Pages

Monday, August 4, 2008

Can you use soy milk to make gravy?

Can you use soy milk to make gravy? YES! Not only am I lactose intolerant, but I'm also allergic to dairy. When I have dairy the immediate result is a major sneezing 'attack' that lasts sometimes up to 30 minutes and ends with a congested head and nasal area for a couple hours - the lactose intolerant part of it catches up with me later. Although I can take something like Lactaid to ease the intolerance, there really isn't anything I can do about the allergy part. To be honest, one of my guilty pleasures is ice cream on the rare occasion - I just suffer through it and then vow not to do it again!

For the most part, I use soy milk for cooking and cereal. I mainly use Silk Vanilla Soy which has a slightly sweet taste and if you're health conscious, you can use this on cereal and skip the sugar. I used to drink milk a lot with meals and do miss that - not sure I would want to drink a whole glass of soy milk. The only butter I use is Smart Balance Lite with olive oil, as it doesn't seem to affect me - but, I use it very lightly. Just about the only cheese I use on a regular basis is Borden Fat Free cheese, which is actually very good. I can occasionally have a small amount of cheddar or swiss cheese as it doesn't have as much lactose in it as other cheeses.

So, this morning, I looked to see what I could fix for breakfast and wondered if I could use my soy milk for gravy??? I did some research on the internet and didn't really find a clear answer. When all else fails, JUST DO IT, right? So I did - and it was fine.

I fixed turkey sausage patties, which don't leave any grease in the pan to put the flour in, so I added just a small drop of bacon grease (I keep some bacon grease on hand for times such as this). I put my flour in and thickened it, then started adding my vanilla soy milk. At first, I didn't think it was going to thicken, but it did! Yeah!!

We poured the gravy over some Grand's whole grain biscuts, had sausage on the side, and had a very good and mostly healthy breakfast!

I should also say that my husband is neither lactose intolerant or allergic to dairy, but he goes right along with my need for soy milk and actually likes it. If you've ever had soy milk, you know it has just a hint of a 'grain' taste to it and this came through in the gravy, but only slightly.........so, try it, you never know!

2 comments:

Charlie Sommers said...

I was happy to find that I could use soy milk for gravy. I was going to try it in the morning anyway but now I can forge ahead with confidence.

Thanks!

Bosslady said...

How did the soy milk work for your gravy Charles? Since this post, I have switched to Rice milk and it works just as well. The vanilla rice milk adds a sweeter flavor to the gravy.