“Sausage” Gravy and Biscuits (Vegan Friendly)

I have never been a huge fan of meat substitutes – I find most to be rather lacking and well….being that I am mostly vegan for cholesterol reasons if I want real meat I’ll usually just fall off the health bandwagon for a meal. Mostly because the fake meat items usually have very long ingredient lists full of questionable items and often artificial coloring (check out some of the fake bacon!) But breakfast sausage is pretty much a no-go due to the heavy grease/sodium/cholesterol trio of shame so it had been a long time since we had biscuits and gravy! On a gamble I picked up a tube of Gimme Lean Breakfast Sausage at the grocery store (look in the produce or natural foods section). It didn’t look so appetizing raw but once fried up? You’d never know the difference! This was a fake meat that actually works (and the fake hamburger they make is also quite good unlike the nasty frozen stuff you find in many stores). Delicious and I got my sausage gravy craving all taken care of….

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• 2 medium onions (about 3 cups) peeled and diced
• 14 ounce package vegan sausage
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp dried rubbed sage
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• ¼ tsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Stick
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 3-4 cups unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, add the onions and cook until tender. Add the sausage in, breaking into small pieces with a firm spatula, as it cooks it becomes easier to break up (it is very sticky when first added). Let cook through then sprinkle on the seasonings and heat through – you want it very fragrant.

Add the Earth Balance and stir till melted, then add the flour, work in and let cook for a couple of minutes.

Slowly add in 3 cups of the milk and turn down to medium-low, stirring as it thickens. Add more milk as needed to get the thickness desired.

Season to taste if desired with more pepper and salt (it didn’t need any for me!).

Baking Powder Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 3 Tbsp Earth Balance buttery stick, cold and cut into small bits
• 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 450° and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl, add in the buttery stick and with clean cold hands quickly mix the buttery stick in. You want it to have the texture of cornmeal. Stir in the almond milk and quickly stir into a dough. For drop biscuits scoop into 12 portions with a disher and place onto the baking sheet. For rolled biscuits turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead gently for about 30 turns, then pat to 1/2″ thick and cut into 12 sections and proceed as before.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Makes 12 biscuits.

To serve:

Split the biscuits and top, serves 4.