An unusual mid week blog, with a recipe for vegan gluten free chorizo.

Firstly ferment beetroot and walnut for up to 5 days. This is a simple anaerobic fermentation with brine and pickle weights

Rinse the beetroot and walnut mix well, to get rid of any excess salt from the fermentation. This will need to be bulked out – in this recipe I used cooked lentils, however you could use breadcrumbs, or buckwheat.

Grind the walnuts, beetroot and lentils together to make a thick slurry. Season with smoked paprika, white and black pepper. It won’t need anymore salt.

Vegan sausage skins are available on line from Amazon and most on-line food retailers. Using a funnel, fill the sausage skin with the mix, leaving enough at either end to tie

Leave in the fridge over night to firm up. They can be fried whole, or chopped into chunks

These are being fried with red peppers and onions.

I added the pepper, chorizo and onion mix to roast potatoes to make home fries, with a poached egg

This is an alternative serving with asparagus and peas.

No apologies for an ingredient which takes nearly a week to make, but it is worth it. I do like a veg sausage, but I worry that they are heavily processed. This is a really lovely ingredient to cook with.