Last week on the 6 DIY food projects to try in 2011 post, Troglodyte in Training said, “And here I was all excited over mastering sausage-bacon gravy using coconut milk with powdered arrowroot for consistency.” Well, my little Troglodyte, you now get your wish!
Gluten-free biscuits & gravy
Biscuits and gravy were definitely on the menu when I was growing up. They aren’t a favorite food that I dearly miss now that I’ve gone Paleo (can we have a moment of silence for pizza, please?) but every now and then they were a nice treat. And when I saw Trog’s comment, I felt up to the challenge. I mean he did most of the hard work for me, suggesting coconut milk and arrowroot. The rest was super easy.
So if you’re one of those people who gets his panties in a wad over the fact that cavemen totally wouldn’t have been making biscuits and gravy, might I remind you of a quote from Andrew Badenoch, “Paleo is a logical framework applied to modern humans, not a historical reenactment.” That there quote applies to this here recipe. All the ingredients are technically Paleo, but I’d use this more as a treat for those lazy Sunday mornings every now and then when you want to hang out in the kitchen and make some true comfort food. It’s also perfect to try out on those Paleo-reluctant family members. The taste and texture overall is pretty darn close to the real thing. If I may say so, the gravy is spot-on. The biscuits are never going to be as light and fluffy as gluten-bombs made with cake flour and shortening, but they are good. They remind me of the whole wheat biscuits I used to make back in my weight watchers days: a little dense, but still biscuity enough to be called biscuits.
Some recipe notes
I added in sage and fennel to make the gravy even more sausage-y and mask the taste of the coconut milk. It worked. You could use any type of country style sausage here (that means sausage not in a casing). I used pork, but turkey sausage would work fine, and spicy sausage would be even better. The cayenne gives it a little kick, but leave it out if you must. Not familiar with arrowroot powder? Well here you go:
Arrowroot powder comes from the rhizome of the West Indian arrowroot plant, and is a thickener similar to cornstarch. Besides trying to avoid the evilness that is corn, I prefer it to cornstarch for a couple of reasons: It has a more neutral flavor than cornstarch, it works well at a low temperature and tolerates acidic ingredients for a longer cooking time, it gives dessert sauces and fillings a really pretty sheen, and unlike cornstarch, you can freeze things made with arrowroot without them turning into a blobby, gummy mess. Don’t use arrowroot powder with dairy, though, it turns things into a disgusting slimy mixture. Not cute.
Paleo Sausage Gravy
16 oz. country style pork sausage
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 can coconut milk (shake it up before you open it)
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp dried, rubbed sage
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
- Heat up a skillet over medium-high heat and brown the sausage. Break up the sausage into fairly small pieces so it will cook easily, but I like to leave some bigger chunks in there too. Once the sausage is thoroughly cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Discard most of the fat, but leave about a tablespoon in there, and leave all the stuck-on brown bits of sausage in the bottom of the pan.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Add the arrowroot and stir it into the fat & brown bits, whisking constantly for about a minute so it doesn’t burn. It will get pretty thick and almost dry.
- Add the coconut milk about 1/3 of the can at a time, and whisk together with the “roux” you just made, incorporating it thoroughly. Some of the browned bits should start to come off the bottom of the pan, too. This is what we want. Keep adding in the coconut milk until it is all incorporated. Add the fennel, sage, cayenne, salt and pepper and mix it in.
- Add the sausage back in and incorporate throughout the gravy. Cook for a moment so everything is heated evenly. Serve immediately over biscuits.
Paleo Biscuits
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cold grass-fed butter (coconut oil is fine here too)
6 egg whites
a little coconut oil
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease up 6 cups of a muffin tin with coconut oil.
- Put coconut flour, almond flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is incorporated. The butter pieces should be about the size of peas.
- In a blender (or by hand if you’re feeling energetic), whiz the egg whites until they are frothy. Add them to the food processor and pulse a couple times until they’re incorporated. Don’t go crazy though, just pulse it a few times until just blended.
- Distribute the batter evenly into the 6 cups of your muffin tin. It should fill them about 3/4 full. These biscuits don’t rise, so that’s okay. Bake for 15 minutes until the tops are browned.
- Pour your gravy on top, and enjoy.
Any requests?
Try out this recipe and let me know what you think! Do you have a Paleo-ize that recipe request? I will try my best to come up with something for you! Let me know in the comments.
What would happen if you used the egg yolks with the whites?
I think they’d be even more dense. That’s why I just went for the whites. I wanted the hold-together properties of the egg, but not the heaviness of the yolks.
