What can I Make with Vienna Sausage?

You can make a lot of different quick and easy dishes with Vienna sausage, from appetizers, lunches and suppers to brunches, snacks and even camping meals. The pop-open, canned convenience of these small frankfurters along with their soft texture make them ideal to use as a spread or to slice lengthwise and fry up to add crispy, meaty flavor to dishes. Some of the specific dishes to make with Vienna sausage include cracker spread, cabbage soup, sausage melts, creamy rice, Vienna spaghetti, egg-sausage scramble, pizza rolls and potato-vegetable skillet.

A potato-vegetable skillet can be made on a regular stove or a camp style one. All you need are leftover baked potatoes and cooked vegetables, plus onion to saute. Basic seasonings such as pepper, garlic powder and/or basil can be added to the dish. After the onions and Vienna sausage are sauteed and the seasonings added, sliced baked potatoes and assorted cooked vegetables can be placed in the skilled until heated through.

A pizza roll microwave snack is quick to make with chopped Vienna sausage. A bread roll can be cut partially in half, then filled with thinly sliced cheese plus the sausage pieces and microwaved for several seconds at a time until everything is just warmed through. For a brunch idea that's fast and hearty, the Vienna sausages can first be sliced lengthwise and fried before being added to eggs scrambled in a pan. Grated cheese may be added to the hot, egg-sausage scramble just before serving.

Vienna spaghetti can be made simply by substituting sausage pieces for meatballs. Fried Vienna sausage, along with cooked mixed vegetables, sauteed onions, mushrooms and seasonings, can be stirred in with mushroom soup with a bit of milk to thin it. This mixture forms a creamy sauce to serve as a main course over cooked rice. You can vary a tuna melt recipe by substituting Vienna sausages cut into slices. Thin slices of cheese can be placed over the sausage pieces on crusty rolls or slices of French bread before being baked in the oven at moderate heat until warmed through.

Sliced Vienna sausage can make a cabbage soup much more flavorful. You could garnish the top with sour cream and a sprinkling of caraway seed. For something a little different to make with Vienna sausages, mash them and add seasonings such as pepper, mustard, paprika and a little tarragon. This pate-like mixture may be spread onto crackers for an appetizer. Small sprigs of parsley may serve as a garnish for the cracker tops.