American Thanksgiving Brunch 2014...

The Breakfast Table

As I said before my husband had to work on Thanksgiving, and so we celebrated with a huge holiday meal Wednesday night instead. Thursday however I decided to get up early and make an epic Brunch for him so he’d be nice and full for work. Since we’d just had a huge meal the night before I didn’t want to go overboard, so I picked four dishes to satiate us Thursday mid-morning.

Chicken-Fried Seitan Steak

White Sausage Gravy

Our main was the Chicken Fried Seitan Steak and White Sausage Gravy from Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman’s book “Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites.” Despite owning this book for a number of years now I have never made this recipe, and the reason being - on my very first ever trip to Chicago, back when my husband and I were dating, we went out for Breakfast. I had never eaten, nor in fact heard of ‘Chicken-Fried Steak’ and so I ordered it. I took about 2 bites and wanted to throw up, I thought it was the most disgusting thing I had ever eaten in my life. Literally everything about it was bad right down to the gravy it was smothered in. I hated it, and didn’t understand how people could love it so much. After I went vegan I avoided vegan versions of this popular breakfast food, and then one day earlier this year out of curiosity I ordered it at The Chicago Diner and fell in love. Vegan Chicken-Fried Steak is the bomb! So, since I liked the vegan version so much, I decided to try my hand at making it at home. As par usual Celine and Joni do not disappoint with this recipe. It does however require some advanced prep. The seitan steaks only take 30 minutes to boil but if you’re in a time crunch make them a day ahead. Frying them up is easy as pie and they’re coated in a flour, corn cereal mixture that is so good! The gravy is simple, vegetable broth, butter, flour, and chunks of seitan ss you would expect, but the surprise is that this gravy has vegan sour cream in it! What? I know, it sounded crazy to me too, but trust me when I say this gravy actually turned out really well, it was buttery, and velvety and smothered the steaks in perfection.

Grandma Jo's Tater Tot Surprise 

To accompany our Chicken-Fried Steak I decided to make Grandma Jo’s Tater Tot Surprise, also out of “Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites.” Basically this is a tater tot breakfast casserole, and I was really taking a chance on this one. It sounded like something I’d never eat - vegan or otherwise - but boy was I wrong. This was the first of our leftovers to disappear, it was THAT good. In addition to tots, this casserole also has vegan sour cream, vegan butter, vegan cheddar cheese, green onions, and vegan cream of mushroom soup. Though there is a recipe for mushroom soup provided in the book I just used the leftover mushroom soup I had from making the Broccoli Casserole the night before. After you combine all of that, you top it with crushed cornflakes and bake, and I know it sounds weird, but trust, trust, trust me on this one. If you own Hearty Vegan Meals and haven’t made this yet, get thee to the kitchen ASAP!

Sweet Potato Biscuits 

Biscuit Gravy

Next up I made the Sweet Potato Biscuits with Gravy from Jenny Engel & Heather Goldberg’s book “Sprok-Fed” I’ve actually had my eye on these for a while but never get the chance to actually make them. I’m glad I made time for it this time around because these were delicious. They did not have an overwhelming sweet potato flavor but they did have a lovely orange color and they were so super moist. Very delicious biscuits, and they came together super quick. The gravy was equally delicious and also really fast and easy to make. It’s your typical vegan milk-based biscuit gravy that has sausage. I used Tofurky Italian Sausages in it because that’s all I had and I think the combination worked pretty well. These were so good I know I’ll be making them again.

Cinnamon Orange Rolls 

To top it off I made the Cinnamon Orange Rolls from Julie Hasson’s book “Vegan Diner” this is another recipe I’ve had my eye on for a while but cinnamon buns are just not something I make regularly. It’s not that I find them difficult to make - in fact these were so easy! - it’s just that I hate waiting for dough to rise, so usually anything that requires yeast as an ingredient makes me stay away, or drag my feet. I know it doesn’t make any sense because it doesn’t require any extra work, just waiting time, but for some reason it’s just one of those things I rarely feel inspired to do. I should definitely make cinnamon buns more often though because these were superb. The orange flavor was subtle, yet strong enough to let you know it’s there. I love that the dough had orange zest in it, and then the glaze has orange juice. The filling is just your basic brown sugar and cinnamon mixture. These were definitely a hit and they went fast! Actually, we don’t have a single one left!

