VwaV Biscuits and Gravy

I'll be gone until Monday, I get to sit in a conference about the latest add/autism research and am actually looking forward to it. Nutritional relationships and alternative therapy studies will be discussed. The "men" will be home with some great leftovers to chow on. I'll leave you with another great "guy recipe" review.

Matt rated this meal far above the pancakes and said this meal is a keeper. He learned how to "cut" the earth balance margarine into the flour with a pastry cutter. Although the VwaV recipe said 12-14 biscuits Matt's made 7. He used a common kitchen drinking glass to cut them with. The big biscuits were nice and held lots of gravy. YUM! He even decided it was good enough for lunch too.

What we did....
The recipe in the book used tempeh sausage. I did not have any, but have made TVP s'sage many times... a recipe I knew the family would enjoy.
We also use it for tofu scrambles, breakfast burritos and potstickers. It is a basic country style flavoring, not a spicy chorizo or other type with a kick, but could turn into that is the seasonings were varied.
"Ground" TVP s'sage:
Combine the following ingredients and add the spices. Allow TVP to soak up the liquid (about 5 minutes).
1 C boiling water
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 C dry textured vegetable protein (TVP) granules
Spices:
2 tsp crumbles sage
1 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp garlic granules
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 red pepper flakes (more or less to suit heat preferences... Matt added a little pinch)
1/2 tsp l iquid smoke
OPT. up to 1/2 tsp sea salt.... the amount depends on whether you use canned white beans which are pretty salty. Matt's sausage gravy was a little to salty for my preference because he added it to the TVP s'sage, the white bean mix and used canned beans.

PIX 2: The happy cook and his meal... the red is a sliced yellow apple topped with rose syrup from the indian store.... it's yummy! The tiger lily from our side yard and that cool flower vase, from that $6 auction box I keep bragging about. The flowers were my idea. Matt kept moving them saying he doesn't want his food to look like a girl made it ... I said they are guy flowers ---- TIG-GRRRR lilies. He bought it.

I don;t want to spoil the dividends for the punk cook, so I searched and found the recipe below. It is not the one listed in the book (close), but it is a free one from the site in case you need to have something to tide you over until you get your own book.

White Bean Gravy with Soy Sausage
FROM: theppk.com
prep time: 15 minutes (?) | cooking time: 4 hours (unless you use canned beans) | makes 6 cups
A couple of years ago, I worked in a vegan/organic restaurant in Asheville, NC. I used to work the brunch shift which featured a vegan Southern breakfast plate: biscuits, white gravy (w/ flour), seitan sausage, and collard greens. The plate was delicious, but there was too much wheat flour (3 out of 4 items), so I was determined to find a healthier alternative to the flour-based white gravy. That's when I came up with this recipe...it's excellent for drowning biscuits or for eating in a bowl with biscuits on the side.
Equipment:
1- large pot for soaking/cooking beans
2- hand blender (the ones to puree soups)
3- large (10-12") cast-iron pan

Ingredients
2-3 Cups white navy beans or white kidney (cannellini) beans This makes 5 -6 cups of cooked beans, that would be the = 4 15 oz cans of white beans, drained. We used white canneneli beans.
2 Tablespoon non-hydrogenated margarine [EarthBalance]
1 package of sausage-flavored GIMME LEAN *** we did not use this! we used the TVP sausage above.
10-12 leaves of fresh sage, finely chopped or 2 tsp dried
black pepper
sea salt* see my note about the salt in the TVP recipe above
vegetable broth (optional)

Directions
- Soak the beans in cold filtered water for 12 hours. change the water and cook the beans over low heat until beans are soft.
- Use the hand blender to puree the beans. Add water or broth if necessary...if it is too watery, you can eventually cook off the water.
- In the cast-iron pan, melt the EarthBalance. Crumble the GIMME LEAN and add it to the pan. continuously mix the crumbled sausage until most of it is golden brown.
- Add the "sausage" to the bean gravy (with the fat too) and season with sea salt, black pepper, and sage.
- Cook everything together for 10 minutes or until the desired consistency is achieved.

Happy Vegan Eating.

P.S. Future casting....Matt will be preparing another VwaV meal next week. I'll guess it will be making dessert because Vicki's (Veg Family blog) entry about coconut frosting cupcakes from father's day really got our attention over here! But then Leslie at eat peace sure did an impressive looking hemp bar today....I'm going tolook up that recipe.

The kitten (no name yet) really enjoyed thebiscuits and gravy recipe too. So much that he didn't get very far from the bowl before needing to take a nap. He liked this recipe better than the homemade catfood I made with chickpeas.

Oh and for the bisuits... couldn't find a good recipe online to share, but Bryanna's Vegan Feast Newsletter has an excellent low fat one. Matt used coconut oil (solid at room temp) as a vegan "lard" in Isa'a biscuit recipe. There is a fat free plain "drop scone" in the free archives if you are in need of something that will for sure work in a hurry. Go to Bryanna's page and click "Search this site"...type in "biscuits", it will comp as a choice in the recipe archives. The awesome southern style biscuits are referenced also, but it only mentions that it is in a newsletter.