Serves 8
This gravy begs to be poured over mashed potatoes and biscuits and really anywhere that gravy would be appropriate. A lot of the flavor of the gravy depends on the flavor of the broth. If you ain’t got time to make your own, I like to use “chicken” flavored broths, either in concentrate or powder form. Better Than Bullion or Frontier both make flavorful broths. The nutritional yeast is optional here, but it does make the gravy a little more creamier, plus adds an extra depth of savory flavor.
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
2 Tablespoons olive oil
16 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoons salt
Several dashes fresh black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine (chardonnay is great)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
In a small bowl, mix the flour with about 2 cups of vegetable broth until well dissolved. Once dissolved, add the remaining broth and mix. Set aside.
Preheat a 2 quart pot over medium heat. Saute the onion in oil for about 5 minutes, until translucent. Add mushrooms, garlic, thyme, sage, salt and pepper and saute for about 5 more minutes.
Add wine and turn heat up to bring to a boil. Let wine reduce for about 3 minutes. Add the broth/flour mix and the nutritional yeast, if using. Lower heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring often.
Taste for salt and pepper and serve.
Thanks for posting this recipe, looks terrific! Gonna make some soon with the chickpea cutlets!
I like a tablespoon of tahini in my mushroom gravy. If I’m paitent enough, I also toast the flour slightly in a dry pan before adding it to the recipe.
How about using a kombu seaweed broth for this gravy(or kombu and shiitake)? It is full of umami( the “meaty ” taste). I do this always when preparing similar dishes. Great recipe, I will try for sure, but with “my” kombu broth. 🙂
Kombu instead of the veggie broth?
Is there a substitute I may use for the wine?
I cannot wait to make this! Is it OK to make it the day before?
BONNIE-Just use water instead of wine. It still turns out great!
unsweetened soy or almond milk works nicely too 🙂
thanks so much,Sarah. i cannot wait to make this 😛
KK- YES! Just chill it and then add a little soymilk (or half and half if you’re not vegan) when you reheat.
I made this for Thanksgiving a couple of days ago to go along with my homemade “turkey” loaf, and it is the best gravy I’ve ever had! I’m on a low-iodine diet this year over the holiday, so I had to do a lot of planning and substituting, but was able to make this by the book, so to speak. Thanks for a great recipe! I can’t wait to use this all the time now.
I made this a few nights ago with the mashed potatoes…It was the best shroom gravy this boy has ever had…LOVED IT!!!!
I have made a very similar recipe before and I suggest making a very dark brown roux with the oil & flour (toasting the flour can also work but burns more easily). Adding a dash of shoyu or tamari (or even worcestershire) sauce also adds a little more depth and complexity. I also usually throw in a couple of shiitakes and maybe a dried mushroom or two (such as cloud ears). These extra elements really boost the deep “brown” flavor that is the hallmark of really great gravies.
If reconstituting dried mushrooms, you can use the soaking water as part of the liquid or use as a sub for the wine.
Made this for my non-veg mum and hubby, they hardly noticed that it wasn’t “real” gravy! It’s SOO good!
I made it the night before and chilled it so just to reheat for dinner time. Great recipe and fantastic out come!
Most amazing gravy ever – damn delicious on Linda McCartney Country Pies! Dry white wine an mushrooms were so made for each other…
Variation:
A 1/4 recipe feeds two people, with the following tweaks:
– 2 cloves of garlic (rather than 1)
– White button mushrooms instead of cremini (I once saw cremini mushrooms in a very posh store… But this time I just grabbed button mushrooms on the way home!)
– Handful dried field mushrooms (soaked for about 20 minutes in boiling water, drained, conserving liquid) added to 4 ounces fresh mushrooms
– Used mushroom soaking liquid in instant vegetable stock for extra mushroom punch (this also deepened the colour to a gorgeous brown!)
– Just a pinch of thyme – not too herby
– I probably added more like 1/4 cup chardonnay than 1/8
– I didn’t have sage on hand, so made do without
I live in the UK, and nutritional yeast is rare… I bought mine online from goodnessdirect.co.uk.
So delicious I literally drank some of it. Even my gravy-phobic husband loved it! SCORE
This was delcious and so yummy! My family and friends non-vegans and non-vegetarians loved it!!!!
I made this last night to go with chickpea cutlets and roasted potatoes, carrots and corn. I made this, because I trust you, I needed a gravy and I trust you. Because honestly, I hate mushrooms, I have since I was a child.
This was ridiculously good! and will be my go to gravy recipe from now on. Thank you!
1 word..YUM : )
Do you think it’s possible to cut this recipe in half since I’ll most likely be the only one enjoying this at Thanksgiving dinner? If not, what would be the best way to store the gravy to use in time.
whatz the brand of a good tasting vegetable broth. I think the one i tried was by Imagine and it was AWFUL; both their “mushroom soup/broth” and “vegetable broth.” thank you!
I like the WF brand and Pacific brand but I also like Better Than Bullion no-chicken flavor. Plus if you do it with BTB then it’s much much cheaper!
I’m looking to go gluten-free on this, and last year i tried sorghum flour but it didn’t ever thicken up as much as i wanted it to. Can i sub cornstarch (or arrowroot) for the flour? How much cornstarch would you recommend i use? One site recommended i just halve the amount of flour, but a 1/4 of cornstarch sounds like a lot . . .
I would do 3 Tablespoons cornstarch. It’s a lot of liquid so that should work just fine!
1/4 of cornstarch will be a lot, because that baby really thickens things up — more than flour does!! I would just add cornstarch a tablespoon at a time, stirring it in there, and just eyeballing the consistency until it looks thick enough to you. I believe that would work just fine. You can also use tapioca flour (Gluten Free – Bob’s Red Mill) for future reference, and that tends to make things thicken too.
I wouldn’t use tapioca in a gravy…to slimy.
Hey, can I share this recipe and your fluffly mashed potatoes on my blog formy Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup? Shoot me an email virtuallyveganmama@gmail.com
Thanks!
Jen
Sure!
OMG! This gravy is amazing! I substituted vermouth for white wine because that’s what I had on hand and it worked fine. And Caiti – I halved the recipe with no problem at all. I want to go back to the kitchen and just eat it with a spoon.
This gravy is delicious. I made half the recipe and used shallots instead of onions, plus I added a tablespoon of Japanese miso for more flavor. I can’t wait to smother my chickpea cutlets and mashed potatoes tonight. Happy Tofu Day!
My son hates mushrooms. Not the flavor, just the texture. Curious, if the veggie broth could be replaced with mushroom broth and the real mushrooms left out, would the flavor be the same?
I think it would still be a good, albeit smooth, gravy!
Would this freeze well? i just made it (seriously yum!) and it made a ton.
Yeah, it’ll freeze just fine!
Tonight was my second time making this, both times I’ve used the leftover broth from Isa’s seitan recipe. Works perfectly! I served over a bed of arugula, wild rice, chickpea cutlets and roasted broccoli. Better then anything I could find at a restaurant! Total comfort food!
This gravy is terriffic! I’ve made it for Thanksgiving for the past two years, and it gets lots of thumbs up from the omnis in my family. It paired perfectly with the nutloaf from The Kitchn. I’ll be making both dishes again and again in the years to come.
well i tasted it, it passes my tests, just hope the meat eating boys i’m feeding tomorrow like it. happy thanksgiving everyone.
My local WF market had the Imagine brand low sodium no-chicken broth. Do you think that would work?