Nothing allows us to realize our own common humanity more than a big hearty bowl of home cooked food – food cooked with love and the desire to share something with our fellow human beings. This vegan biscuits and gravy recipe embodies that idea. A superb confluence of hearty cornmeal biscuits, delectable tahini gravy, and meaty sunflower crumble, these ingredients – when combined together – create an unique amalgamation of deliciousness, familiar and reminiscent of sunny Sunday mornings with family at an old diner.
How To Make A Fluffy Cornmeal Biscuit
Obviously, for a vegan biscuits and gravy recipe, the biscuit has to be the perfect, pillowy vessel upon which will sit everything else. It’s kind of like the confectionary stage that props up and shows off the tahini gravy and the sunflower seed crumble. Without it, the other two would be meaningless.
Here’s the ingredients you’ll need for a delicious, hearty cornmeal biscuit.
- All-purpose flour
- Medium grind cornmeal
- Baking powder
- Cream of tartar
- Nutritional yeast
- Salt
- Vegan butter
- Unsweetened soy milk
Basically, I approached these biscuits as I would a scone. You cut chilled vegan butter into the flour, and then add plant-based milk to the pebbled butter-flour mixture. Make a dough, divide it and shape it, and then bake on a hot temperature for about 12 minutes.
How To Make A Quick Tahini Gravy
Firstly, I should say that I dedicated an entire recipe post to this gravy – that’s how good it is (the post displays a double recipe to the one you’ll see here, as well as a gluten-free option). It’s got everything that you love about gravy (fatty, hearty, gooey, insanely drizzle-able), but taken to another level. The tahini gives it an added creaminess, as well as a slight bitterness, and so overall is a really unique flavor.
Here’s what you’ll need for the tahini gravy.
- Olive oil
- Yellow onion
- Garlic
- All-purpose flour
- Mushroom broth
- Tamari
- Nutritional yeast
- Raw tahini
That’s it – just 8 ingredients. All you have to do is sauté the onion and garlic, then toast the flour once the onions and garlic are cooked, and then add the broth, low-sodium tamari, nutritional yeast and tahini at the end. Reduce it for a couple minutes until it reaches a thickness that’s a nice drizzle-able texture for your ravaging rendition of vegan biscuits and gravy.
How To Make A Sunflower Seed Crumble
Really, what I was going for here was like a… sausage-y crumble thing for this vegan biscuits and gravy recipe. You know – something classic to go with warm biscuits and gooey gravy, something you’d find in an old school diner somewhere in the south. This was not it.. It didn’t really taste like sausage, but it was still delicious and interesting all the same. The sunflower seeds are toasty and spicy, and give the dish a protein center as well as a varied texture, too.
However, if you’d like, you can also just fry up some store-bought vegan sausages instead, or try these MEATY PECAN & RED PEPPER CHORIZO CRUMBLES instead.
But, if you do want to try the sunflower seed crumble for this vegan biscuits and gravy recipe, then here’s what you’ll need for the sunflower seed crumble.
- Raw sunflower seeds
- Yellow onion
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Low-sodium tamari
- Paprika
- Ground cumin
- Chili powder
- Ground mustard
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
- Liquid smoke
Be sure that if you are going to make this crumble, that you opt for raw sunflower seeds – roasted ones won’t work (they’ve already had a visit to the oven, you see).
More Like This Vegan Biscuits and Gravy Recipe
– MEATY PECAN & RED PEPPER CHORIZO CRUMBLES
– STUFFED DELICATA SQUASH WITH TAHINI GRAVY
I hope that you enjoyed this vegan biscuits and gravy recipe. If you did, consider leaving me a comment and recipe rating before you go.
Cornmeal Biscuits and Tahini Gravy
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
For the Cornmeal Biscuits
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup medium grind cornmeal
- 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup vegan butter, chilled
- ⅓ cup unsweetened soy milk, or your favorite unsweetened plant-based milk
For the Sunflower Seed Crumble
- ¾ cup raw sunflower seeds
- ½ yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon low-sodium tamari, or low-sodium soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon paprika, smoked paprika works too
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground mustard
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon liquid smoke
For the Tahini Gravy
- 2 ½ tablespoons olive oil, divided
- ½ yellow onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups mushroom broth, low-sodium preferred
- 2 ½ tablespoons tamari, low-sodium preferred
- 1 ½ tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 ½ tablespoons raw tahini
Instructions
For the Cornmeal Biscuits
- Begin by preheating the oven to 450°F (232°C). Then, add the all-purpose flour, cornmeal, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt together to a large mixing bowl. When the oven is preheated, add the ¼ cup of chilled vegan butter to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, and then cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry cutter until all the butter has been incorporated, and so has turned the dry ingredients a pebbly texture. Make a well in the center of that, add the soy milk, and fold all the ingredients together until it forms a cohesive dough.
- On a clean surface, divide the dough into about 6 to 8 portions, and then shape them into circular discs about ½ – ¾ of an inch thick. Make sure they're relatively uniform in size. After that, set them on a baking sheet, and bake for 12 minutes, until they've puffed up and are nice golden brown on the bottom. Once baked, gently cover with foil to keep warm until you're ready to serve them.
For the Sunflower Seed Crumble
- Now turn the oven down to 375°F (190°C). Combine all the sunflower seed crumble ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, and mix well until all of the seeds are covered in spices. Then, spread the sunflower seeds across a baking sheet (not like all the way spread out to space between individual seeds – just not clumped on top of each other), and bake for 14 – 16 minutes, turning the seeds halfway through (7 – 8 minutes).
For the Tahini Gravy
- Meanwhile, in a cast-iron pan over medium heat, sauté the yellow onion and garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Once golden brown (5 – 6 minutes), add another 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil, and then the flour, letting it clump up around the onions. Toast the flour for about 1 – 2 minutes. After that, add the mushroom broth, low-sodium tamari, nutritional yeast and raw tahini. Bring this to a light boil, and then reduce the heat to low-medium, continuously whisking the gravy well until it has thickened into a texture that you like. This should take 3 – 5 minutes or so to thicken sufficiently. Turn the heat to low, and cover to keep warm.
For the Cornmeal Biscuits & Gravy
- To serve, split a couple cornmeal biscuit in half, ladle over some tahini gravy, and top that with the sunflower seed crumble, as well as another garnish like fresh parsley or fresh chives, for color.
Nutrition
May you have good food in good company,
That Vegan Nephew
Yum. So delicious and deeply reminiscent of a farm breakfast or lunch on Saturday morning at Grandma’s house with a big cup of hot perked coffee on the side and another biscuit for dessert waiting in the wings with homemade jam. Thank you Vegan Nephew.