"Meaty" Gravy

One thing that I am struggling with now that I am not eating meat, is getting that feeling of a heavy, "meaty" dish when I am looking for that.  The other night I decided to experiment and I figured out a pretty good recipe for a "gravy" that could be used on rice, egg noodles, tofu, etc.  This is a weekday recipe where I chose to start with a pre-made gravy rather than make my own, and then add my own components to it to thicken and spice it up!  You could make your own gravy to do this as well, but I like to save some time on the weekdays!  This recipe proves that food with a lot of flavor and texture doesn't always have to take a long time to prepare!

"Meaty" Gravy served over sushi rice with grilled squash and peppers

Ingredients:

1/2c Imagine vegetarian organic wild mushroom gravy 

65g black beans (cooked)

20g yellow onion diced

75g green pepper diced

2 white mushrooms diced small

6 sundried tomatoes (i like the ones jarred in olive oil) chopped roughly

Spices (I used rosemary and salt/pepper, the taste of this could be changed a lot with different choices)

Sautee onion and mushroom until onion is translucent in a splash of olive oil.  Add black beans and sundried tomato to pan, cook until warm.  Add gravy to pan and heat through, adding spices to taste.

Finished.  Super easy and very yummy.  I chose to put this gravy over a sushi rice that I cooked in a rice cooker while I prepared the gravy.  Entire meal took 25 minutes to cook and that's because I had to wait for the rice cooker to finish.  I will explore more with this recipe, using different spices, peppers, even different beans.  I see a lot of ways to adapt this basic recipe!

Calorie Content: The whole plate came in at just about 425 calories and the gravy alone was about 180 calories.