Italian Sausage Crumbles - Quick, Easy, Vegan

True story - I fell off the vegetarian wagon over homemade sausage. Yup, visiting friends in Montana more than 20 years ago and they offered homemade, homegrown pork sausage for breakfast and I didn't blink. Forget bacon, sausage and salumi are my downfall.

In my defense, I had been trying to make my own vegetarian sausage for years; I just couldn't stomach faux sausage anymore. And after too many failed attempts, I returned to the real deal. My sisters called me a "Sausa-tarian" to mock me. 

While faux sausage has gotten better - less unpronounceable ingredients - it still is expensive and or includes wheat, which I longer can eat. But Italian sausage is still one of my favorite foods, especially crumbled on pizza. So I created this recipe, and it is a winner!

Quick, easy and even stores well, I try to have it on hand for Friday Night Pizza, and it never lets me down!

Italian Sausage Crumbles
(makes 1 cup)

8 oz firm or super firm tofu
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Italian Sausage spice mix (recipe below)

Italian Sausage Spice Mix
1 tablespoon dried garlic flakes
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon red chili flakes (optional)
2 teaspoons sweet paprika powder
1 heaping tablespoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons dried thyme

Blend all the spices in a spice (coffee) grinder and store in a jar with a tight lid.

Heat a skillet over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. To make the crumbles, drain tofu and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Add oil to the hot pan and add tofu, salt, and spice mix and mash tofu together with the oil and spice mix in the pan until the tofu resembles sausage crumbles, stir frying for 5 minutes until tofu absorbs oil and spices and is dry and crumbled looking. Use immediately or allow to cool on the counter top and store for up to 5 days.

Hugs!