Tempeh Sausage, Gravy, & Biscuits

Breakfast, Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian

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26 Mar 2010

I get my taste buds from my father. He loved rich foods. He also wasn’t above having breakfast for dinner, and many a night I’d find myself having sausage, gravy, and biscuits at twilight. I have very fond memories of meals at the local Bob Evans restaurant, with their red and white checkered tablecloths, soaking up sausage gravy with big ol’ biscuits, just like my daddy did.

Eating is a very intimate process, and we tie it inextricably to our social customs as well. I have a lot of memories tied to certain foods – biscuits and gravy being one of them. Having grown up an omnivore, many of those foods include meat and dairy products. Giving up meat doesn’t mean I have to give up those memories, though. I’m realizing more and more that food is just a trigger for those memories, and similar foods bring me the comfort of my memories just the same.

That’s what I pondered as I ate this vegan version of sausage, biscuits, and gravy – all the while remembering those days of playing straw-wrapper hockey with silverware across the table from my dad.

This meal comes from one of my new cookbooks: You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan!: 200 Recipes for Simple and Delicious Animal-Free Cuisine. It’s a great little cookbook – I’m looking forward to trying out a bunch of the recipes in it. I just wish the font for the ingredient lists was a little bigger. I have to squint and stick my face right up to the book to read the fractions. (OK, you can all stop with the old-age jokes!)

First up: biscuits!

These biscuits were quick and easy to make, though I did discover that I don’t have anything in my kitchen to cut biscuits with. I really though I had cookie cutters or something, but I couldn’t find them. I ended up using a tiny little condiment bowl that I surely stole from some restaurant with my doggie bag. (Sorry!) It worked just fine!

I kept re-rolling the dough scraps and cutting more biscuits until the dough was all gone. The recipe said this would make 12 biscuits, but mine made exactly 24. I have a feeling I rolled the dough a little too thin, as the recipe said 1/2 inch thick. Well…. it seemed like it was 1/2 inch thick! I guess not.

Unfortunately, I ended up over-cooking my biscuits a little. The instructions said to bake them 8-12 minutes, or until golden brown – mine weren’t getting golden brown, so I tacked on 4 minutes or so to the 12. When they still weren’t brown, I got worried and took them out of the oven. Sure enough, they just weren’t going to get brown. (Note – I cooked them all in a single layer on 2 baking sheets – then threw them all together when done because I needed my other baking sheet for the tempeh sausage!)

I’m also afraid my baking soda and baking powder has lost its oomph. It’s several years old (I’m ashamed to say, probably more than 5 years old), and this isn’t the first recipe that hasn’t quite risen as expected. I think it’s time to get some fresh leavening agents!

Next up: the tempeh sausage.

This was my first time cooking with tempeh. Originally from Indonesia, tempeh is a soybean product like tofu, but unlike tofu, it’s made from the whole bean and has a higher protein, fiber, and nutrient count. It has a firm texture – much more firm than tofu.

The first step was to grate the tempeh. I’ve never used a box grater before (I’m not even sure what I have IS a box grater!), so it took me a few tries to get the hang of it. (The bowl kept sliding all over the darn counter, until I figured out a way to grip both the bowl and the grater at the same time).

Always choose organic tempeh if you can. Most non-organic soy products are made from genetically modified soybeans (yuck! I prefer my food from the earth, not from a test tube, tyvm!)

After adding the rest of the ingredients (including lots of spices), I scooped up handfuls of the tempeh mixture and shaped them into patties. This stuff was really easy to work with!

After baking:

Last step: the gravy.

This too was simple to whip up while the tempeh sausage cooked, but my photo of the gravy did not turn out. Boo!

When everything was done, I plated up 2 biscuits (since mine were half the size they were supposed to be), topped them with a tempeh sausage patty, and then slathered on some gravy. My plate looked a little empty, so I toasted an organic whole wheat muffin and topped it with some green garden puree that I made yesterday. Disregard how totally off-center I plated everything!

Turns out, my eyes were bigger than my stomach, and I couldn’t finish the second slice of muffin. But the rest was fantastic!

Would this sausage fool a meat eater? No way. But, does it offer flavors similar to sausage? Absolutely. Did it provide the same memory triggers that its meat-based equivalent would? Oh yeah. (Did it fill me up? OMG, stuffed!)

I think next time I make this (and there will definitely be a next time!) I’m going to try crumbling the sausage into the gravy instead of having it as patties. I think this tempeh sausage would also make a great topping for vegan pizza!

I believe my dad would be proud.

Basic Biscuits – Vegan

Posted March 26, 2010 by Shelly in Posted In: Breads & Baking

This recipe comes to you from one of my favorite new cookbooks: You Won't Believe It's Vegan!: 200 Recipes for Simple and Delicious Animal-Free Cuisine. The book says that it makes 12 biscuits, but somehow I got exactly 24 out of it. I think I rolled the dough a bit too thin. At any rate, they were simple and tasty, and went great with the also-vegan Tempeh Sausage and Gravy.

Details

• Prep Time:
  5 min
• Cook Time:
  10 min
• Ready In:
  15 min

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 6 tablespoons coconut oil or vegan margarine, like Earth Balance
• 2/3 cup soy milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
3. Cut the margarine or coconut oil into the flour.
4. Add the soy milk and lemon juice and mix until just moistened.
5. Roll out the dough to 1/2-inch thick.
6. Cut dough into 2 inch circles and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
7. Reroll the scraps and continue cutting until all dough is used up.
8. Bake for 8-12 minutes.

Approximately 132 calories, 6g fat (2g saturated), 17g carbs, 1g fiber, 2g protein per serving.

Tempeh Sausage & Gravy

Posted March 26, 2010 by Shelly in Posted In: Breakfast

This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite new cookbooks - You Won't Believe It's Vegan!: 200 Recipes for Simple and Delicious Animal-Free Cuisine. It's a great take on the traditional sausage gravy with biscuits, and is plenty flavorful to rival the "real" thing. Make it with basic biscuits (also vegan!)

Details

• Prep Time:
  10 min
• Cook Time:
  25 min
• Ready In:
  35 min

Ingredients

Tempeh Sausage

• 8 ounces tempeh
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 tablespoons tamari or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
• 1/3 teaspoon marjoram dried
• 1 pinch ground sage
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme dried
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Gravy

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups filtered water
• 2 tablespoons tamari or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

If you're baking biscuits to go with this recipe, do that first. Tempeh Sausage:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Cut tempeh in half and grate it into a large bowl using a box grater.
3. Add the garlic, oil, tamari, herbs/spices, and flour. Mix together.
4. Form into 3-inch patties (about a small handful of mixture per patty).
5. Place the patties on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.

Gravy (make this while the sausage is cooking):

1. Add the nutritional yeast and flour to a 1-quart saucepan and toast over medium heat until light brown.
2. Turn the heat to low and slowly whisk in the oil.
3. Then, gradually whisk in the water and tamari until gravy is smooth.
4. Raise the heat back to medium and continue whisking constantly until the gravy thickens.

Serve the gravy over tempeh sausage and biscuits. Sausage and biscuits - per serving: Approximately 155 calories, 8g fat (1g saturated), 13g carbs (2g fiber, 0g sugars), 9g protein.

EpicOrganic.net

Posted: March 26, 2010 at 6:45 pm
{Tags: bread, Recipes, tempeh}
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