Vegan and Gluten Free
Serendipity Jane
Original Recipe: Jane Fox
My Inspiration for Vegan Mushroom Gravy
I eat plant based and gluten free now, but I grew up in a meat eating family that gathered around the table every night for dinner, and gravy was on the table almost every night. This tasty sauce gave tough tasteless meat both moisture and flavor. It added life to rice, and potatoes, and my Dad was in heaven when he sopped his biscuits in this liquid gold.
I can go along happily, giving up meat, dairy, wheat, and all the things that are forbidden in a plant based and gluten free lifestyle, but then, usually around the holidays, it will occur to me, “Wait! I’m never ever going to be able to have (fill in the blank) again?!! In this case, gravy. “What am I going to put on my mashed potatoes? …or on my stuffing at Thanksgiving?” The answer to my question, when this occurs is , as always, ” I guess I’ll just have to come up with a delicious vegan and gluten free substitute!” And that is how Vegan Mushroom Gravy came to be.
The Ingredients for Vegan Mushroom Gravy
I learned to make gravy by watching my Mom use her wizardly skills to combine juices and fat rendered from the meat, white flour, whole milk, and a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper in a well seasoned cast iron pan, to produce a silky delicious sauce. What could be wrong with that? Well, ….the meat juices and rendered animal fat, the gluten laden wheat flour, the cow’s milk just won’t do for a gluten free and vegan diet! Take out the offending ingredients, and you are left with salt and pepper in a cast iron skillet! This recipe desperately needed a healthy overhaul.
Flavor, Flavor, Flavor! Almost every ingredient in Vegan Mushroom Gravy adds more flavor. Dried porcini mushrooms soaked in boiling water releases a mushroom “liquor” that gives an earthy umami taste. This liquor combined with Vegan Chicken bouillon , or your favorite vegetable broth or bouillon, gives a flavorful meaty taste. The onions, shallots, garlic, rosemary, and thyme, add even more flavor.
A tablespoon of olive oil not only helps to soften the onions and shallots, and facilitate the release of their juices, but it provides a silkiness to the finished sauce. Cornstarch acts as a thickener and along with the small amount of fat in the form of olive oil, the mixture transforms into the luxurious silky texture that we expect from good rich gravy!
How to Make Vegan Mushroom Gravy
- Slice the cremini mushrooms and set aside.
- Bring two cups of water to boiling and add the dried porcini mushrooms, removing from the heat. You can substitute shiitake mushrooms if you can’t find porcini. Set aside and let the mixture steep for at least 15 minutes. The mushrooms will release their flavor into the water to produce a dark brown “liquor.”
- Chop the yellow onion and shallots.
- Mix the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of cold water. Make sure it is cold water because it will allow the cornstarch and water to make a smooth mixture and help prevent clumps of cornstarch in the finished gravy. Set this mixture aside.
- Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a large pan or well seasoned cast iron skillet if you have one. Once heated, add the onions and shallots, and saute until softened. When the onion is translucent, clear a space in your pan and add the garlic. Cook the garlic in this space, without mixing it in to the onion and shallot mixture. After about a minute,when you smell the garlic, stir it in to the rest of the onion shallot mixture.
- Add the reserved fresh cremini mushrooms to the onion mixture and stir occasionally. The mushrooms will release their water and the mixture will appear very juicy. Continue to saute this mixture until most of the juice, but not all, has evaporated.
- Drain the porcini mushrooms that are soaking, making sure to keep both the mushroom pieces and the water which has now become mushroom liquid “liquor.”
- Roughly chop the now rehydrated porcini mushrooms and add them to the mixture on the stove.
- Mix together the mushroom liquor, that you just drained from the rehydrated porcini mushrooms, the 1 -3/4 cup of Vegan Chicken Bouillon, and the cornstarch mixture, making sure to get every last bit of cornstarch that may have settled in the bottom of its container.
- Add this liquid to the mushroom mixture in the pan and stir.
- If you would like the sliced mushrooms in your finished gravy, carefully remove them with a slotted spoon and set them aside to be added in later. ( I did not separate the mushrooms out.)
- If you are using a non stick pan, carefully add the mixture to the blender and process on puree until the mixture is smooth. If you are not using a non- stick pan, and you are not concerned with damaging the finish of your pan, you could also use an immersion blender and blend the gravy right in the pan.
- For a very smooth texture, you may want to pour the pureed mixture through a strainer. I found that I had to remove some tough bits of the mushroom and herbs and any tiny cornstarch clumps that may not have mixed in.
- Pour the mixture back in the pan on the stove to heat and thicken. Stir occasionally until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
- Pour the gravy in to a serving container or gravy boat and serve!
Enjoy!
Printable Recipe
Vegan Mushroom Gravy
Equipment
- Frying Pan
- Blender or Immersion Blender
- cutting board
- chopping knife
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried porcini mushrooms ok to substitute dried shitake mushrooms
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion about 1 onion
- ¼ cup shallots, diced about 1 large shallot or two small.
- 3 Tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 Tablespoons fresh thyme finely chopped
- 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 4 cups cremini mushrooms, sliced Also known as baby bella mushrooms. if you will be making a smooth gravy, roughly chop to save time.
- 1¾ cups Vegan Chicken Bouillon or vegetable broth
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch preferably non-GMO
- ¼ cup cold water
Instructions
- Add the dried porcini mushrooms to 2 cups of boiling water. Set aside to soak for at least 15 minutes.
- Finely chop the onion and shallot. Set aside.
- Roughly chop the cremini mushrooms and set aside. If you would like your gravy to have chunks of mushrooms, slice the mushrooms.
- In a small bowl mix the cold water and the cornstarch. Cold water is important so that the cornstarch mixes without lumping. Set the mixture aside.
- Heat the Tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Add the yellow onion and the shallots.
- When the onion is translucent, clear a space in the pan and add the garlic. Cook the garlic for about a minute and then stir it in with the onions and shallots.
- Add the reserved cremini mushrooms to the onion mixture. Let saute stirring occasionally. The mushrooms will release their water. Let the moisture cook down.
- Remove the porcini mushrooms from the hot water, reserving the liquid and the mushrooms. Set the drained mushroom "liquor" aside.
- Roughly chop the now rehydrated porcini mushrooms and add them into the onion and mushroom mixture on the stove.
- Mix the broth, the porcini liquid, and the cornstarch mixture together. Stir and add this liquid to the skillet with the mushroom and onion mix.
- Stir the mixture in the pan until well mixed.
- If you sliced your cremini mushrooms and want to retain the slices in your finished gravy, remove those pieces now and set them aside.
- Add the contents of the skillet to the blender and puree until smooth.
- If you want a very smooth gravy, pour the mixture through a strainer now to remove any rough stem pieces from the herbs. It will be easier now rather than if you wait until the gravy has thickened.
- Return the gravy to the pan. If you reserved your mushroom slices, return them to the mixture now. Heat and stir until the mixture is bubbly. It will thicken and you will know it is done when the gravy coats the back of your spoon.
- Pour the gravy into a serving container or gravy boat and serve!