Would you happen to have a good receipe for Chimichurri
lying around? I promise it would not go to waste…. 🙂
Oh! Yea, I was just thinking the same thing.
I got yo chimichurri right here:http://www.btbfitness.com/recipes/side-dishes-sauces-misc/basic-chimichurri.html
And Robb, for you, definitely up the hot sauce…I know how you feel about spicy. Haha.
There’s a good book out titled “Healthy Latin Cooking” that has great chimichurri and salsa receipes. Really good paleo-friendly seafood receipes, and things like “bake-fried” plantain chips are good as well.
I make a darn good chimichurri! Here’s the link!
http://everydaypaleo.com/2010/10/07/the-naked-factor-is-just-a-bonus-and-a-recipe-of-course/
Since going Paleo I find many of my meals veer to the breakfast side of things (bacon and eggs is all win), but one of the things that’s been missing from life is biscuits and gravy.
Bless you Amber. You earned yourself a subcriber today.
this sounds amazing! arrowroot powder and coconut milk..hmmm my husband loves this traditional dish, I do not dare to make it due to calorie and health reasons, but I must give it a try!
How about the rest in peace PIZZA, can we try to make a crust from almond and coconut flour?? Would it taste right? Maybe by adding Italian spices?? I would LOVE a good Paleo pizza to make once and a while!
Or how about Enchiladas!!!
Yes! Pizza, please! I miss good pizza so badly.
I made ‘enchiladas’ using cabbage leaves as the tortilla. It worked pretty well! Kind of like a mexican stuffed cabbage.
I finished off my husband’s dish of enchiladas with cheese, and he really enjoyed them.
Wow! great idea!
Check out everydaypaleo.com, great pizza receipe
One of the best crusts I’ve had (although I do admit to adding a little butter to it as well) . . .
http://castlegrok.com/cheese-less-pizza/
Try the meatza pizza crust, made with hamburger and sausage, it’s delicious.
Favorite quote from this post is for sure: “but still biscuity enough to be called biscuits.”-Miss Amber.
This recipe sounds fantastic, I think I shall suprise my wife with it one lazy weekend day.
For food help I am thinking I miss cereal any good Paleo cereal recipes that won’t cost an arm and a leg to make.
Thanks Amber you rock!
Cereal, hmmm could be a tough one. Maybe with a dehydrator. I’ll think on it.
That would be great! That is the one breakfast food I miss the most believe it or not.
Raw Gluten Free Granola
4 cups walnuts
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup water
4 dates, pitted
5 dried apricots, chopped
½ cup dried mulberries
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Soak walnuts and salt overnight in a large Glass dish or bowl
2. Rinse the walnuts, rinse the baking dish, then place the nuts back in the dish/bowl.
3. Place nuts in oven on lowest setting (our oven is 135°) and dehydrate for 24 hours or until crispy. (better to use a real dehydrator at 105 deg).
4. Once nuts are dehydrated, remove from oven and set aside
5. Place dates and water in food processor and pulse until a smooth paste forms
6. Add walnuts, apricots, mulberries and cinnamon and pulse until coarse, like granola
7. Place in oven in large Pyrex dish and dehydrate again for 24 hours or until crispy. (better to use real dehydrator process)
8. Serve as a snack or as cereal with almond milk.
This is really good. ENJOY!
I love cereal. I adapted a recipe from beautifullystrong.com (http://thebeautifullystrong.com/2010/02/23/you-can-have-your-cereal-and-eat-it-too/) to use on a fairly regular basis. I buy chopped walnuts and pecans from trader joes, unsalted macadamias, bananas, strawberries, and cinnamon. Also, because I love sweet things, I add mini soy/dairy/etc free chocolate chips (yes, they do have sugar) and a drizzle of honey. Delicious. It is kind of expensive but it lasts me much longer than a box of cereal used to, as I can only eat half a cup at a time, max, it’s so filling.
These were amazing… I may have made myself sick on them.
Just a couple of observations:
-I don’t agree with the above comment that they weren’t light and fluffy. I whipped a fair amount of air into the egg whites by hand and then folded the dry ingredients in and they came out incredibly fluffy yet held up well once covered in gravy. Excellent!
-I left out the fennel because I wasn’t excited about the idea of an italian sausage flavor and they were still delicious.
-I used pastured pork sausage that ended up fairly lean so I had to ADD some fat before I stirred in the arrowroot to give sufficient moisture to the roux.
