Sausage Gravy over homemade biscuits was a typical weekend or holiday breakfast growing up. Long before I started limiting my wheat intake, I stopped eating this deliciousness because I would always get a stomachache. Now, it’s back with a makeover for healthier Sausage Gravy over Roasted Sweet Potatoes. There are definitely some things that you just can’t replace, but lucky for me, I like the new sweet potato version even better!
I like the flavor of the orange sweet potatoes (otherwise known as yams). There seems to be a lot of confusion over which ones are yams vs. sweet potatoes. For my purposes, I’ve always know sweet potatoes as the yellow ones, and yams as the orange ones. I guess we’ll never know!
To roast sweet potatoes:
1. Wash them well.
2. Cut them in half lengthwise.
3. Place them face down on a parchment lined baking sheet.
4. Roast until they’re tender and caramelized, this usually takes 45 minutes depending on the size of your sweet potatoes.
For more information about roasting sweet potatoes, head over to my Roasted Sweet Potato post.
The gravy only takes a few minutes: so, when the sweet potatoes are almost done, start by browning the sausage in a cast iron skillet, breaking it up into small pieces.
I prefer smaller bits of sausage over bigger chunks, because I like to get a piece of sausage with every bite of sweet potato. These are the things that occupy my thoughts, and I’m not too sure what that says about me or how ‘normal’ it might be. But… there are definitely more days than not, where my head is filled with daydreams about food and contemplations of texture and flavor.
Ok… back to business.
After you brown your sausage, add your choice of milk, the cornstarch/water mixture, and the sea salt. Whisk over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil and thickens.
Note: I like the texture of cornstarch in this dish better than arrowroot, but you can use either one.
I used fresh raw milk for my gravy, but I’ve also tried almond and coconut milk with great results. Homemade almond milk tastes best in sauces if you have the time, and coconut milk from the carton is a better option than from the can because it’s only lightly coconutty.
The type of sausage you use determines the flavor of your dish. I love country sage breakfast sausage in particular, and I add a bit of chopped fresh sage to accent that flavor. Mild Italian sausage or any other breakfast sausage is great as well.
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Country Sausage Gravy over Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes, split in half lengthwise
- Sausage Gravy:
- 1/2 pound breakfast sausage, (I like sage sausage)
- 1 1/2 cups milk of choice
- 2 Tablespoons organic cornstarch/arrowroot mixed with 2 Tablespoons water
- 1 Teaspoon of sea salt (this may vary depending on your type of sausage)
- 1/4 Teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon fresh sage, chopped (opt)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the halved sweet potatoes face down on the parchment and roast until tender and caramelized, about 45 minutes.
- About 10 minutes before the potatoes are done, preheat a 9″ cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.
- Brown your sausage of choice, breaking it up into small pieces.
- Add your milk of choice, the cornstarch mixture, and sea salt. Whisk until the gravy comes to a boil and thickens, about 5 minutes.
- Add the freshly ground black pepper.
- Serve the gravy immediately with the roasted sweet potatoes and the chopped fresh sage.
Notes
For the dairy free version, be sure to use almond or coconut milk. The amount of salt in sausage really varies, so add salt to your taste.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
My go to favorite for sauces is cashew cream. Just soak the cashews for a few hours, rinse and then blend in a Vitamix to get a really silky texture. Dairy free and delicious.
I just tried cashew cream last week, and I absolutely loved it! I want to start working on some recipes using it, I’m starting with a pumpkin ice cream recipe from a reader request.
Yep, this was quite tasty. Tickled that sweet and savory line with the comfort food goodness of a starch.
A few notes:
1 pound of Tennessee pride hot sausage. After browning, I removed the sausage to a bowl lined with paper towels to drain and made the gravy separately.
Used 2 cups of milk and added that to the hot pan, added some of the hot milk to the corn starch mixture to temper it to prevent lumps.
Finally, added a pat of butter to the end because you can’t have sweet potatoes without at least a little butter.
Loved all your tips, I’m going to try it with 2 cups of milk next time because I always like more sauce! And… I totally agree about the butter on sweet potatoes, it’s my favorite way to eat them!
I just made this for lunch! so delicious. Even my super picky red meat and dairy loving boyfriend licked his plate clean.
Ever since I was diagnosed as dairy and gluten intolerant I’ve MISSED white gravy so much. So happy I can make one of my favorite cheat day breakfast meals again!
Great to hear it went over well! What kind of milk did you use for your gravy?
You do realize that your raw milk is no longer raw after you cook it (although it is not ultra pasteurized!). I’m making this comment for those who need to drink raw milk only—something to think about.
Yes! I definitely know that the milk’s not raw after you cook it and it’s not classified under the raw category. I personally like to use raw milk myself for cooking because I believe that pasteurizing it + cooking it destroys the milk, double-cooked so to speak.
Dinner tonight!
Good idea – breakfast for dinner!
I made this tonight using leftover half and half, and thickened it with tapioca flour.
I ended up using too much tapioca flour and had to ‘water’ it down a bit with some left over sour cream, but it turned out delicious!
Glad it turned out anyways! How was the texture with tapioca flour, I haven’t tried that yet?
Actually it was a great thickener. I thick if I had actually measured it instead of eyeballing it then I wouldn’t have had to add the sour cream, as it got a bit gummy. But after the sour cream it was great!
this is a great idea! i’m excited to try it sometime.