Turkey Sausage Breakfast Gravy - Dairy, Soy Free with Wheat Free Option

  I've done a few different breakfast gravy recipes that were decent, but after a recent trip to Penzeys Spices and finding this breakfast sausage seasoning, our lives have been changed for the better! I now can make turkey breakfast sausage anytime with the ground turkey of my choosing rather than having to use the ultra watery Jenni-O tube of ground turkey sausage we had been relying on. I HIGHLY recommend you pick yourself up some of this seasoning mix. Seriously. Also, using coconut milk instead of almond milk really improved the flavor and made the gravy whiter than the previous versions. To boot, this recipe is a lot simpler in that you make it all in the same skillet without having to remove the meat. This is really good stuff, we had it for breakfast one day and then for dinner two days later because we loved it so much!

Turkey Sausage Breakfast Gravy 

 
1.25 lb lean ground turkey
1 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 Tbl Penzeys Breakfast Sausage Seasoning*
2 Tbl Bisquick, GF Bisquick, or other GF flour of your choice
1 cup unsweetened plain coconut milk, plus more if needed
1/2 tsp sea salt
a few cracks of fresh ground black pepper

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Once oil is hot, add turkey and sausage seasoning. Break meat up with wooden spoon and stir until completely browned, about 5 minutes. Push all of the turkey meat to the back of the skillet, allowing the juices to come to the front. Add the flour to the juices and stir quickly to form a paste. Whisk the coconut milk into the flour paste until there are no lumps, then incorporate the turkey into the flour/milk mixture. If it is very thick, add more coconut milk. Remember that the gravy will thicken slightly as it cools so try to get it just slightly thinner than you'd like. Stir in salt and pepper and taste, adjust seasonings as desired. (For spicier gravy, add a pinch more of sausage seasoning). Serve over hot biscuits or toast.


 * The ingredients are:  salt, sugar, paprika, black pepper, dextrose (a simple sugar), nutmeg, cayenne pepper, sage, and thyme. I do not know the exact amounts of each, but you could try to make your own seasoning (and store in a small mason jar or other air tight container). Here is my best guess at the measurements for an 4-6oz jar:

4 Tbsp salt
4 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp black pepper
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how spicy you want it)
1 tsp sage
1 tsp thyme 
  

Breakfast Sausage Gravy - Dairy, Wheat/Gluten, Soy, Rice Free

  This was an update to my first recipe, but this, my third version, is easier and the absolute best.

 We just moved into our new house, woohoo!!! I still have not found my camera, but I tried my hand at making breakfast gravy without rice flour (original recipe containing rice here) for the first time Sunday morning and it was so good, I had to share the recipe! So just use your imagination... it looked just like the normal sausage gravy you'd get on biscuits and gravy at a restaurant, but not quite as white. And it was delicious! Now I was experimenting so my measurements weren't exact, you'll have to fiddle around to get the right consistency if it's not quite right, either adding more flour or more liquid, but here is a good starting point. Thankfully this stuff is very forgiving.

Sausage Gravy

1 lb turkey breakfast sausage (preferably Jenni-O in a tube cheapo stuff)
3 Tbl Soy Free Earth Balance buttery spread
about 1 cup Bob's Red Mill GF pancake mix
about 1 1/2 cups plain unsweetened non-dairy milk of choice (we used almond)
water, if necessary
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium skillet with high sides, or even in a sauce pan, heat and break up sausage until just browned . If you've used the cheap stuff, there should be a lot of fluid in the pan*. Drain this fluid into a bowl and set aside, continue browning the sausage until you get some nice crispy edges. Remove the sausage onto a plate and set aside. It's ok, in fact encouraged, to leave behind some bits of turkey and any grease.
In the skillet or pan on medium/low heat, melt Earth Balance. Slowly whisk pancake mix flour into the melted butter until it forms a batter/dough that looks thick enough that you could pick it up but not thick enough to roll into a ball or anything. Stir it around to brown in the pan for about 30 seconds.
Have your almond milk ready right by the stove for this next step. Take the fluid from the sausage meat and SLOWLY whisk it into the pan. At this point, the pancake mix and the juices are going to puff up and make some sort of funky looking cake but just keeping breaking it up with the whisk. Immediately start whisking in the almond milk, breaking up any clumps that may have formed. If gravy is too thick at this point, stir in some water. If it is too thin, bring it to a boil and simmer it for a few minutes. It will thicken as it cools also.
Stir the sausage back into the gravy, and add salt and lots of pepper to taste.