-Next time so that I can have a thinner gravy (and maybe leftovers), I will probably double the amount of liquid and roux using a rich chicken stock for the second can of coconut milk. I think that will reduce the coconut taste even further and get in some always appreciate stock.
More recipe ideas like this, please!
I’m stoked that you were satisfied with the biscuits. And thanks for the heads up on the pastured pork, I hadn’t even though of that. My pork was not so legit. And great idea on the chicken stock. 🙂
All aboard the gravy train, with biscuit wheels! CHOO CHOOO!
Amber, thank you for posting this. I’m going to have to try this one. My mamaw (dad’s mother), used to make me handmade biscuits and gravy when I was a little boy, visiting her for holidays. I’ve never been able to replicate what she could make, but this looks like it could work!!!
Cheers~
This looks truly amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Cara
http://primroseandpaleo.wordpress.com
thoughts on ancient eating
Now I feel all special! I’m definitely trying this one out as soon as I get home! Mine was way less fancy, and way more bland.
Made a pound of bacon, saved the grease, crumbled it (the bacon – it’s pretty tough to crumble hot grease), browned a pound of chorizo sausage in the same pan, poured in the bacon grease once the sausage was done, threw in the bacon crumbles alongside two cans of coconut milk, and dumped in arrowroot powder while stirring until it was as thick as I wanted it. The only other thing I added was fresh-ground mixed pepper. It tasted more like liquid jerky than gravy, though that wasn’t exactly a bad thing.
Of course, I served it over exactly five fries instead of biscuits, but I did chop them up into tiny cubes first to get more of a hash brown feel.
Profuse and overly gratuitous amounts of thanks for this!
What about Pancakes…I miss pancakes so much and I would love to find a paleo replacement for them.
I had the Paleo pancakes from the Paleo solution book and they were better than regular pancakes
If you don’t have the book it is basically 2 eggs, nut butter, cinnamon, and unsweetened applesauce and a little cinnamon. For exact recipe buy the book, I am too lazy to go downstairs to get it. Would be making them again tomorrow but just ran out of applesauce.
Sorry I put cinnamon twice, haven’t been getting the nine hours of sleep I should. Also you are supposed to eat some ham on the side to complete the meal. Enjoy .
I would love you forever if you could come up with g-free wonton wrappers. I tried some with arrowroot powder and they were a mess!
Can’t waitto try the biscuits some special weekend.
I have used some egg-roll wraps made from tapioca that are pretty yummy. Used more as un-cooked spring rolls, but who knows.
I made the Paleo biscuits and sausage gravy for my co-worker this morning! She absolutely devoured a portion, saving some to share with her hubbie! Her birthday is next week & usually for her birthday, I make her breakfast of “oatmeal lasagna”(layered steel cut oats, w/stewed apples, and crushed, toasted pecans or walnuts) every Friday for the month of January….BUT, when I asked her if she’d like PALEO BREAKFASTS this birthday, she agreed! any more terrific breakfast recipes to share? I am all ears!!!!
This was scrumptious. I was very surprised that it didn’t taste a lick like coconut at all. I did kick up the spices just slightly and made a double batch of biscuits. If you double the biscuits, add an extra egg.
So easy, and soooooo good!
I think we need a monthly Biscuits & Gravy Sunday where we do tweaks on this theme and post the photos and recipes!
Please! I usually don’t need tweaked foods, but I’ve really got it going for some gnocchi. All through the holidays, I had to read about pumpkin gnocchi and all that stuff. Flour sucks. Somebody help!
Rainy Sunday morning in Dallas…
Tried this recipe, and WOW…even my wife was impressed! (She had some English muffins ready to go just in case.)
The flavor reminded me just a bit of some dishes I had in top-end hotels in Malaysia…slightly exotic, slightly coconut, YUM.
We had to add to add a little more oil for the roux (our turkey sausage had next to none) and we used almond paste from the bakery aisle (our Whole Foods didn’t have almond flour) otherwise, followed the recipe exactly. Fresh sage tasted great.
Thanks for this great idea!
Made these this morning and came out great. The spices and sausage really offset the flavor of the coconut milk.
Had to substitute extra coconut flour for the almond flour part – came out ok, just a little heavy and dry.
I think I’d be happy making the gravy to go with eggs and skipping the biscuits entirely.
Nice recipe!
I was just wondering if you can buy flour replacements at my local chain? Or does it have to come from a health food store? Also can you make your own flour? I have some unsalted almonds I won’t eat.
Brenden,
You can certainly make your own flour with a strong food processor or blender. And I buy all my coconut flour off Amazon. I buy almond flour at Trader Joes.
