Spicy Sausage Sauté with Gravy over Grilled Potatoes

One sad potato with demon sprouts, a few borderline-expired homemade veggie sausage links, and a week-long hankering for gravy…these were the real ingredients on hand before coming up with this recipe. Sometimes, despite a fruitful visit to the food store and a newly replenished green supply, you still need to follow the first-in, first-out principle before enjoying the fresh goods. In this case, there were a few items that really needed a chop and chomp before succumbing to the useless, futile fate of the garbage bin - a travesty in my house. Potatoes and veggies sausages.

Sausage and potatoes is not an odd pair in the least nor is it difficult to muster up a recipe that calls for both. Luckily, with my gravy-craving pangs, both pair well with a thick white sauce. I thought of mashed potatoes and gravy, sausage gravy and biscuits or a breakfast-like hash with sausage for dinner, but none of the more conventional recipes involve many vegetables. And while they sound delicious, I still always need a colorful edge to my food, especially after a good, hot run. With all of these recipes ideas paired with my color craving, I starting cooking this dish with no idea of what I was making.

Over the weekend I came across a grilled potato recipe on Epicurious that sounded delish. I also have an unused grill pan that came into my possession when I acquired roommates. Easy enough as a base or side… I then had a sausage scramble idea in mind to go on top, but I knew it would fare on the dry side, especially over grilled potatoes that would themselves be dry unless I completely doused them with oil. So the solution was…gravy! I had only made vegan gravy once a very long time ago, but it didn’t seem that hard. Onion and garlic powder can turn a dull combo like flour, margarine and water into a tasty treat. Maybe it took a little more sprucing than that, but you get the point.

I like to make my own veggie sausages, but I realize it is a lot of work. This was quick, because I had them on hand, but you could also use store-bought links. I’ll include my recipe below, and it’s worth making the whole batch over the weekend to eat throughout the rest of the week. Whichever you choose, this will end up a tasty meal to be sure. As my designated omnivore taste-tester claimed, “This is my kind of meal!” To which this vegan replied, “Meat and potatoes…?” – Well, yeah.

Spicy Sausage Sauté with Gravy over Grilled Potatoes
Makes 2 servings

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the Sauté
½ T. Olive oil
½ c. Onion, chopped
1 Medium celery stalk, chopped
½ Large carrot, chopped
¾ c. Green bell pepper, chopped
1 Garlic clove, minced (about 2 tsp)
½ tsp. Sage, dried
½ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Fennel seed
¼ tsp. Crushed red pepper
6-8 Veggie Sausage links (store bought or homemade – recipe below), chopped

For the Potatoes
1 Medium russet potato, ½ inch thick slices
1 T. Canola Oil
Salt & Pepper

For the Gravy
1 T. Earth Balance
1 ½  T. Flour
½ c. Almond milk
½ c. Water
¼ tsp. Onion powder
¼ tsp. Garlic powder
¼ tsp. Thyme, dried
¼ tsp. Salt
Pinch of white pepper

Directions

For the Sausage: Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large non-stick skillet and cook onions, celery, and carrots until vegetables are translucent and tender, 8-10 minutes. Add green pepper, garlic and spices to the pan and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in sausage and cook until brown, another 8-10 minutes, coating with cooking spray if mixture becomes too dry. Set aside.

For the potatoes: Put potato slices in a medium sauce pan and cover completely with water. Bring to a boil and reduce water to simmer. Parboil potatoes until just tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside in a medium bowl. Coat with canola oil, salt and pepper. Heat a grill pan over high heat and coat with cooking spray. Cook potatoes until grill marks are dark brown, about 3 minutes per side. Set aside.

For the Gravy: Melt the Earth Balance in a small sauce pan over medium high heat. Add flour and stir until roux forms. Whisk in almond milk, water, and spices. Whisk until mixture is well-blended and heat until just bubbling. Lower heat to medium and cook until desired thickness is reach. Remove and set aside.

To Assemble: Place 6-8 potato slices on a plate. Top with 1 cup of sausage sauté and 3-4 tablespoons of gravy.