My Over-flowing Plate. I had a Cinnamon Roll too but there
wasn't room on this plate, so I had it on a small plate that I forgot
to Photograph

So that was our lovely Thanksgiving Day Brunch, and it was so good that we were talking about making Thanksgiving Brunch a regular thing. We did it last year and it was awesome, we did it this year and it was awesome again, you gotta love new traditions.

Retro-Strawberry Pie without Whip

Lastly I also made the Retro-Strawberry Pie from Dynise Balcavage’s book “Pies and Tarts with Heart” Originally I made this to take to my husband’s aunts house Thursday afternoon, but in the end I changed my mind and decided to leave it at home for just my husband and I. We had some Thursday and Friday and it was so good. Super easy too. The filling is just strawberries, salt, cornstarch, water, sugar and agar. You cook that up and pour it into a vanilla cookie crust, although I skipped the cookie crust. I had purchased a pack of 2 pre-made pie crusts since the Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie recipe just said to use a store-bought crust. Originally I was going to disregard this and make my own as usual, but in the end I had so much work to do that I decided to take a short cut. I’m sure home-made crusts on both pies would have been better but sometimes you gotta cut corners. So I used a regular crust, and I think it actually tasted good in a regular crust. The flaky buttery crust was a nice compliment to the sweet filling. The recipe states to top the pie with vegan whip cream, and there are recipes for making your own at home - which I normally do, but once again I was lazy, and besides that I just had to try the new So Delicious Coco-Whip. Which is basically the most amazing thing ever. Vegan cool whip guys! Since it just appeared in my local grocery I thought that this was the perfect time to give it a try, and it did not disappoint but I’ll save a full review for another post. In any case, the pie was fantastic, I’ve always much preferred fruit pies to any other kind.

Retro-Strawberry Pie with Whip and Garnish 

So that’s it for holiday madness until the end of December, until then I’ll probably be eating pretty clean, green juice, green smoothies, limited sweets, salads, etc... Once again I hope you all had a lovely holiday.

Bryant's Teff Biscuits with Maple Plantain Spread...

Let’s talk about breakfast! Yesterday I was in a real breakfast kind of mood, but I didn’t want any of the usual things. Lately I’ve been craving plantains, and since I had a few ripening on my counter top I wanted to find some way to incorporate them into a meal. Then I remembered the Bryant Terry’s latest book “Afro-Vegan” I bought it back in April when it first came out and the very first recipe that snagged my attention was the Teff Biscuits with Maple Plantain Spread. Perfect right? Don[‘t you love it when the universe comes together like that?

This was actually my first time cooking from “Afro-Vegan” even though I’ve had it for all these months and so I was quite excited to crack it open. As it happens the Maple Plantain spread was really quite easy to make, just boil the ingredients and then once cooked blend them together into a smooth consistency and then let cool for 30 minutes. I did however add 1 extra plantain to the mix because - well, I love plantains! Is any other explanation necessary?

The biscuits too were quite easy, very low fuss which I liked because some biscuits can be a pain in the ass. I loved that these were made out of teff flour - although there is some all purpose flour in the mix so they’re not gluten-free - I also love that the biscuits use coconut oil rather then Earth Balance or vegetable shortening. I think this really made a difference. You could taste a slight hint of coconut in the finished product but what I found most incredible were how soft the biscuits were. They were so moist and so delicious especially when spread with the amazingly good maple plantain spread. The only thing is - and maybe you can see this in the pictures - they didn't split open quite as nicely as I would have liked. Since they were so soft it was hard to cut it into two pieces that would hold together. No biggie though, after my failed attempt at cutting the first two I left the rest whole and just spooned the spread over top. Just as good!

Honestly, this was one of the most heavenly breakfasts ever. The spread was sweet but not too sweet and the biscuits were perfect. Seriously, they might just be the best damn biscuits I’ve ever had, and I don’t say that lightly. In fact they’re probably going to be my new go-to biscuit from now on. I cannot wait to try more recipes from this book!

