Creamy Dairy Free Sausage Gravy (Gluten Free)

If you’re craving a creamy Southern-style sausage gravy and biscuits but have dairy allergies, make a batch of our dairy free sausage gravy! Our recipe is thick, creamy, and savory, plus it’s not only dairy free, it’s also gluten free.

One of the special occasion dishes my family loves the most is biscuits and gravy. This is usually the most requested birthday and holiday breakfast in our house!

Since my daughter and I have dairy allergies, we came up with this recipe for dairy free sausage gravy that we have been making for years, just without an actual written recipe.

I always just eyeballed the ingredients at home and rarely measured the ingredients for this, but I decided to write this one down to post for you all, but also so my daughter has one of her favorite recipes to follow once she starts her own home.

I’ve come to realize that our website is not only for my wonderful readers, but also for my kids to have access to their favorite allergy friendly recipes that are safe for them to eat. They are both getting older and will start off on their own soon, so we hope to print a cookbook of our family recipes for them in the next few years based on the recipes we share here on our website.

Why you’ll love our country gravy

This Southern-style sausage gravy is rich and so good over golden biscuits or breakfast potatoes. Even without dairy, this is creamy and flavorful.

Our version of this gravy is easier to make since you don’t have to make a roux to thicken this. Traditionally, white country gravy is thickened with a roux made of butter and flour. But we used cornstarch for an easier and gluten-free option to thicken our recipe.

How to make dairy free sausage gravy

Here are the steps for making our sausage gravy recipe (this is just an overview, the full recipe is at the end of the post):

1. Preheat a large and deep skillet over medium heat on the stovetop.
2. Add the natural pork breakfast sausage to the pan, and break up and cook until it is browned and cooked through. You can drain off any excess oil or fat at this point if your sausage has a lot of fat.
3. Once the sausage is fully cooked, add 3 cups of the coconut milk to the pan along with the cajun/creole spice and the black pepper and stir. I started using the Embē organic coconut milk for some of our recipes and I like it since it doesn’t have thickeners in it.
4. Leave out the remaining 1/2 cup of coconut milk and add to a small bowl and set aside.
5. Bring the sausage and coconut milk mixture to a simmer and reduce the heat a little bit to medium-low.
6. Whisk the cornstarch into the 1/2 cup of coconut milk that’s been set aside. Add this to the pan and stir.
7. Allow the sausage gravy to cook and thicken, stirring frequently to prevent lumps or scorching. We found 2 Tablespoons sufficient to thicken this to our liking, but you can add an additional tablespoon if you want super thick gravy.
8. Taste test the gravy and add salt to taste depending on how salty the sausage is (you may not need to add any). Add chili flakes as well if you want additional spice.
9. Serve hot over your favorite gluten free biscuits.
10. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Can I freeze this sausage gravy?

I haven’t yet tried freezing this gravy to see how it freezes and re-heats (we usually don’t have enough left over to try it). But I will add notes here when I give it a try!

Options for dairy free milk in this recipe

Homemade sausage gravy traditionally has milk and cream in it, and the coconut milk in our recipe replicates dairy cream to make this gravy thick and creamy.

You can use the Silk heavy cream or Silk half & half as well, they both work great in this. They are both unsweetened and unflavored, so they won’t add any weird sweet flavors to your gravy.

We’ve made this gravy recipe before with both the Silk heavy cream and Silk half & half and they both taste great in this.

Please note that the Silk cream and half & half products are not coffee creamers, they are unsweetened and unflavored and suitable for savory recipes. We’ve had some readers get them mixed up in the past, make sure to double check labels, these products I’ve listed won’t have sugar in them.

You can also reduce the coconut milk in this recipe and use some creamy oatmilk as well (we mention that below as well, too), just make sure that you look for oatmilk that is not flavored or sweetened.

Options for a lower calorie and lower fat gravy

This recipe is definitely not a healthy one, we usually make this recipe every few months or on special ocassions (like birthdays and holidays.

But here are some ways you can reduce the fat and calories in this recipe if you want a leaner gravy:

• Use a different sausage: Our nutriton estimates use the Jimmy Dean natural breakfast sausage info to calculate, which is what we made our gravy with. But you can use a lower fat pork sausage, or use a turkey or chicken breakfast sausage for this recipe to reduce the fat and calories.
• Replace some of the coconut milk: you can replace half or more of the coconut milk with a creamy oat milk (unsweetened and unflavored), lite coconut milk, or the Silk half & half. The Silk half & half has about half the fat and calories of full-fat coconut milk but it’s still creamy.

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