How do I make a vegetarian gravy that actually tastes of something?

A roast gravy gets its colour and its savour from the caramelised residue in the tin. Without meat, you have to manufacture the same thing, and the honest answer is that it takes time rather than a trick. Twenty-five minutes of browning onions is the difference between a vegetarian gravy that tastes of stock cube and one nobody at the table questions.

What you'll need

• Onions
• Oil or butter
• Plain flour
• Vegetable stock
• Tomato purée (optional)
• Soy sauce, Marmite or miso (optional)
• Red wine or balsamic vinegar (optional)

Step by step

1. Slice two large onions and cook them in oil over a medium-low heat for twenty-five minutes.Not softened, not golden — properly dark brown, sticky, and reduced to about a third of the volume. This is the single biggest contributor to the finished gravy and there is no shortcut. Add a pinch of salt early to draw water out and speed it slightly.
2. Add mushroom stalks, carrot or celery if you have them, and let them brown too.Finely chopped, another ten minutes. Mushrooms in particular add glutamate and depth. Dried porcini soaked in hot water, with the soaking liquid used as part of the stock, is the strongest single addition available.
3. Stir in a tablespoon of tomato purée and cook it for two minutes.It should darken from red to brick and start sticking. Cooked-out purée is savoury and lightly sweet; raw purée tastes sharp and tinny, so this two minutes matters.
4. Add two tablespoons of flour and cook it to a nut brown.Stir constantly for three or four minutes. A darker roux gives colour and a roasted flavour, and it thickens less than a pale one — so use a little more of it than a béchamel would need.
5. Deglaze with wine or balsamic, then add the stock gradually.A large splash of red wine reduced until syrupy, or a tablespoon of balsamic. Then 700ml of vegetable stock, a ladle at a time, whisking smooth. Scrape everything off the base of the pan as you go.
6. Simmer for fifteen minutes, then add the savoury finishers.A teaspoon of Marmite or miso, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a bay leaf and a few thyme sprigs. Taste. It should read as savoury and slightly sweet rather than salty.
7. Strain it or blend it, then season last.Straining gives a restaurant texture; blending gives more body. Season only now — soy, Marmite and stock are all salty and the gravy has been concentrating for fifteen minutes.

Tips

• Roasting a tray of onion, carrot, celery, garlic and mushrooms at 200°C until the edges char, then using them as the base, gets you a similar depth with less standing at the hob.
• A spoonful of redcurrant jelly or a small piece of dark chocolate rounds out a gravy that tastes harsh. Both are traditional and both work.
• Yeast extract is doing the same job as the fond in a meat gravy — supplying glutamate. Half a teaspoon lifts it; a full teaspoon starts tasting of Marmite.
• Make it two days ahead. The flavour improves noticeably and it means the hob is free on the day.
• If you are cooking for vegans, check that the stock, the wine and the Worcestershire sauce are suitable. Standard Worcestershire sauce contains anchovy.

Common mistakes

• Softening the onions for ten minutes and calling it browning — Pale onions contribute sweetness but no depth. The dark, sticky stage is where the roasted flavour comes from and it takes at least twenty-five minutes.
• Relying on gravy browning for colour — It supplies colour and nothing else. A brown gravy that tastes thin is the result, and browning cannot be undone once it is in.
• Seasoning before it has reduced — Stock, soy and yeast extract are all salty, and the gravy concentrates as it simmers. Salt goes in at the very end.

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