Almond Flour is also known as Almond MEAL… it is the same thing. Trader Joe’s calls it Almond Meal 😉
Let’s just say I’m a little obsessed with this recipe! Made it for breakfast before work this AM and talked about it all day! Thank you for sharing!
To top it all off, you can win free coconut oil with this recipe! Congrats Amber!
Thanks Todd! I was pretty stoked.
Amber,thanks a bunch for the recipe…it’s got to be one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a long time. Only bummer was that it only made one serving 😉
I made my biscuits with hazlenut flour rather than almond (because it was available) and they turned out fine. I think when I make them again, I’ll cut down on the salt just a little as it was just a bit much for my taste.
Keep up the great recipes!
Mark, don’t tell anyone, but yeah… I ate it all too hahah. Good tip on the hazelnut flour and thanks for the feedback re: salt! Glad you liked it!
Just Made this and it was outstanding!
I used Isernio’s Premium Chicken @ Apple Sausage as all the other pork sausage selections had MSG & no indication of being Gluten Free… Isernio’s stated Gluten Free on 2 of their 3 products. Even though it was not Pork Sausage per-say I could not tell a difference, however there was not much fat to stir in the Arrowroot so I added a TBSP of Coconut oil to make up for the difference. Oh yeah the recipe stated the biscuits DON’T rise, but mine did and turned out great!
I also added about 1/2 cup of Chicken Broth as the gravy gets thick if you don’t remove from the heat right away or if you let it sit on warm burner, so be aware of that.
This is gonna be my staple for biscuits and gravy!
Thanks for such a great recipe Amber!
Oh yeah on the Cereal deal, yes I have done this and YES you dehydrate the nuts and make a puree from either raisins or dates and combine the nuts, pumpkin seeds, bilberry’s etc.
not bilberry but Mulberries, sorry bout that
I posted the Cereal (Granola) recipe above to the person who asked 😉
However here is another:
Gluten Free and Grain Free Raw Granola (or Cereal)
2 cups almonds
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup raisins
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1. Place nuts and seeds in a large bowl, cover with water and soak overnight
2. Place raisins in a separate bowl, cover with (½ to 1 cup) water and soak overnight
3. Place the raisins, along with their soaking water in a food processor and puree until smooth
4. In a fine mesh metal strainer, drain and rinse the nuts and seeds and discard the soaking water
5. Add nuts and seeds to raisin puree in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, to the consistency of granola, then add vanilla, cinnamon and salt and pulse briefly to incorporate these final ingredients
6. Transfer mixture onto two large parchment lined baking sheets
7. To make live granola, place in the oven on the lowest setting (usually 105°) for 24 hours
8. For instant gratification, bake 45 minutes in the oven at 250°; for this more decadent treat, I sometimes drizzle honey over the granola, or add shredded coconut, currants and other dried fruit
9. Serve
Made the biscuits this morning on their own. We didn’t want the gravy so we just sauteed the sausage with some zucchini and onions, and had the biscuits on the side. They were an AWESOME treat. Will definitely make these again. Thanks Amber!! 🙂
Just made this. Delicious! I didn’t make it exactly like the recipe, of course. I didn’t have any coconut flour so I just used more almond flour. The biscuits turned out perfect! I can’t wait to tinker with the recipe a bit more. Thanks Amber!
Think this would stand up to muster without the sausage?
My husband and I made these for a lazy Sunday rest/weweregoodallweek day. Man oh man! They were great! Thanks so much for a wonderful treat.
Hi!
Sounds yummy and I would really like to try the biscut and gravy recipe. How many biscuts is a serving??
Thanks,
Cindy
My husband & I just finished the biscuits & gravy for supper. Absolutely yum! I sauteed a large shallot with
thinly sliced chard ribs in a little duck fat & wilted torn chard leaves, added a little chicken broth & simmered
till tender. Serve them on the side of the main in large pasta bowls. Paired well with a little zin or pino, I know
not so paleo but good!
By the way, Im from Mississippi, so I can relate to biscuits & gravy! Thanks for the groovy recipe!
Denise
I’m confused–I thought salt was a no no on paleo. Please explain
I would not worry overly unless you have hypertension.
I will totally make this for DINNER! lol
I have some questions though.. The Husband can’t have coconut 🙁 Any good substitutions?
Also, what does everyone think of Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free Flour? I got Almond Flour but that stuff is WAY too expensive to keep stocked :/
Thanks!