Veggie Sausage Links (Adapted from Bryanna Clark Grogan's Veggie Ground Pork Recipe)
Makes 10 patties, or 14-16 links
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 T. Soy sauce
1 tsp. Sage
1 tsp. Onion powder
1 tsp. Garlic powder
¾ tsp. Paprika
½ tsp. Fennel seed
½ tsp. Crushed Red Pepper
¾ c. Boiling water
1 c. TVP

4 oz. Extra firm tofu, crumbled
½ c. Wheat gluten flour

Directions

Mix soy sauce and spices together in small mixing bowl. Whisk in boiling water and stir to completely blended. Pour liquid over TVP and let rehydrate about 10 minutes. Mix in crumbled tofu and let mixture cool completely. Stir in gluten with hands and shape into patties, links or balls. Wrap in aluminum foil and steam or simmer for 20 minutes. After steaming, sausages can be frozen, cooled or sautéed.

Blueberry Bran Muffins with Streusel Topping

Good morning sunshine! That’s what Monday morning said to me as I prepared a “Welcome” batch of muffins for a new co-worker. Having just come home from an early morning run, I was on a roll. Run, walk the dog, bake, get ready for work….I know, over-achiever. But it feels good to be productive, especially when Monday mornings tend to be dull at best and foreboding at worst. Whenever I get back from a run, I’ve either got crispy vegetables or healthy grains on my mind depending on the time of day. At 6 am I was definitely thinking grains.

Blueberry muffins are my favorite and bran muffins are a close second. I used to hate blueberries (a sore admission on my part), but I would eat a blueberry muffin in a heart beat. Blueberries are just starting to come around as a regular grocery item, so I had a few containers on hand. I had already planned to make muffins for the occasion and had picked out a recipe after an extensive online search. As I reached for the flour, what did I see? Flax, bran and nuts, oh my! Of course I wasn’t just going to follow a recipe, duh. I wanted some chew to my muffins and a sweet crunch on top. So I laced these babies with bran and used coconut oil for that magic je ne sais quoi.

The crunch was the important part. I have not had much success with typical streusel toppings consisting of just flour and sugar – they tend to get clumpy and not crunchy. Oat-based toppings are better, but my favorite features nuts. The kind of nut hardly matters, just mix it with sugar and I’m good. In this case I couldn’t decide between walnuts and pecans so I used both with fabulous results. It must have been this special edge that sparked the comment, “You’ve outdone yourself.” Gracias.

These muffins were incredibly moist and, as such, need much care when removed from the pan. Even with a generous amount of cooking spray, they need a good knife-around-the-edge careful lifting TLC. They fall apart easily, but it works out if you’d like to spread a dab of Earth balance in the middle. Delicious, moist, crunchy, semi-sweet and perfect for a healthy indulgence.

Blueberry Bran Muffins with Streusel Topping
Makes 12 medium muffins
Prep time: 5 minute
Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

1 ¼ c. Whole-wheat pastry flour
¼ c. Oat bran
¼ c. Wheat bran
¼ c. Flaxseed meal
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. Salt

¾ c. Almond milk
2/3 c. Sugar
¼ c. Applesauce
¼ c. Coconut oil
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 c. Blueberries, fresh or frozen

¼ c. Pecan/Walnut mix, coarsely ground
2 T. Sugar
½ tsp. Cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Blend wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and slowly add to dry. Stir mixture until no clumps are left. Add another 1-2 tablespoons of flour is mixture is too wet.

Mix nuts, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Pour batter into muffin pan and top each muffin evenly with streusel topping. Bake for 25 minutes or until inserting a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Potato Poblano Hash with Tofu "Eggs"

This has been those “use-up-what-you-have” weeks. With 3 days away from home last weekend and a big move coming up this weekend, I had to seriously resist the urge to load up at the farmers market this week. Instead, I made every reasonable effort to use up all fresh foods in order to avoid packing a refrigerator full of produce. To get the creative juice flowing, I tallied my resources. A half potato, half rutabaga, and half onion were scattered around in my refrigerator. Hearing their calls from corners of the Kenmore, I was reminded of how round, firm and beautiful the roots were at the market when I bought them nearly 2 weeks prior. Now they are peeled, half-consumed, and left in the shadows – waiting for me to pull my mind out of my busy life and back into the kitchen for some improvisational cuisine.

