I always loved eating breakfast and dinner at my grandmother’s house. She always served up delicious comfort food and I would always leave with a full stomach and a smile on my face.

One of my favorite meals was always biscuits and gravy. I never thought I could make that meal vegan and just as good as grandma’s recipe. That is, until now. I found the perfect recipe in the cookbook, “Betty Goes Vegan.”

As I flipped through it I came to page 42 and there it was, Biscuits with Soysage Gravy. No meat, no dairy, no eggs, but the taste turned out to be heavenly.

Everyone in my family loved this recipe, including the little ones. I won’t lie to you: You will be in the kitchen for a while, but it’s well worth all the time preparing and cooking.

Meat and dairy lovers, I challenge you to try this and give me your honest opinion. I have only been vegan for a little over two years and I really couldn’t tell the difference.

Enjoy this comfort food recipe and that vegan thing.

 

BISCUITS WITH SOYSAGE GRAVY

Makes 1 dozen biscuits and a whole lot of gravy

Biscuits:

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring surfaces

1 tablespoon sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt

½ cup vegetable shortening

¾ cup almond milk

Soysage gravy:

Olive oil cooking spray

1 cup lean vegan sausage (we’ve used Lightlife and Tofurky)

½ cup whole wheat flour

2 cups nutritional yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups vegetable broth

2 tablespoons Bragg’s liquid aminos

3 teaspoons vegan poultry seasoning

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon celery seed

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

¼ teaspoon crushed black peppercorns

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix the shortening into the flour mixture using a pastry blender until the mixture becomes fine crumbs. Mix in almond milk with a hand-held mixer until the dough is smooth but very sticky. Place the dough on a flat, floured surface. Knead gently a few times, and then using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to ½ inch thick.

Using a biscuit cutter or the top of a pint glass, cut out biscuits and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake about 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Place them on rack to cool.

While the biscuits are baking, prepare your gravy. Spray your skillet with the cooking spray and heat on medium. Once the oil begins to warm, add small clumps of vegan sausage and let it brown. Flip them often and let them crumble into small pieces.

In a saucepan, toast the flour and nutritional yeast in olive oil until they begin to brown. Whisk in Bragg’s, poultry seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, celery seed, parsley and black pepper and simmer. Once the gravy begins to bubble and the sausage has crispy edges, pour the gravy into the skillet and gently mix.

Serve biscuits hot with gravy over the top and serve any extra gravy on the side, because you can’t have enough.

Jeff Peterson anchors the news from 5 to 7 a.m. on CBS 13 and from 7 to 8 a.m. on FOX 23 and is a vegan.