Monday, August 20, 2007

Vegan Biscuits and Gravy

This... I've been waiting for this dish ever since I went vegetarian about 7 years ago. Biscuits and gravy was one of the few meat dishes I truly missed consuming. Don't ask me why. For the first 20-some odd years of my life, biscuits and gravy never even came close to touching my lips. Then, a steady boyfriend of mine--who had a country flair--introduced me to Cracker Barrel and biscuits and gravy. It became a treat, something I only had when we went out to breakfast. It's definitely in the comfort food category. Maybe that's why I missed it so much.

I mentioned briefly a while back that my sis gave me Vegan with a Vengeance for my birthday in February. I can't believe it took me so long to try one of the recipes. Oh, I eyed them all many times over the last few months as I flipped through the pages. They all looked so scrumptious. But I had heard this book contained a vegan biscuits and 'sausage' gravy recipe--aptly titled "Baking Powder Biscuits and White Bean Tempeh Sausage Gravy"--and that's what I had been longing for.

Oh. My. Gawd. This recipe truly is to die for.

The biscuits were divine. The tempeh 'sausage' crumbles were awesome. Put them together... perfection. I'm not exaggerating. Even though I believe I made a boo-boo in the recipe, this dish still completely made my weekend after cookin' it up Saturday morning (especially since I had enough leftovers to repeat this heavenly breakfast on Sunday morning, LOL).

The only thing I'm going to do different next time I make this, is I'm going to add only some of the crumbles to the gravy. The recipe doesn't really say how much crumbles to use. In my haste, I mixed the pureed bean mixture in the entire pan of crumbles, which quickly ate it up. Thankfully, I had another can of white beans and I made another batch of the bean mixture, but it was still very thick, even after trying to dilute it with veggie stock. Therefore, I think most people only put in some of the crumbles, not all of 'em. Which makes sense because then you can have some crumbles leftover to mix in with your favorite spaghetti sauce or something.

I should also mention that this was my first time eating tempeh. I had been wanting to try it for so long but never knew what kind of recipe to make. This turned out to be the perfect recipe for losing my tempeh virginity!!!! ;-p

If you're a biscuits and gravy fan... buy this book and try this recipe. Heck, even if you're not a biscuits and gravy fan, try it... this recipe is the sh*t!

Preview: I made another VwaV recipe tonight for dinner... but I'm going to wait to rave about that one until tomorrow's post. ;)

2 comments:

SaraJane said...

If you like that, you might try the Tempeh Bacon from VWAV. It's so fantastic that I make it at least once a week. One thing I do differently, though is make double the marinade and then let it marinate over night instead of just for an hour or so. You'll get a nicer flavor.

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

Mmmm... buscuits and gravy, I haven't made those in ages... you've inspired me.

Great post.