The Best Paleo Sausage Gravy Loaded Breakfast Bowl
Growing up in Texas, biscuits and gravy is a lifestyle. Being gluten and dairy free throws a big kink into this. But when I found myself craving biscuits and gravy, I came up with a delicious alternative. This Loaded Breakfast Bowl has it all and can be served for the obvious but it is equally at home with mimosas on a Sunday early afternoon for brunch. Whenever it makes it to your table, I promise you will LOOOOVE it!
What's Included in this Breakfast Bowl?
This bowl is a mix of my Texas roots and my stint in California. With a base of arugula and home fries, there's scrambled eggs, olive oil-soaked cherry tomatoes, and topped off with creamy sausage gravy. While tomatoes and arugula may sound insane, don't knock it til you try it. The arugula offers a freshness (yes, you can sub spinach), and the acid of the tomatoes gives your palate a break from the fattiness of the eggs and gravy. I've actually made this without the potatoes and it was equally good, but the potatoes definitely offer the carb element that brunch and breakfast need.
How to Make Gravy Without Gluten or Dairy
Gravy is made up of fat, flour or starch to thicken and a liquid, typically broth, milk or cream. To make this dairy free and gluten free, and therefore Whole30 and Paleo friendly, I have come up with some great substitutions. Equal parts almond flour and tapioca starch offer everything that unbleached regular flour does for thickening. Almond milk and Nutpods are the perfect stand-ins for the milk and/or cream. Typically, bacon or sausage fat are used by Southern cooks and would be completely acceptable. You can also use ghee or less desirably, avocado oil for the fat if you don't have the rendered fat from bacon or sausage.
How to Make a Vegan/Vegetarian Breakfast Bowl?
Absolutely! That said, I've never done this and have no idea how it will taste, but I do know it can be done. Here's How:
Omit Sausage
The obvious change would be to omit the sausage. The seasonings will need to be bumped up to taste if you leave out the sausage completely. If you want to use a vegan sub for sausage, there is really only one contender that I would consider healthy enough for humans to consume. The chemicals and additives in most plant-based meats are toxic (especially the “Beyond” brand), so the only acceptable sub is Abbot’s Butcher brand. They are Whole30 approved which automatically means their products are gluten, dairy and soy free and don't have toxic ingredients. There is not a direct sausage sub per se, but they do have ground chicken or beef (or if you're feeling spicy, chorizo) and with added spices from my Homemade Sausage post, you could have a worthy sub. You can also double the spices in the recipe below.
Change Fat
Use ghee instead of sausage fat. Even if you sub the Abbotts, you will not get any residual fat from it. Heat the plant-based meat with ghee or avocado oil. then proceed with the rest of the recipe.
Omit Eggs
This also seems obvious. If you do omit eggs, make sure to use the plant-based sausage in the gravy for protein.
Loaded Breakfast Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes
- Avocado Oil
- Magic Salt
- 1 lb sausage
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 2 tsp Magic Salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp cayenne, optional
- 2 cups unsweetened almond milk or as needed
- 1/2 cup Nutpods or coconut milk
- 1 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 8 eggs, whisked
- Arugula or spinach
- Thinly sliced green onions for garnish
Instructions
- Cut the potatoes into small, bite-size chunks.
- Toss the potatoes with a tablespoon or two of EVOO. Toss again with sea salt and black pepper.
- Place in air fryer basket in an even layer and turn air fryer to 400 degrees and set timer for 7 minutes. When timer goes off, shake the basket to turn the potatoes then return the basket to the air fryer for 5 more minutes.
- Repeat the shaking and baking for another 5 minutes until they are golden on all sides.
- While home fries are roasting, heat a large skillet over medium high heat and cook sausage breaking up into small pieces.
- When it's cooked through, add the almond flour, tapioca starch and spices stirring to coat the sausage pieces completely.
- Add the almond milk a little at a time, whisking to thoroughly incorporate. When the gravy is the consistency of heavy cream, add the Nutpods. Keep whisking and add more almond milk if necessary to keep it pourable. Keep warm over low heat while preparing remaining ingredients.
- Toss the tomatoes with olive oil, sea salt and pepper.
- Cook eggs until they are softly scrambled.
- Divide the arugula among 4 bowls and top with the home fries. Top with eggs and gravy. Divide the tomatoes over each bowl and drizzle the olive oil around the arugula. Garnish with green onions.