These low carb vegan sausage stuffing balls with fennel are based on the classic Italian stuffing flavours and are just packed with flavour. A perfect side dish for your low carb Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
If you want to serve the best gourmet low carb stuffing balls, this is the recipe for you! They can be adapted with pork sausages, but for this recipe we are keeping them keto vegan.
When I took my first bite of these vegan sausage stuffing balls, the taste was so good, that I forgot what I was going to do next! These are firmly on our Christmas menu this year!
Is fennel keto?
The fennel is the star of this recipe but without being too overpowering. Fennel has a distinctive, almost aniseed, taste when raw but when cooked the flavour is milder.
Fennel is a great keto vegetable with 4 grams of net carbs per 100g serving (3.5 ounces). Enjoy it raw, braised or baked.
Vegan Sausage Meat Stuffing
For this vegan stuffing recipe we used Morning Star Sausage Patties. Although they are low carb and vegan, they are not gluten free as they have wheat in them.
Any other vegan sausages will work in this recipe but do not use anything with strong flavours as the seasoning for this stuffing recipe is the star.
How to make vegan sausage stuffing balls
This is an easy low carb stuffing recipe that uses a plant based sausage for the balls. Our other low carb vegetarian stuffing balls use a keto bread mixture but this is a more moist alternative. And an alternative to a meat stuffing ball.
With a mixture of fresh fennel, onion and celery, these are cooked and added to the vegan sausages. Then seasoned, formed into balls and baked. Simply, easy and utterly delicious.
The vegan sausage patties are used defrosted. We did not want to make the stuffing balls too dry by cooking them twice. It also helps to keep the mixture moist when forming into balls without requiring a binder.
Serving and Storage
Serve these as a side dish with a low carb nut roast or any main vegetarian and vegan dish. Add a side of our mushroom gravy too!
These can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake. If you have any leftovers, keep them in an air tight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Leftovers taste delicious cold too. We battled over the last two stuffing balls and devoured them cold.
Recipe Tips
If using frozen vegan sausage patties, defrost them first before making the recipe.
If you can't find fresh fennel, this may work with increasing the fennel seed. Add the seed when cooking the onion and celery, and adjust to your own taste.
Celery is not for everyone and it can be omitted from the recipe.
More low carb vegetarian side dishes
Enjoy a low carb feast on the holidays with a variety of low carb vegetarian and vegan side dishes to your main meal.
Roasted Pumpkin Broccoli with Feta
Cabbage Gratin with Vegan Cheese Sauce
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Vegan Sausage Stuffing Balls with Fennel
Ingredients
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- ½ cup celery finely chopped
- 1 bulb fennel
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 oz vegan sausage patties/meat we used Morning Star sausage patties
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 tablespoon sage, fresh chopped
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- ½ cup parsley, fresh chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- If using frozen vegan sausage patties, defrost them first before making the recipe.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F degrees.
- Prepare the fennel by chopping the top and bottom slices from the bulb. Remove any tough outer parts and finely chop.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan or skillet on a medium heat. Add the onion, celery and fennel and cook for about 10 minutes until soft and golden.
- Add the mixture to a medium mixing bowl.
- Roughly crumble the defrosted vegan sausage meat and add to the bowl, with the herbs and seasoning.
- Mix the ingredients together with clean, damp hands and form into balls. Or you could use a cookie scoop.
- Place the stuffing balls on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25 minutes until firm.
Notes
YOUR OWN NOTES
