Italian "sausage" sandwiches

So good!

Imagine an Italian version of a Philly cheese steak, with italian sausage, peppers, onions, and marinara sauce... ok, maybe more of an Americanized Italianized Philly cheese steak. Anyway, doesn't that sound good? I thought so, too, so I decided to make some seitan sausages and mix them with onions and peppers to try it out. It was great! The sausages turned out really well, and since I love marinara sauce, the sauce-topped sandwich was fantastic. I know some seitan-skeptics, but this one is flavorful and comes out tasting great when thinly-sliced and sautéed with peppers and onions. Alternatively, you could buy Tofurkey's vegan sausages, or another type, and save yourself some time. Recipe follows, for the sausages and sandwich assembly.

Sausages:

1 c vital wheat gluten

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 c nutritional yeast

3-4 sun dried tomato pieces, soaked and chopped into small strips (in food processor or with a knife)

1 c vegetable broth (or water, but you should add salt, spices, or miso to make it more flavorful)

1 tbs olive oil

2 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp liquid smoke

5-6 c water

Bring the 5-6 cups of water to boil in a large pot. While it is heating up, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the tomatoes and mix together. Add the water, olive oil, soy sauce, and liquid smoke, and mix everything with a fork until you get a very squishy, elastic dough consistency. The tomatoes might not want to stick to the dough; mine didn't either -- try your best, and some might get left out in the process, but as long as there are a few pieces in each sausage it's fine. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and roll each part into a rough cylindrical shape. These are your 'sausages' -- wrap each cylinder tightly with foil and twist the ends. (Here is a good guide to rolling and cooking seitan sausage, as well as another seitan recipe!)  Place the foil-covered sausages in the water and boil for 45 minutes - 1 hour. Check one sausage and make sure its texture is firm and sliceable -- once they are firm, remove them from the water (carefully), and let them cool a bit.

Onions, peppers, and sausage mix:

3-4 seitan sausages, sliced lengthwise
1 yellow onion, chopped into long narrow pieces
1 large green pepper, chopped lengthwise
oil for cooking
oregano, rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, salt, to taste

Add 1 tbsp cooking oil (olive oil or canola oil are fine) to a pan and bring to medium heat. Add onions and cook for about 5 minutes, until translucent. Add peppers and cook another 5-10 minutes. Add the sausages and any spices you want; if things start to stick to the pan, add more oil. Cook until sausages are slightly browned and the onions and peppers are soft, about 6-8 minutes.

Assembling the sandwich: Cut open some sandwich rolls or pieces of a french loaf (vegan hot dog buns work as well) and stuff the onions, peppers, and sausages inside, along with some vegan cheese, if you'd like (we had ours with some Teese we had leftover.) Eat them with a bowl of marinara sauce (store-bought or homemade, cold or heated up), dipping the sandwich into the sauce before each bite, or cover the sandwich with sauce and enjoy.