Heidi's Seed Crusted Amaranth Biscuits...

More and more lately I find myself interested in cooking and baking more with whole grain flour types that aren’t wheat. I don’t have a problem with wheat, or a gluten-intolerance but I like the idea of expanding my palate, and there is such a wealth of different kinds of flour out there that it seems almost criminal not to try them out. Not to mention that switching up your flours keeps things interesting.

My pantry is well stocked with a variety of flours, all of them organic. I have unbleached all-purpose, whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, white rice flour, soy flour, almond flour, buckwheat flour, amaranth flour, and several starches like potato, tapioca and corn. Despite having these things I rarely use the non-wheat flours, and so I didn’t really know what to use nor what to make. Then one afternoon I was sitting at my desk flipping through Heidi Swanson’s cook book “Super Natural Cooking” which is a book I never use and found total inspiration in her recipe for Seed Crusted Amaranth Biscuits. The recipe isn’t gluten-free - which is fine for me but not for those who may have a gluten-intolerance, - but it does utilize amaranth flour which I was really interested in trying out. I also really liked the idea of a seedy biscuit. I love seeds, and anyway I can include more of them into my cooking is a good enough reason for me to try. I particularly love seeds in bread, which probably stems from my childhood. As my mom always makes homemade bread - and it’s the best - and her bread recipes usually include seeds of some kind.

So anyway I decided to give these biscuits a go. It’s an easy enough recipe to veganize just swap butter for Earth Balance, Milk for your favorite non-dairy milk, and leave out the egg-white. The egg is really not necessary anyway as it’s used for a wash to coat the tops of the biscuits before sprinkling on the seeds. You can achieve the same effect by brushing them with a little melted Earth Balance which is what I did. For the seed mixture I used a combination of poppy, brown sesame, black sesame, and nigella seeds. Nigella seeds are another thing I’ve had in my pantry for a long time and never used, but I’m so glad I took Heidi’s suggestion and tried them in this recipe because they give the biscuits a nice subtle onion flavor which I loved. Also because I only had about 3/4 C left of unsweetened almond milk, I also ended up using about a 1/2 C of Vanilla Almond milk and making up the remaining difference with water. I thought this might make the biscuits sweet, or have them taste like vanilla but it didn't do either. At least not that we could tell. They certainly didn't taste like vanilla, and neither of us found them to be sweet. They were very savory, but because vanilla almond milk is richer then unsweetened almond milk perhaps it did something subtle to the overall flavor or the texture.

Though these biscuits smelt like heaven when they were baking, my husband was rather skeptical about them when he saw them. My husband loves his biscuits, and has always been a ‘traditional biscuit’ kind of guy, not to mention the fact that he’s not as over the moon about seeds as I am. Yet he sat down with a plate of three earth balanced smeared biscuits and began to eat. I waited with baited breath as he took his first bite, and then his second. I watched his facial features change and contort and was ready to call the experiment a fail when he suddenly declared that “These are the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten!” Wow! High praise from him indeed. I took a bite of my own biscuit and had to agree. That’s not to say that we’ll never return to eating the regular kind of biscuit again, but it does inspire my tastebuds to make these more and more often, they are just to good to pass up, and way to good not to at least try.

This recipe used whole what flour and whole wheat pastry flour in addition to the amaranth flour and at first you might think that would make these pretty dense but they are surprisingly light and fluffy, even flaky. They are super moist which I love and have a really great well rounded flavor, thanks both to the flour and the seeds. These biscuits really are a joy to eat, and when you eat them you really feel as though you’re putting something good into your body, like you’re fueling it properly for the day. They’re also very filling thanks to their whole-grainyness. If you have this book you should definitely try these out, and if you don’t have the book it may be worth checking out just for these biscuits alone. I’m certainly glad I gave this cook book a second look, because it’s reminded me that just because a book is vegetarian instead of vegan doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some recipes worth trying.

Vegan Mofo #3 - Lane’s Scrambled Tofu Biscuit Sandwich with Sausage Gravy...

