

I served it with my onion gravy

The name “Toad in the hole” is a much debated mystery, some people say it’s because the sausages look like little toads sticking their heads out (gross), another says it is because in the medieval times people couldn’t afford meat so they would eat toads but to protect them from the heat they would wrap them in batter.

Whatever the origin of this name, there is no denying that this is the epitome of Classic British comfort food!

Serves 2 (can easily be doubled up)

1 Red Onion
4-6 Cherry Tomatoes
4-6 sliced Mushrooms
4 Vegan Sausages (I used Linda McCartney)
Big drizzle Sunflower Oil (do not use olive oil!!)
70g Gluten Free White Self Raising Flour
120ml Dairy Free Milk (I used almond)
2 Eggs worth of Orgran Egg Replacer (follow the directions on the pack)
1/2 tspn Turmeric
1 tblspn Rosemary
Salt and Pepper

Heat your oven to 220c.
Slice your red onion, tomatoes and mushrooms and scatter around the bottom of a metal baking tray. Lay your sausages on top and then drizzle a good glug of oil around the pan.

Put the tray in the oven for 10 minutes to heat up the oil. You need it to be sizzling when you add the batter.

To make the batter, stir together the flour, milk, egg replacer, turmeric and seasoning with a whisk to make sure there are no lumps. It needs to be the consistency of double cream so add a little milk if it’s too thick. Once you have it smooth and silky add the finely chopped rosemary.

Open the oven door and pour the batter around the sausages then place straight back in, close the door and leave it to cook for 25 minutes. It will have gone slightly golden but not dark brown like a non vegan version.

Serve with gravy, veg, mash, mustard or any of the above.

This can be frozen too!