Vegetarian Southern Sweet Potato Gravy is a coconut milk based curry that’s lightly sweet, rounded out with a touch of curry, and wholly satisfying. And it’s ready in 20 minutes!
Reader Request
This week’s recipe is one I am so excited to deliver, because this one came from a reader request! If you’re not already on my mailing list, do sign up! I send sneak previews of upcoming recipes, and often ask readers to vote for what they’d like to see on the blog. Signing up is easy – you can do it right here!
This request came after I posted a photo on Instagram of a Vegetarian Sweet Potato Gravy from Biscuit Head in Asheville.
I ADORE Biscuit Head by the way. They have a jam bar y’all! What’s not to love?
And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I was happy to try my hand at a vegetarian southern sweet potato gravy. This one even gets bonus points for being vegan.
Unabashed Love of Comfort Food
I recently had the opportunity to attend BlogHer 17. BlogHer is a conference for bloggers of all kinds, and while it is very women centric, 20% of attendees are male. It was an absolute smashing good time and very educational too.
One of the highlights for me was getting to see Carla Hall and hear her speak. You know Carla Hall yes? From The Chew and Top Chef? I am SUCH a Top Chef fan, and Carla Hall is one of my favorite contestants ever. That pot pie dance!
Seeing her in person at BlogHer in Orlando was powerful for me though. Because it was like she was speaking my language:
“I unapologetically love comfort food and soul food and I won’t be shamed because I love that. It’s how I give back.” Carla Hall
I feel like this could be my mantra as well, and I want to take a minute to thank BlogHer for helping me do what so many bloggers say you have to do – define yourself.
I mean, geez, I thought I’d know who the hell I am by this age.
But blogging is a whole other thing.
Blogging, and find your blogging style, takes time. I’m still early in this game, but one thing I realized at BlogHer is that the recipes I enjoy creating and sharing most are the comfort food ones.
I began this blog thinking that I would blog about both vegetarian and pescetarian recipes. Because that’s who I am. But after talking with other bloggers and listening to the informative panels at BlogHer, I feel that perhaps I should narrow that focus. Perhaps I should just be sharing vegetarian comfort food with you.
Because those are the posts that YOU all seemed to like best too.
So maybe this is like one great big party where we’re beginning to get to know each other. And now we know. Veggie comfort food.
I have been everywhere with food.
I’ve been a fad dieter, I’ve been a Weight Watcher, I’ve been a long distance runner. But now, now I am simply a cook, an eater, a woman with a family. I believe in heating healthy, and I believe in eating well.
As a lifelong writer, and artistic, creative person food is a creative outlet for me as much as a nutritional base. I want to make it look good, and sound good, and taste good. Food is my art. And comfort food my is my favorite mode of expression.
Am I right? Let me know what you think in the comments, or hop on my email list and send me a private message!
It’s All Gravy, Except when It’s Not
In the south we have a lot of different gravies. You can have sawmill, sausage, red eye, or tomato gravy, and all that’s just for breakfast. If you want to get Creole there’s sauce piquante, and then of course there are the meat based brown gravies, turkey gravies, and so on for dinner. And then, of course, there’s sweet potato gravy.
Most southern breakfast gravies are actually variations on Sauce Bechamel, which is one of the Five Mother Sauces. A Bechamel is made with butter, flour, milk, salt, and nutmeg. A southern white gravy is made with all of those minus the nutmeg, and the fat usually comes from sausage or bacon drippings instead of butter.
You can see the legendary Emeril’s recipe for Sweet Potato Gravy here. You’ll note it’s starts with pork chops.
But here at Coquette Kitchen, we want all the yummy comfort of the gravy without the meat base.
This Vegetarian Southern Sweet Potato Gravy recipe even uses coconut milk as it’s base, which means even vegans can get in on the party. It’s awesome served over our Sea Salt and Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits, but I also love it as an accompaniment to eggs, or even over rice!
Vegetarian Southern Sweet Potato Gravy
Ingredients
- 1 Large Sweet Potato
- 1 Medium Yellow Onion
- 1 Can Coconut Milk
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Muchi Curry
- 1/4 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
- a Pinch of Cardamom
- 2-3 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
- 2 Tabslepoons Olive Oil
Instructions
- Bake your potato in the microwave for 2-4 minutes. You don't want it to be mushy, just soft enough to easily dice. Peel and dice potato and set aside.
- Slice onions.
- Saute onions in olive oil over medium heat until soft and just starting to brown.
- Add sweet potatoes and spices (salt, curry, cardamom, black pepper)
- Add flour, one tablespoon at a time, until it is incorporated. For a thicker gravy you can use slightly more flour, for a thinner gravy, slightly less.
- Slowly add in the coconut milk, stirring continuously with each add. I like to add about 3 tablespoons worth of coconut milk at a time, stir several times, then add more coconut milk.
- Once all the coconut milk has been added, serve immediately over warm biscuits, eggs, or grits.