Vegan Mofo #3 - Lane’s Scrambled Tofu Biscuit Sandwich with Sausage Gravy

The Book - Vegan Junk Food
The Author - Lane Gold
The Recipe - Scrambled Tofu Biscuit Sandwich with Sausage Gravy & Drop Biscuits
Page # 2 & 92
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - 30-40 minutes depending on how good you are at multitasking.

Americans sure do love their biscuits and gravy, and vegans it seems are no exception. There is nary a vegan cook book I pick up with a breakfast section that doesn’t include this down-home American staple. As I’ve mentioned before this stunning example of American culinary ingenuity is not something I’ve ever understood or liked. Something about meat floating around in a milk based sauce makes me sick - even the thought of it. But the veganized versions of this well loved breakfast food are beginning to grow on me. Especially since biscuits and gravy are a childhood favorite of my husband, and coincidently my dear friend E. They have inspired me lately to experiment a little with this overly popular breakfast dish.

So when I was browsing through my cook books for sandwich ideas for Mofo and I happened upon Lane Gold’s Scrambled tofu biscuit sandwich with sausage gravy recipe I knew it was meant to be. Gastronomic fate if you will.

I typically don’t eat junk food, and I don’t consider myself a junk food vegan. Of course I like junk food as much as any vegan but it’s not a part of my regular diet. Most of the time I prefer to eat cleanly, but every now and again I want something really bad. This sandwich was it. Typically when I make biscuits and gravy I use Isa’s recipe from “Vegan with a Vengeance” because it’s so delicious and pretty nutritious. Her gravy is made from blending white beans with vegetable broth and the sausage is made from seasoned tempeh. Not so bad for you. The sausage gravy in this book however is made from using Gimmie Lean sausage which is something I never buy. You fry the sausage up in a pan then add salt, pepper, flour and non-dairy milk. I used unsweetened flax milk for this recipe because that’s all I had. The tofu scramble used in the recipe is pretty simple. It’s made with tofu onion powder, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, turmeric, and oil. That’s it. A bit too bare bones for me and so I jazzed the scramble up by adding in a diced yellow onion, a pinch of garlic powder and a half teaspoon of black salt, with a half teaspoon of cumin.

Then came the biscuits. They were so simple, just flour, non-dairy milk and vegan mayo of all things. I’ve never heard of making biscuits with mayo vegan or otherwise and so I’ll admit I thought it sounded a little disgusting. Actually I’ll admit to saying that I thought the gravy sounded a bit disgusting too flax milk and Gimmie Lean did not make me salivate. I thought the whole sandwich was going to be an utter disaster, I was prepared for it to make me sick.

I took my first bite hesitantly and with trepidation. Looking at my plate I was reminded of the very first time I had real biscuits and gravy and how it had made me feel sick even to look at it. That greasy grey gravy, that smell. This gravy wasn’t greasy, it didn’t smell but it looked like the real deal, and that was enough. I chewed the bite, I swallowed, then I took a second bite and found myself pleasantly surprised. All the things I thought would be terrible about this sandwich when put together were just shot of amazing. The scramble was great despite it being so basic, the gravy was pretty delicious. I’m not really a fan of Gimmie Lean but it added a certain kind of texture to the gravy that fried tempeh doesn’t. The gravy was also a little bit sweet which I kind of liked. Even though I used unsweetened flax milk it still leant a subtle sweetness to the gravy that a can of white beans doesn’t.

My hands down favorite part however were the biscuits. These were freaking incredible! Seriously. They were moist, flaky and delicious. Who knew? They were amazing fresh and warm right out of the oven loaded up with the fixin’s and they were just as good cold, or reheated with Earth Balance. Honestly I think these were some of the best biscuits I’ve ever made - possibly some of the best I’ve ever eaten. This will definitely be my new go-to biscuit recipe. Amazing, amazing, amazing!

My husband and I ate three of these biscuit sandwiches each and were stuffed for the rest of the day. I didn’t even make dinner we just had fruit smoothies. This breakfast definitely qualifies as vegan junk food, but when you compare it to regular old junk food, regular old meat and dairy filled junk food this is so much better for you, no cholesterol and no animals are harmed. Better for you, the animals and the planet, and so amazingly delicious it’ll blow your mind.