*If your sausage meat does not have a lot of excess fluid in it, you probably used better quality stuff, and that's ok! Just skip the step which calls for whisking in the fluid and start whisking in the non-dairy milk. You will probably need more milk or water than called for to get the right consistency but it should be fine.

Dinner Gravy- Wheat/Gluten, Dairy and Soy Free and Vegan

If you like onions, this is the gravy for you! I was making turkey burgers for dinner tonight, but since wheat free buns generally contain rice flour and taste sort of awful, we were just going to eat them without buns. I decided to try to find a gravy recipe so we could eat them sort of like Salisbury Steak but every recipe I found for vegan gravy contained soy or loads of mushrooms (which I'm not against, we just didn't have any). So I decided to try my hand at just making a gravy and managed to impress my husband, and he can be a tough sell. This is going to become something we make often because it tasted great on the burger patties and mashed potatoes tonight and I bet it would be super good on meatloaf, boiled potatoes or even on steamed veggies.

Onion Gravy

1 medium onion, diced
1 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tsp sea salt
several cracks of fresh pepper
2 Tbl cornstarch mixed with about 4 Tbl cold water

In a small saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until fragrant and onion is translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add vegetable stock, salt, pepper, and bring to a boil. Stirring frequently, allow mixture to cook down for about 7 minutes. Place mixture in blender and pulse several times until onion is mostly pureed (this is optional, if you don't mind the texture you can leave the onion as is). Pour mixture back into pan and whish in cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil, stirring contantly until almost desired thickness, gravy will thicken slightly as it cools.

Gluten/Wheat, Dairy, and Egg Free Biscuits and gravy! (updated)

  So breakfast still remains the meal with the least amount of options, but we are working on it! So far we have:

• GFDFEF Pancakes
• Grits
• Turkey bacon
• Certified GF Oatmeal
• GF toast
• Turkey breakfast sausage
• GFDF biscuits

And now...... GRAVY! I was really unsure of how dairy free, gluten free gravy would come out. But it was actually not so different from regular gravy.

*I updated this recipe to use chicken sausage rather than turkey because it has a little more grease, and because I discovered that using rice flour rather than all purpose flour gives it a much smoother texture and no bitter after taste that I have noticed with some GF flours. This recipe does require a good deal of salt as rice flour and almond milk both are ever so slightly sweet on their own, but the flavor is terrific when it's all done.*

GFDF Sausage Gravy (Updated)

1 lb sweet italian chicken sausage
6 Tbs dairy free buttery spread (Earth Balance or BetterLife are good)
1/3 cup white rice flour
about 1 cup plain almond milk (more or less as needed)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground back pepper

Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add the sausage and brown. Turn heat down to low. Remove chicken to a plate while keeping as much grease as possible in the skillet. Add butter and allow to melt. Slowly stir in rice flour and until flour and butter mixture resembles crumbled bits of dough. Cook stirring contantly about 1-2 minutes. Start adding milk a tablespoon or two at a time and stir so that flour crumbles dissolve (this is necessary to avoid lumpy gravy). Add more milk until the gravy is slightly thinner than the desired consistency. Return sausage to skillet and heat, stirring or whisking constantly until gravy thickens. Add salt and pepper. Enjoy!

  Over Bob's Red Mill biscuits (following the recipe on the side of the Biscuit and Baking Flour package), this was very good! You should try it. Seriously.

 
  This morning we are going to try Chebe GF Cinnamon Bread Mix and I'm going ot make a simple powdered sugar, vanilla extract and almond milk icing. Hopefully it's good and we can add that to our breakfast options as well, I'll letcha know!