Yesterday I shared an interview with the owners of Upton’s Naturals, which included a GIVEAWAY (two lucky readers will win a FREE package of seitan – enter now!). Today I’m sharing a recipe I developed using Upton’s Naturals Ground Seitan.
But first, a little background. My husband and I made this recipe together. My husband is an omnivore. Over the years he has certainly progressed on the spectrum – now vegetarian at home – but he’s still not vegan or vegetarian. He makes a lot of the vegan meals in this house, though. For that reason we use a lot of products like Tofurky sausage, Qrunch burgers, Field Roast celebration roast, Upton’s Natural seitan, and more.
Without apology.
I think transition foods have a real place in the diets of people who are moving along the veg-spectrum. I agree with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau‘s opinions on the subject and with how Dan responded in the interview yesterday:
Seitan isn’t “mock” anything, it’s real seitan that’s been made for thousands of years.
I don’t eat “faux” food; I eat real food. Seitan is real food. And when my husband and I can make something together that is familiar to both of us, that pleases both of our palettes, that connects us to our food history – in a compassionate way – well, YAY!
And that’s what we did with this recipe. I wanted to make something fun with Upton’s Naturals ground seitan so we started brainstorming foods we “miss”. Biscuits and gravy came to both of us right away. So Dave took to the Interwebs and found a recipe he could adapt to vegan. He then sautéed the ground seitan with seasonings that sounded good to him and I used those seasonings in my white bean gravy recipe.
This multivore tag-team brunch was a huge hit! Here’s the recipe:
Vegan Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
by
Keywords: bake stovetop breakfast vegan beans seitan
Ingredients (Serves 4)
For the Biscuits, recipe by Dave (adapted from this Alton Brown recipe)
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/3 cup vegan butter
For the Sausage Gravy
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (or 1 – 2 tablespoons vegetable broth)
- 1 package Upton’s Naturals Ground Seitan
- 1/4 teaspoon each: thyme, rosemary, cumin
- Dash of red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup vegan butter
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon each: thyme and rosemary
- 1/8 teaspoon cumin, ground black pepper
- 1 and 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 and 1/2 cups canned or cooked cannellini beans
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
Instructions
For the Biscuits, instructions by Dave
Preheat oven to 450.
Mix the almond milk and lemon juice and refrigerate.
In large bowl, mix all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt). Then drop in the vegan butter – make sure it’s really cold (leave in the fridge until the last moment). Cube it up a bit with a knife and then break it up into the dry mixture. Use your hands to mix and be quick as you don’t want the vegan butter to start to melt. When it’s pretty well mixed, stop. It’ll look like breadcrumbs.
Add the almond milk and lemon juice. Use a wooden spoon to stir until the dough just starts to come together. Don’t over mix it.
Drop the dough out on a floured surface. Dust the top of the dough with flour and fold / press it over on itself 6-7 times. You want to end up with a circle (ish) of dough about 1 inch thick….give or take. Don’t over handle it.
Then take a biscuit cutter, or some circular mold that you can use to cut out the biscuits. Cut out the biscuits by pressing straight down through the dough and place them on a cookie sheet – let the biscuits just barely touch each other. Reform the remaining dough quickly and create as many biscuits as possible. The more you handle the dough, the less they might rise – be warned.
Melt a little vegan butter and brush the tops of the biscuits. Then with your thumb, make a small indentation in the top of each biscuit (so they rise a little more uniformly).
Drop those bad-boys into the oven for 15-20 minutes…..they’ll be tall, and lightly golden brown on top. Eat em’ fast cuz they’re awesome.
Makes about 8 biscuits.
For the Sausage Gravy
Sauté seitan, thyme, rosemary and cumin in olive oil or vegetable broth until lightly browned (about five minutes). Set aside.
Heat vegan butter in saucepan on medium-high. Add onion and garlic sauté until translucent.
Add thyme, rosemary, cumin, ground black pepper and stir well.
Stir in vegetable broth and soy sauce. Bring back to a boil.
Add beans and lemon juice. Bring back to a boil
Use an immersion blender in the saucepan to blend the gravy, approximately 20 – 30 seconds. (You can use a blender; simply return the gravy back to the saucepan once blended.)
Add nutritional yeast and cooked seitan, cover and cook on medium heat for five minutes, stirring as needed.
My thanks to Dan and Nicole of Upton’s Naturals for the great interview yesterday and for making such a great product. Oh, and thanks for providing coupons for me to GIVEAWAY to two lucky readers. Enter here to win! And if you would like your local store to carry Upton’s Naturals, download this request card!