Almond flour is going to be your best bet! ‘Gluten free’ flours contain other types of grains that may have health implications. A thought would be to just avoid flours all together or use only for special occasions!
Ok great! But what about the coconut milk :/
That’s a tough one… I’d say give almond milk a shot – but I can’t guarantee the outcome or taste…
Such a great recipe! I’ve used it quite a bit over the last year!!
I found “1 can of coconut milk” too vague. Coconut milk is sold in a lot of package sizes. Can you be more precise by including the ounces or millilitres?
Thanks!
I had made another biscuit and gravy recipe that was a HUGE (and disgusting) failure, so I was very hesitant to risk the time and expensive organic ingredients on these. I am so glad I did though! They were awesome! The biscuits were definitely dry and I wouldn’t recommend serving them alone, but as long as they were topped with the gravy, the dish was great! Very flavorful and rich! One note is that it is very important to fully season the gravy. I skipped out on the fennel seeds and sage and still had a great gravy, but with a slight trace of coconut in the taste. That’s one thing I will do different next time!
BTW, I am blood type O and have found that I have some complications with coconut flour more than any other coconut product. I am wondering if I could do a full substitution with almond flour?
WOW! This was amazing and sooooo filling!! We couldn’t finish it all! I only had half a pound of sausage so did half a pound of bacon, too. No complaints from my house! Yumm!!
This recipe is the bomb! I’m trying to avoid using a lot of almond in my paleo cooking, so I used a different, all-coconut flour biscuit recipe. I also doubled the sausage/gravy and used half homemade chicken stock for the liquid. The spices are just right, and even my Southern food-loving husband declared hearty approval. It’s so wonderful to have a treat like this every once in a while without feeling like our bellies are digesting bricks. Thank you!
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but here’s a biscuit recipe with just almond flour that looks awesome. I can’t wait to try the gravy with them!!
http://www.foodrenegade.com/grain-free-biscuits-served-with-bacon-egg-and-cheese/
Was super excited to try these but mine came out really dry and crumbly and I followed recipe to a T–but I live at 6200 ft altitude–typically when baking non-Paleo at altitude you have to add flour and water…with coconut flour/almond flour does anyone know if I should be doing the same thing? Adding some extra coconut flour and water?
Anyone who has a good formula for high altitude baking Paleo I would love to hear your thoughts! 🙂
OMG…Loved the biscuits and gravy. I am a total b’s and g’s fan and this was awesome!! Thanks, I will be using this for years to come!
Will the gravy recipe work if I use almond flour? I don’t have any arrowroot on hand!
Maybe I expected too much from the biscuits. They lacked flavor no matter how much butter you put on them. I guess they need to be topped with the gravy.
When baking with almond flour or coconut flour, how do you get the finished product to not be so dry? My family is having a hard time with the dryness. thanks
allergic to almonds… what would you sub for the almond flour in the recipes?
I had two questions coming out of the recipe. The one regarding how much a can was, exactly, got answered. The other is this. I read a piece yesterday (6/6/13) entitled, “5 reasons to avoid almond flour”. Can something else (tapioca flour?) be subed for the almond. I’m new to Paleo (actually I haven’t even officially started it, but I think I want to stay away from almond flour.
I’m going to be making this for a co worker, how does it reheat? I will be making it the night before so want to make sure it will reheat in a microwave and still be good.
Would these biscuits freeze well? They were great for gravy but not for eating straight so I’d live to make extra to freeze so this can be a quick meal.
This morning I made these biscuits & followed the recipe to a T, it was a complete waste of ingredients! Biscuits turned out dry & tasteless, there has got to be a better paleo biscuit recipe out there 🙁
Doubled both recipes; biscuits and gravy. The gravy was a bit hot/spicy, so I would suggest maybe using 1 1/2 times the spices required. I also couldn’t bear wasting the egg yellows, so I used 1/2 of them. I thought they turned out fine; much like hou my grandmother made them.Overall, they were pretty good. My 91 year old dad liked them except for the extra spice.
I made these biscuits in a mini-donut pan. So yummy, and crispy.
I’m trying to make biscuits for someone who is eating Paleo style because of some kind of bacteria picked up in Thailand. They can’t have arrowroot. Do you have a suggestion for a substitution?
You might could use tapioca flour instead, or maybe even coconut flour (though the latter might change the consistency a bit).
Will these work with light coconut milk?
Sounds good, can’t wait to give it a go! Might I suggest a topping with some chopped cilantro, roma tomatoes, and your favorite hot sauce? Also, I think I’m going to fold some fresh onions into the rue…yummmmmm