Really - you need to try this!

Ramps and Bacon Buttermilk Biscuits...

After I first discovered ramps I went a little ramp crazy, I wanted to use them in every possible way before their season came to an end. Unfortunately beyond a few obvious uses I wasn’t quite sure how to use them in a way that truly showcased them. No point using them in a recipe simply to replace onions, I thought, if I was going to use them I wanted them to steal the show!  During the course of my ‘ramp-age’ I searched the web in desperation for any interesting recipes. I very quickly came to the realization that few people out there had any better ideas than myself. None anyway that I found particularly inspiring or creative. I’d already made a ramp pesto (recipe to come) and aside from pickling them or simply grilling, sauteing, or broiling them to serve as a garnish to some kind of charred meat there didn’t seem to be much experimentation going on.  How strange I thought, since Ramps are apparently the new ‘foodie’ thing (Don’t get me started, on that ‘sub-group’) that nobody could come up with anything more innovative then serving this delicious member of the onion family as a garnish!

There was one bright spot that kept appearing throughout my search however. Every once and a while I’d see a recipe pop up for Buttermilk Ramp biscuits. The recipes were all virtually the same though apparently authored by other people, and all used an un-godly amount of butter, some form of pig flesh - either bacon, ham, or something known as smoked pork jowl. Can you say ew with me? - heaping cupfuls of cow’s milk, and eggs. Not at all a vegan friendly item, but nevertheless the idea piqued my interest. After all vegans love biscuits as much as anyone else, so why should we miss out? and while I don’t eat biscuits often - nor do I seem to have that ‘head over heels’ love for them that some do - I too can’t help but fall to the tantalizing lure of a good biscuit from time to time.

So for a few days I mulled over the idea. Trying to figure out how to best go about my biscuit making. The first and hardest step was trying to decide what to do in place of the pig flesh. I briefly considered using store-bought tempeh bacon, but quickly through that idea to the wayside in favor of the quicker process of making my own bacon style bits, and now you see where yesterday’s recipe comes in to play. After that the rest came together quite naturally. Making a biscuit after all isn’t exactly difficult, though it can be time consuming, - and if you cook anything like me, - messy!

Originally I’d envisioned a flakier sort of biscuit, however these came out a bit denser then I’d planned. During the creation process I either used too much flour or over-mixed. Biscuits may not be a difficult task, but flakey biscuits it seems come down to an exact science. No matter though, because flakey or not these biscuits are fantastic. Their flavor is full bodied and the ramps infuse each bite with oniony goodness. The veggie bacon bites give the biscuits a little bit of sweet, and the whipped ramp butter soaks into the biscuits making everything rampy, buttery, and moist. You couldn’t ask for a better, heartier and more filling breakfast. My husband gobbled up six of these biscuits in one sitting! Oh and if you find this recipe makes more biscuits then you can eat before they spoil pop them in a zip-lock bag or air-tight container and freeze for a quick and easy breakfast another day. They reheat perfectly and taste just as good with regular old Earth Balance, or even better with Earth Balance Coconut Spread!

Ramps and Bacon Buttermilk Biscuits

4 C + 2 C All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
½ C Vegetable Shortening (I like Earth Balance)
1-2 C Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 ½ -3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Heaping Cup minced Ramps (bulbs, stalks, and greens)
1/2 Heaping Cup Veggie Bacon Bites plus more to serve

*** Note - Start off using 4 C flour and 1 C almond milk with 1 ½ Tbsp Lemon Juice. Increase flour, and milk/lemon juice mixture as needed until you reach desired consistency. You may not need the full 6 cups of flour or the full 2 cups of almond milk. ***

- Preheat oven to 425'F

- Sift 4 cups of the flour along with the baking soda, powder and salt into a large bowl. In separate smaller bowl use a knife to slice the shortening into small cubes. Place both the bowl with the flour and the bowl with the shortening in the freezer for 30 minutes to chill.

