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!