A smooth, glossy and richly flavoured vegan and gluten-free gravy – perfect for serving with a nut roast or shepherd’s pie or for pouring over vegan sausages and mashed potatoes.
Gently caramelise the onions by slowly frying them in the oil for 30 minutes over a low heat, stirring every 10 minutes or so, to make sure they don’t stick.
1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 red onion
Add the garlic and fry for another 10 minutes, continuing over a low heat.
4 garlic cloves
Add the stock, wine and gluten-free yeast extract (or tamari) and turn the heat up to bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes so that the flavours blend.
500 ml vegetable stock, 60 ml wine, 1 teaspoon gluten-free yeast extract (or tamari)
Strain the sauce through a sieve into a jug then pour back into the pan. Mix the cornflour with a touch of water (only enough to stir the cornflour into a liquid state – up to 2 tsp).
2 teaspoon cornstarch, 1-2 teaspoon water
Add the cornflour slurry to the gravy and whisk quickly while the sauce simmers and thickens. It should thicken in about 2 minutes but if it doesn’t thicken enough, just add a little more cornflour slurry.
Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary. Serve when it has thickened to your liking.
salt and pepper
Notes
When you make the cornflour slurry, you need to add cold water NOT hot water otherwise it will go all lumpy rather than turning into a thin liquid.
Don't panic if the gravy goes lumpy (this can happen if you don't whisk fast enough or the heat is too high or if using a wooden spoon or spatula instead of a whisk - since the cornflour cooks very easily and gels together when it cooks). It's fine - just re-strain it to get the cornflour lumps out.
If you make it in advance and want to re-heat it, you will need to whisk it well again when re-heating (or after, in the case of microwave heating). If there are any lumps, just strain them to get a lovely smooth sauce. You might also need to add a little more water or stock when re-heating. The best thing to use would be some vegetable cooking water (if you happen to be cooking vegetables at the same time) since then you would be catching some of the water soluble vitamins that may have been lost from the vegetables while cooking.