This vegetarian sausage salad started with….well, the sausage. This salad is my coming to terms with the fact that I can straddle the line between fully from-scratch and pre-made, and it feels good.
I had recently fallen into this weird food-media trap, where I thought that I had to buy only from local/artisanal/farm-grown/niche sources, and that anything that was pre-made or generic would be snubbed by my peers. But that’s when I realized how far that goes against my ethos. Because yes, buy local and according to your values (I know that’s what I do when I go to my farmer’s market), but that doesn’t mean demonize the pre-made ingredients from the grocery store. There is room for both, and both fit a healthy diet.
So this vegetarian sausage salad is my love letter to vegetarian meats, but also farm fresh ingredients. The paprika dressing is just a bonus. Read on to get the full details of this fresh, easy, plant-based salad.
Table of contents
Ingredients for this vegetarian sausage salad
The ingredients for this are summery and simple. Here’s the full list:
- 2 links of vegetarian sausage, I like the Trader Joe’s Italian Sausage-less Sausage, but really any brand will work!
- 1 tbsp neutral cooking oil
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 2 ears corn, shucked
- 1 small handful of mint
- 1 small handful of basil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 3/4 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt, 1/2 tsp if using Morton’s
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- A few cracks of black pepper
How to prepare the (vegetarian) sausage
Preparing vegetarian sausage is much lower stakes than normal sausage – you can eat it right out of the fridge if you want to! But to err on the side of more delicious, I recommend doing a quick pan-fry. Cut the sausage into medallions, heat up a bit of oil in a skillet and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until the sausage is slightly crisp on the edges. Vegetarian and delicious.
How to prepare this vegetarian salad
After prepping the sausage, the rest of the assembly is easy.
Chop the cherry tomatoes into halves and slice off the corn kernels from the cob.
Tear off the mint leaves from the stem, do the same with the basil. Rub them between your palms to activate the aromas.
In a large bowl, grate in the garlic cloves with a microplane. Add the paprika, coriander, red pepper flakes and salt. Drizzle in the red wine vinegar and the olive oil. Mix to combine.
Add the tomatoes and corn to the large bowl. Toss with clean hands to coat everything in the dressing. Then add in the herbs and sausage and toss again a few times. You don’t want to toss the herbs too much or else they will get a little beat up and won’t be as vibrant. Taste and adjust with more salt, vinegar and oil as needed.
Pour into two bowls, top with a few cracks of black pepper and serve!
Looking for other plant-based recipes?
Here are a few of my recent favorites!
And that’s it for this vegetarian salad recipe!
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you.
Vegetarian Sausage Salad with Paprika Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 links of vegetarian sausage I like the Trader Joe's Italian Sausage-less Sausage, but really any will work!
- 1 tbsp neutral cooking oil
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 2 ears corn shucked
- 1 small handful of mint
- 1 small handful of basil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 3/4 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt 1/2 tsp if using Morton's
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- A few cracks of black pepper
Instructions
- Chop up the sausage into medallions Put a pan on medium heat and add in the cooking oil. When the oil has heated up, add in the sausage. Let it sizzle for about 1 minute on each side or until frizzled and crisped on the edges. Set these aside.
- Chop the cherry tomatoes into halves and slice off the corn kernels from the cob.
- Tear off the mint leaves from the stem, do the same with the basil. Rub them between your palms to activate the aromas.
- In a large bowl, grate in the garlic cloves with a microplane. Add the paprika, coriander, red pepper flakes and salt. Drizzle in the red wine vinegar and the olive oil. Mix to combine.
- Add the tomatoes and corn to the large bowl. Toss with clean hands to coat everything in the dressing. Then add in the herbs and sausage and toss again a few times. You don't want to toss the herbs too much or else they will get a little beat up and won't be as vibrant. Taste and adjust with more salt, vinegar and oil as needed.
- Pour into two bowls, top with a few cracks of black pepper and serve!
Made this last night as I had an abundance of tomatoes and corn (’tis the season). It was a hit with myself and two friends. I ended up doubling the recipe to account for three of us eating and added in some Israeli couscous for additional filling. The paprika in the dressing added a really nice smokiness to the flavors. I probably could have kept the dressing ingredients as the original amounts since we each added the dressing to our individual preference, so there is more leftover than expected. But I’ll just toss it with another salad. Overall, a really nice, light, summery salad that I will definitely make again!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you for taking the time to leave a thoughtful review and comment, I really appreciate it, and I’m glad you liked the recipe!
Made this for my vegetarian dad and we both loved it!!! Such a refreshing and fun flavor, perfect for summer. Very filling and balanced. Thanks so much for this great recipe !! :))
I’m so thrilled you made it! I’m glad you enjoyed and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment xoxo
I meal prepped this alongside another recipe (the salmon and tomato tabbouleh on this blog which was also absolutely incredible by the way). It’s a really quick meal anyway but I’m very short on time during weeknight evenings so I tend to have to take a prepped dinner with me – first off, this holds up amazingly meal-prepped (I kept the herbs and sausage separate to everything else so I could toss together when I wanted to eat & wouldn’t get soggy). Absolutely phenomenal. I’d never had raw corn until this point (not actually sure why) but the texture was amazing. Using vegetarian sausage in this way was new to me (first thought was ‘eek! processed food in a salad’ which is why I knew I had to give it a go, because those thoughts are not welcome around here). In short I almost cried because it was so good and I’ll be making it again. 100% recommend. 100% converted to raw corn and sausage in salads.
I ate this straight out of the bowl standing over the kitchen counter *chefs kiss*
The next day I tossed it with some leftover rotini and it makes a BOMB pasta salad.
omg the pasta salad idea sounds AMAZING – I’m so glad you made this and liked it!