Vegan biscuits with sausage and gravy

Several weeks ago I discovered a recipe for vegan biscuits that blew my mind. They were lightly salty and buttery, supremely flaky and tender. And vegan! We had a few left over from a batch we made Saturday morning in the fridge and I thought maybe I'd try making some biscuits and gravy. I usually eat light breakfasts with a fair amount of fruit or vegetables but biscuits and gravy sounded really good this morning. We had some sweet sausage in the fridge as well so I was ready to make this right. This dish is very filling. One 2 1/2 inch biscuit per person should be enough. Don't be intimidated by this recipe at all, it's quite simple. The trick to making tender, flaky biscuits is to barely mix the dough. You can even bake them in your toaster oven. For the gravy I used lightly sweetened soy milk which gave it a really nice flavor. Generally, soy milk is lightly sweetened with cane juice. You can use unsweetened though if you wish. I like Morningstar veggie sausage or Lightlife 'Gimme Lean' sausage crumbles.

Serves 2
Time: 20 min

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 or so tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon of baking powder
1 + 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons of soy milk
salt
2 tablespoons vegan margarine
olive oil
1 lemon
cayenne pepper
fresh herbs ( I used a few sprigs of lemon thyme)
2 servings of vegan sausage

Biscuits:

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 450° and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. In a medium bowl combine 1 cup of flour, the baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon of salt (a generous pinch). Add margarine and combine ingredients using fingers or a fork until the margarine is distributed. The mixture should look crumbly. Add in a 1/4 cup plus 2 tablepoons of of soy milk, stir just until flour mixture is completely moistened. You can either use a spoon to drop the biscuit dough onto the baking sheet OR pat the dough with a little flour (to keep your hands from sticking) and transfer it to a lightly floured cutting board, flatten it gently with your hands and cut it into rounds using an inverted glass or a biscuit cutter if you have one. You should have two or three biscuits. Bake for 12-15 minutes. They will not turn gold or brown, when they've puffed up and the crust is crisp, they're done.

Sausage and Gravy:

Meanwhile...
In a small pan warm sausage pieces through completely following directions on package. Keep warm on low heat.
In a saucepan on medium-high heat warm a tablespoon or so of olive oil, while stirring with a whisk or spoon add in 2 tablespoons of flour. This should create a loose paste, a roux. Add more oil if you need to. Keep stirring and when the roux starts to bubble add in the cup of soy milk and keep stirring until it starts to thicken. Lower the heat if if it's bubbling and squeeze the juice of half a lemon, a generous pinch of salt and a pinch of cayenne to the gravy. Add in the fresh herbs. Turn the heat off and stir in the sausage.

Halve biscuits, place on plates and pour the gravy over. Garnish with cayenne and fresh herbs. Serve immediately.