- Combine Almond Milk with Lemon juice and let sit for 5 minutes, until curdled. Once curdled return the milk to the fridge to chill until needed.

- Meanwhile prepare your ramps. Slice off root tips, clean and then mince. Spray a little non-stick spray into a small pan, and heat over medium heat. Add the ramps and saute until soft and fragrant. About 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

- Once everything is chilled remove from the freezer. Add the flour to a food processor, then add the cut up shortening and pulse to combine. After a few pulses the mixture should look course and pebbly.

- Add the almond milk mixture (1 C Almond Milk + 1 ½ Tbsp Lemon Juice) and pulse to combine. If the dough is too stiff add in more milk/lemon juice mixture. If the dough is too wet add in more flour by the ½ cup. You don’t want the dough to be too stiff or too wet, it should be a little sticky, not so sticky that it gets all over your hands and can’t form a ball, just sticky enough. As stated in the note add flour and milk/lemon juice mixture until you’ve reached the desired consistency. You may not need the entire quantity of either ingredient. When adding in ingredients use the pulse feature on your processor in short bursts don’t continually run the machine or you’ll overwork the dough.

- When the dough is the consistency you like add in the sauteed ramps, and the ½ C of veggie bacon bites. Pulse a few more times until just incorporated.

- Once the dough has been mixed, flour a clean counter top or other work surface. Plop your dough out of the processor and flour both your hands and a rolling pin.

- Roll the dough out to roughly 3/4 inch or desired thickness and using a biscuit cutter or clean glass or can to cut out your biscuits. When you have cut as many biscuits out as you can fit, remove them to a lightly greased cookie sheet.

- Scrunch the remaining dough back into a ball, and re-roll to desired thickness. Cut out as many biscuits as you can, then transfer them to the cookie sheet. Use a second cookie sheet if needed. Continue to repeat this process until you have used all your dough.

- Pop the biscuits In the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Alternately you can brush the tops of the biscuits with non-dairy butter or ramp butter (recipe follows) before popping them into the oven. Enjoy these biscuits spread with a generous dollop of ramp butter and a generous sprinkle of veggie bacon bites.

Ramp Butter 

½ C non-dairy Butter at room temperature
4-5 Ramps minced (bulb, stalk and greens)
Dash of White Pepper
Dash of Garlic Powder

- Spray some non-stick spray into a pan and heat over medium. Add minced ramps and saute for 5-8 minutes until soft and fragrant.

- Transfer to the bowl holding the ½ C of non-dairy butter. Whip together and add the white pepper and garlic powder to taste.

I personally prefer my butter to be of a more melted consistency. However if you like it a little firmer, and whipped, let the ramps cool to room temperature before adding to the non-dairy butter. Once cooled whipped the ramps and non-dairy butter together with the white pepper and garlic powder to taste. Enjoy spread over piping hot biscuits, English muffins, bagels or even toast!

Baking Powder Biscuits with White Bean and Tempeh Sausage Gravy....

Can I confess something to you? Before I moved to the U.S. I’d had never heard of biscuits and gravy before. Well, I knew what biscuits were, and I knew what gravy was of course, but I’d never heard of the two being served together, and certainly not for breakfast. Yet it’s a dish that everyone I know here grew up with. Interestingly Biscuits and Gravy emerged as a popular regional dish after the American Revolutionary War, precisely because it was cheap, hearty and used ingredients that were readily available to the average person. As far as I know there is no Canadian equivalent, or at least not that I ever saw growing up. So it wasn’t until after I’d moved to the U.S. that I tried this dish for the first time.


