Pies, wellingtons, nut roasts, “bangers & mash” – all kinds of things benefit from a humble but tasty vegan onion gravy. Making a really great gravy takes time, & you probably don’t have time for every meal – so most people just reach for the gravy granules. This recipe is designed to be made in large batches and then frozen and stored in the freezer.
There’s loads of ingredients, but as you’re doing a large batch it doesn’t matter. Skip anything you don’t like – or add more of what you do. So if you’re allergic to peanuts, then just replace with almond – it’s more expensive but hey ho.
There are no special tricky techniques used here. Just follow the basic steps & the result will be a great, always to hand gravy for those times you need it.
It doesn’t work with every dish, you have to use your judgement as whether it will work. For instance, the vegan spinach & lentil pie is better suited to my red onion gravy. This is because it has the right flavour notes to match that particular pie.
My freezer can store 12 takeway containers one top of the other, so 12 containers is a good quantity. None of the ingredients are particularly crucial – apart from the onions, flour & oil, but they all add together. The final result is a rich, nutritious accompaniment for many different types of dish where a sauce is needed.
There are other sauces that you can choose from on the site too for many different purposes. Red Onion Gravy; Chipshop Curry Sauce; Rustic Tomato Sauce; Hollandaise Sauce; Alfredo Sauce; Mushroom Sauce – & those will be added over time. But the entry level gravy is still this tasty vegan onion gravy!
Tasty Vegan Onion Gravy
Ingredients
- 200 g wholemeal bread or pastry flour NOT self-raising
- 200 g cold pressed rapeseed oil 50 for onions & 150 for flour.
- 150 g Peanut butter
- 30 g Almond butter
- 30 g tahini
- 15 g Natex
- 30 g Vecon
- 2 kg Onions
- 2 whole 400g cans chopped tomatoes
- 1 heap tbsp Marigold low salt veg stock
- 6 Onion stock cubes - Kallo
- 2 whole Low salt veg stock cubes - Kallo
- 2 whole mushroom stock cubes - Kallo
- 30 g Balsamic vinegar
- 35 g Soy sauce
- 3 litres boiling water
- 2 heap tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 heap tbsp onion powder - optional
- 1 heap tbsp garlic powder – optional
- 1 whole bulb of garlic
- 2 tbsps of oregano rounded
- 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Chop the onions finely - this is a huge pain - but there's just no other way! Much easier in a magimix! If you do that - roughly chop each half into 9 then batch pulse blitz. Don't overdo it or they will go mushy - you just want them chopped.
- pour around 50g of oil into a large pan and put on a medium heat.
- when the oil is reasonably hot - don't let it smoke, put the onions in and stir well until all the oil is distributed evenly.
- cook for around 10 minutes when the onions should be fairly translucent & softening nicely.
- peel and crush the garlic directly into the pan - scrape the garlic from the crusher too - don't waste it! Another good cheat is to use a mini-spice grinder to blitz the garlic. Shortly after add the oregano.
- Continue sauteeing the onions and garlic until they're nice and browned, then remove the mixture from the pan and set aside. Between 15 & 20 minutes.
- pour the rest of the oil (150g) into the same large pan also on a medium low heat
- tip in the flour and stir until the oil is well mixed and it's sizzling or frying nicely.
- You need to keep stirring it every 30 seconds or so until it begins to brown. Be careful not to burn it or you will need to start again.
- It's a little difficult to tell when it's cooked enough though, because wholemeal flour is already brown - but you can see the colour deepening a bit and it beings to have that characteristic toasted smell as though it's browned.
- At that point, you can just chuck in the boiling water and all the other ingredients apart from the choped tomatoes, onions & garlic.
- bring to the boil and then use a stick blender in the pan to get rid of all the lumps - it's much easier doing it that way than the traditional way of gradually bringing it to the boil whilst constantly stirring - and it's the same in the end.
- Then add the onions and chopped tomatoes and mix thoroughly
- bring to a slow simmer, then cook in the oven for 60 minutes on 125°C until the onions are really soft.
- You may need to add a bit more boiling water from the kettle - you're aiming for a good consistency - not too thick - but not too thin...... you should end up with around 8.6 and 9kg of gravy.
- Cool somewhat and then divide up into portions in take-away containers. I would suggest 220g which gives 2 generous portions or 3 more modest ones.
