This hearty vegan stew is full of nourishment with smoked tofu, wild mushrooms and lots of vegetables all cooked in a delicious richly flavoured gravy (gluten-free). It’s the perfect cosy meal to serve to your family.
1tablespoontamari (or coconut aminos or GF soy sauce)
1bay leaf
3sprigsfresh thyme (or 1 tablespoon dried thyme)
1tablespooncornstarch
1tablespoonwater
salt and black pepper
Instructions
Place the mushrooms into a jug and pour 500ml boiling water over them. Leave to soak for 15 minutes.
30 g dried forest or wild mushrooms
Heat the oil in a casserole or wide sauté pan or skillet. Sauté the onion in the oil for 5 minutes until browned. Then add the garlic and stir over the heat for a further 1 minute.
1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves
Add the carrot, celery and courgette and sauté for 3 minutes until slightly browned.
1 carrot, 1 celery stick, ½ courgette (zucchini)
Add the rest of the ingredients except the cornstarch and water. Sieve the mushroom soaking water into the pan then spoon in the mushrooms from the sieve (be careful not to drop them straight in from the sieve or you will get all the grit from the mushroom water that you carefully sieved out).Stir well, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to the lowest setting and put the lid on. Simmer gently for 1 hour.
¼ cauliflower (optional), ¼ celeriac (celery root), 225 g smoked tofu, 250 ml vegetable stock, 100 ml red wine, 1 tablespoon tamari (or coconut aminos or GF soy sauce), 1 bay leaf, 3 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 tablespoon dried thyme)
Remove the herbs. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Once the taste is to your liking, stir the cornstarch with a little water until it goes to a thin liquid. Turn the heat up on the casserole to medium heat. Add the cornstarch liquid and stir into the casserole. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly until thickened.
1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon water
Serve with potatoes or rice and some chopped herbs to garnish.
Notes
For stews, you want to chop the vegetables into quite large chunks so that they hold their shape during the longer cooking time.
If you are not gluten-free, you could of course thicken the stew in the normal way with all purpose flour rather than cornstarch but I'd recommend giving this a try as you may well prefer the lightness of cornstarch thickened sauces.
When adding the cornstarch slurry, you need to stir really well since it cooks very quickly and can cook into gel-like lumps if you don't immediately stir it into the sauce and keep stirring over the heat until it thickens to your liking.