Biscuits, Tofu, and Vegetarian Gravy

So this is a twist on the traditional biscuits and gravy. First of all, the biscuits are pretty healthy. Second of all, the gravy is vegetarian. So those are two big upsets there. And if you’re a constant reader on this blog, you know that we do tofu and we do it well. This idea came from a friend of ours from Bali. She made it for us a few weeks ago, and I know how much Chris loves biscuits and gravy, so I gave it a try and it turned out wonderfully. I took the recipe from several different places and made my own. Let’s start with the gravy first.

Vegetarian Gravy

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 20-45 minutes 

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2.5 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp dried sage
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 1 onion [I only used 3/4 one]
• 1 clove garlic

Directions

• Chop up the onion and garlic
• In a medium pot, heat the oil and then add the onion and garlic. Only cook until soft (not brown)

• Add the sage and thyme
• Slowly add in the flour and cook until the mixture is a golden brown

• Pour in the vegetable stock and continue to whisk and/or stir to prevent clumping. You want the mixture to simmer as long as it needs to until it thickens 

• Once thick, put the gravy through a strainer in order to discard the garlic and onions and let the rest go into a pot for serving.

• Your gravy is ready to go! Just put on low heat until everything else is ready.

Now as you were letting the gravy thicken, you should start the biscuits. Let’s try these out, it’s a very easy recipe!

Biscuits

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 12 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 3 1/3 tbsp olive oil 
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
• Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl
• In a smaller bowl, combine the buttermilk, olive oil and honey

• Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until it is well-mixed and dough-y.

• On a lightly-floured surface or cutting board, knead the dough for about 12 strokes and then roll to a thickness of 3/4 inch. Mine were all different because that’s how I…roll.

• Cut into pieces and place on an non-greased baking sheet
• Put into oven for 12 minutes or until golden brown [this is when you start working on the tofu…]
• Make sure to serve warm!

While that’s baking, quick let’s do the tofu!

Tofu

• Prep Time: 2 minutes
• Cooking Time: 7 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 box firm tofu
• nutritional yeast flakes
• olive oil

Directions

• Drain the tofu juice out of the box and place the tofu on cutting board. Cut long-ways first, into thin 1/2 inch pieces
• Cut short-ways, making little squares
• Have a pan hot with a very light amount of olive oil and carefully place tofu on the pan, letting each have enough room to cook. I put the temperature on a little less than high (medium-high)
• Takes about 5-10 minutes to cook, I use a fork to turn them over. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn on the outside, but get cooked on the inside. Turn them over one by one when the first side is done.
• After both sides are ready, pop them onto a plate. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast flakes on top of each piece

Okay, so all of our dishes are ready to be put together! Let’s do this

Directions

• Open the biscuits and lay the tofu on top of one half
• Once the biscuits are ready, go ahead and SMOTHER THEM with gravy!

It may look like a mess, but boy is it delicious! We ate all of it up (somehow), and I was incredibly full after but it was well-worth it. We ended up burning it off while trying to sled down a hill after 13 inches of snowfall last weekend. That was a blast.

You could try this with regular gravy or store-bought biscuits, but I always prefer to make my own. I actually bought a Pillsbury can of biscuits just in case I screwed up (I obviously have incredible faith in my biscuit-baking ability), but never used it. It looks like a lot of work but, boy, is it worth it!

Cheers! And as always…stay hungry and fit!