Who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner? If there is one dish that really works both ways, it’s a good, hearty hash. While standard hash browns are truly suitable any time of day, I enjoy a nice hash out of its traditional brunch context. One of my favorite recipes as an omnivore was a spicy sweet potato hash with mustard greens and poached eggs. Though I did have a sweet potato at my disposal, it wasn’t sliced open yet like the white potato and rutabaga that were both looking pretty desperate. One confession: I did make a minor grocery run to pick up a few key ingredients that I thought would make this dish really pop. I wanted a spicy, roasted pepper to give the hash a kick and a fresh pepper for sweetness. I also love adding sturdy greens to potatoes for a texture twist and nutritional punch. I made it out of Whole Foods in about a 3rd of the normal cost, which made this still feel like a cleaning-out-the-fridge recipe sadly enough.

The poached egg replacement was tricky. While many breakfast-style eggs are easy to veganize, a poached egg or “over-easy” version is harder to replicate. I found an intriguing recipe on VegWeb that I adjusted based on reader reviews and my own personal preferences. I marinate and then pan-fried pressed tofu slices. There are times when I barely have the patience to really drain and press tofu, but this seemed necessary and worthwhile. If you have never pressed tofu before, it is incredible easy. It just takes a couple of cans and 10 minutes of waiting while the water seeps out. The original recipe says to bake the tofu, which I did for 10 minutes until I decided I wanted a crispier texture. I ended up pan-frying them the rest of the way and they came out beutifully. Next time I might try coating them with a touch of corn starch for added crunch.

Though the rutabaga admittedly did not stand out in this dish, you could use a combination of white and sweet potato with excellent results. You could also grate instead of cubing the potatoes, since we all have our geometric preferences. To make this spicier, if you end up with a weaker pepper like I did, add more cayenne and a dash of hot sauce to the hash. If this is too spicy, as some Poblanos end up being, whip up some vegan sour cream with that spare silken tofu lying around in your pantry.

Potato Poblano Hash with Tofu "Eggs"
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

Hash

1 Poblano, Anaheim or Pasilla pepper

2 c. Potatoes, russet or baking, rinsed and cut in ¼” cubes

1 c. Rutabaga, peeled and cut in ¼” cubes

2 T. Canola oil

1 Medium onion, chopped

4-5 Large garlic cloves, minced

1 c. Red bell pepper, chopped

½ lb Swiss chard, leaves and stems divided chopped

1 tsp. Salt (or to taste)

½ tsp. Cayenne

Tofu
1 14 oz package of extra firm tofu, drained
3 T. Canola Oil
3 T. Apple cider vinegar
1 ½ T. Soy sauce
2 tsp Garlic powder
½ tsp Turmeric
Hot pepper sauce to taste (Tabasco, Louisiana or other favorite brand)

Directions

Set oven to high broil setting. Broil whole pepper, turning occasionally, until blackened and blistered on all sides. Remove from oven and place in a paper bag to cool. When cool enough to handle, peel skin and remove stem and seeds. Chop and set aside.

While pepper broils, steam or parboil potatoes and rutabaga 3-4 minutes until barely tender. Set aside.

Heat oil in cast iron skillet and sauté onions over medium heat until starting to brown, about 10-15 minutes. Increase heat to high and add potatoes, rutabaga and garlic. Stir well to be sure vegetables don’t stick too much to the bottom of the pan, cook 10-15 minutes until vegetables start to brown.

While potatoes are browning, press liquid out of tofu by cutting the block into 6-8 slices. Place slices over a few paper towels on top of a cutting board. Place a pan or baking dish on top of slices and press down by putting a few cans of beans/tomato sauce/etc… in the dish. Let tofu press 10 minutes. When finished, place in a baking dish. Whisk together remaining ingredients (oil through hot sauce) and pour over tofu. Let tofu marinate while you finish the hash.

Add red pepper and chard stems to the hash, stir and sauté another 5 minutes or until pepper starts to brown. Add Chard leaves, roasted Poblano (or whichever roasted green pepper you chose), salt and cayenne. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Once chard is wilted and potatoes are sufficiently brown and crispy, remove from heat and set aside.

Coat the same pan in cooking spray and fry the marinated tofu until crispy and brown on each side, about 5-6 minutes per side. Remove and place over hash.