VeganMoFo V: Best Thing I Never Ate-Michael Symon Edition

Any friend of mine will tell you I have an obsession with teeth and smiles.  Michael Symon's smile lights up the entire universe.  Plus, I seriously love his bald head.  Love it!  He can birth my fictitious babies any time.  I seriously love this man.  Ha.  Anyway, dude was on Best Thing I Ever Ate (the one about combos) and started talking about this dish at Lucky's Cafe.  Cheddar and scallion biscuits, eggs, sausage gravy, and potatoes.  Say whaaaaat?!

I obsessed about this for several days.  It was kinda weird that I was so in love with the idea because I HATED sausage gravy and biscuits as a kid.  There was a traumatic incident with a babysitter feeding it to us every single day while her family ate straight-up feasts.  When I told my mom I hated it, the babysitter started feeding me cold jelly sandwiches.  How the crap did this woman have a license to watch kids?  Digressing.  I veganized the dish based off of ol' Mikey boy's description. There are several components to this.  You can easily substitute store bought sausage or something.

Also, this is not what you'd call low fat.  This is Sunday-morning-rockin'-sweatpants-gym-tomorrow type food.

Southern Cheddar Scallion Biscuits
(makes 12)

I usually make 8 of these, but smaller biscuits work better with the gravy component.

2 ½ to 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp fine sea salt

½ tsp baking soda

⅓ cup vegetable shortening

1 cup shredded vegan cheddar

½ cup finely sliced green onions

1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix the non-dairy milk and vinegar together in a liquid measuring cup. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together until combined. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Mix in the cheese and green onions.  Stir in the curdled milk until the dough comes together. Knead gently to form into a ball, adding more flour until dough is easy to work with.

Pour the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and roll out to desired thickness. Use a biscuit cutter or knife to cut out 12 biscuits. Place them on a lightly greased cake pan (I use a square 8x8). Bake for 25-28 minutes, until golden brown.

biscuity goodness

Country Gravy

For a thinner gravy, only use half the tempeh sausage.  If, however, you like yourself a thick and spicy gravy...add it all, sucka!

2 Tbsp canola oil

¼ cup unbleached all purpose flour

½ small yellow onion, minced

2 cups unsweetened non dairy milk

⅛ tsp nutmeg

Spicy Tempeh Sausage (recipe below)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the canola oil in a large saucepan over medium.  Add the flour and stir until slightly golden.  Mix in the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Whisk in the milk and stir constantly until the gravy starts bubbling.  Add the nutmeg and tempeh sausage.  Heat to desired thickness.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Spicy Tempeh Sausage

This tempeh sausage has a nice kick from the crushed red pepper and cayenne. Feel free to adjust the heat to suit your personal tastes. This also makes a great addition to breakfast tacos.

8 oz tempeh, steamed for 10 minutes and crumbled

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp Garlic Pepper or granulated garlic

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tsp rubbed sage

½ tsp crushed red pepper

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

⅛ tsp nutmeg

½ cup vegetable broth

½ tsp fine sea salt, more or less to taste

pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a saucepan. Add in the crumbled tempeh and cook for about 2 minutes. Add in the fennel seeds, Garlic Pepper, poultry seasoning, rubbed sage, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Cook for 1 more minute. Pour in the vegetable broth, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the liquid is reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the salt and pepper to taste.

hiding under all that gravy is some tofu, biscuits, and potatoes

To build the above plate, it's just biscuits, a basic tofu scramble, gravy, green onions, and a side of potatoes.  If you wanna go hard, add some ketchup and Cholula to those potatoes.  Oh, yeah.

Tomorrow will be my first Mandy Moore Monday!  Hootie hoo!  Now, I'm off to do homework, write a round up, and maybe even relax a little.