Biscuits Fresh Out of the Oven




















I’d heard plenty about it by that time, lots of people raved about it, even going so far as to label it the quintessential American breakfast, so I was interested, and curious, though I have to say I was also skeptical. I was never really a meat in the morning kind of person, and for those of you who don’t know the gravy for traditional biscuits and gravy is made with ground pork sausage or ground beef, including the greasy drippings from said meat, mixed with flour, milk and a dash of this or that. I’ve also never really been a fan of milk, and honestly the idea of cooking ground beef in milk kind of put me off. The smell alone was horrendous, and then when I saw the finished product I thought it looked - advanced apologies for any former biscuits and gravy lovers - a lot like dog vomit. In any case it looked a lot more like something that should be coming out of you rather then going in, but scepticism aside I decided to give it a try. Well, I couldn’t get through more then a couple of bites before I wanted to retch - which is surprisingly exactly the reaction I had upon my first and only encounter with another popular American dish, Chicken Fried Steak. - There was absolutely nothing about it that I found appetizing aside form the biscuits and so I stared in awe as my husband continued to shovel mouthfuls of it into his mouth. Really the idea of cooking greasy ground beef in milk just gives me the shivers. Suffice to say I never ate biscuits and gravy again, nor had I any interest or intention of trying to veganize the dish.

Then last Thursday rolled around, and well you see I’ve set myself a little project. Since finishing vegan mofo I realized something. Though I own at least 20 or more cook books, I only ever use a handful of them. I’d never realized before that there are only about five or six books I consider to be me ‘go to’ cook books, while the rest I leave neglected in a pile to collect dust. After vegan mofo I decided to set myself the challenge of cooking at least 10 recipes from every one of my virtually unused cook books. I don’t have a specific time frame in mind, it’s just go at my own pace, and ever once and a while I’m sure I’ll share a recipe with you - as I’m doing today - So last Wednesday I was looking for something special to cook for my husband for breakfast on Thursday since he had that day off, and I happened upon the Baking Powder Biscuits with White Bean and Tempeh Sausage Gravy recipe from "Vegan with a Vengeance" As already stated my experience with biscuits and gravy was so bad that I’ve never thought about them for even a second since that day, but my husband has always been a fan. Since going vegetarian/vegan he hasn’t had them obviously, nor has he had a vegan version. Thinking it might be a nice treat for him I decided to take a moment to look over the recipe, and I don’t know something about it just started calling to me. The idea of blending up a can of white beans with vegetable broth to make a thick savory gravy, seasoned with Italian spices and loads of sage just got my mouth watering. I actually really like the idea of using white beans to make sauces, gravies and soup bases because they’re rich and creamy. I also love sage but don’t use it often enough.

White Bean and Tempeh Sausage Gravy

Now, tempeh I’m not such a fan of as I’ve mentioned before but I thought I’d give Isa the benefit of the doubt here. I liked the sound of her recipe for Tempeh Sausage Crumbles. It was relatively quick, and super easy, used ingredients I had on hand, and I’m always curious to try tempeh cooked in new ways to see if I like it any better. I think simmering it in water for twenty minutes as you do in this recipe goes a long way in cutting out that awful bitterness, while also loosening the tempeh up so that it can soak up other flavors. Once the water has been absorbed you then brown the tempeh in olive oil, and soy sauce and season it with garlic, oregano, marjoram, basil, sage, and fennel. I don’t particularly like fennel so instead of using 1 tbsp of fennel seed I used ½ tbsp and added 2 more cloves of minced garlic then required, and honestly it was fabulous!

Once your tempeh is all browned you add your blended gravy into the pan, warm it through then serve it over the biscuits, which by the way were exquisitely soft and doughy with just a slightly crisp outer edge just as I like them. I was completely blown away by this meal. I ate three biscuits and three generous scoops of gravy and I am more then willing to make this again. The tempeh sausage tasted just like what I remember Italian sausage to taste like - something else I never liked, but surprisingly don’t mind veganized - except a little milder, and not the slightest bit greasy. The fennel wasn’t overpowering and the sage was absolutely perfect, although I had to use dried sage because I didn’t have any fresh available. This breakfast couldn’t have turned out better. Although next time I think I might double the gravy recipe because I would have liked a bit more creamy liquid to soak my biscuits with.

Whether you were or weren’t a fan of biscuits and gravy I definitely recommend this recipe. If you were I imagine you’ll like this a lot, and If you weren’t you just might find yourself surprised. So if you own ‘Vegan with a Vengeance’ seriously, snap to it already!

PS: They taste good drizzled with a bit of Earth Balance then the gravy too! Yum1