Roasted red onion gravy

I wanted to make a quick veggie gravy that the meat-eaters and the non meat-eaters in our family would like. It’s a pain to prep two gravies when you’re cooking chicken AND a nut roast! So here’s my solution; there’s very little prep time and you get max flavour!

*I added the juices (not fat) from the meat roasting tin in a separate jug for the carnivores.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 4 med/large red onions, chopped in thick half moons

• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled

• 2 (flat) tbsp plain flour

• 1 ½ tbsp tomato purée

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard

• 500 ml vegetable stock (I used ½ @kallo low-salt veg cube in 500ml boiling water)

• 1 tsp red wine vinegar

• ½ - ¾ tsp sea salt

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

2. Put the onion and garlic on a large baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Mix to coat evenly and place in the oven for 20 mins, turn and put back in for 10 mins until soft and brown at the edges.

3. Put the stock cube in a large jug and pour over the boiling water.

4. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins into a large saucepan, mash with a wooden spoon and scrape in the onions.

5. Pour 100ml of hot stock onto the roasting tray, deglaze using a silicone spatula (basically scrape off all the tasty bits that are stuck on the bottom of the pan).

6. Next add the flour and tomato purée to the onions, mix well.

7. Turn on the hob to a medium heat and slowly pour in the deglazed stock stirring well as you go.

8. Then add the rest of the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

9. Blitz with a hand blender.

Curiously the kids said the gravy tasted like the Subway Meatballs Marinara sandwich filling. Compliment or no?!

Veggie gravy

This is a rich hearty vegan gravy that goes really well with just about any traditional British comfort food. It’s perfect for my chestnut, mushroom and pecan roast; veggies sausages and mash; Yorkshire puddings; roasted vegetables; anything you would normally have gravy with basically!

It’s simple to make and can be frozen for up to 3 months; I like to make a big pan and keep a stock in the freezer so I don’t have to make a meaty version for the boys and a veggie one for my daughter when we have a Sunday roast. I do the same thing with nut roasts as they divide into about 6-8 slices and as only 3 of us eat it at a time, I can freeze the rest and use it next time.

Ingredients

Makes 1.3 L

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 2 onions, chopped

• 2 sticks of celery, chopped finely

• 2 carrots, chopped

• 8 g dried porcini mushrooms

• 2 fresh bay leaves

• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme

• 2 tbsp Marsala wine

• 2 tsp dijon mustard

• 1 tbsp tomato purée

• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1.5 L vegetable stock

• 4 tbsp cornflour

• ½ tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1 tsp sea salt

Method

• Heat the olive oil in a large deep pan. Fry the onion, celery, carrot, porcini, bay and thyme gently for 20 minutes.

• Then add the Marsala and cook for 2 minutes, before adding the tomato purée, stock, Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar and simmer for a further 45 minutes or until the carrots are really soft.

• At this point I used a hand blender to blitz the veggies before passing through a sieve, but you could just mash them through with a fork. Obviously you’ll have quite a bit of left over veggie matter, but you’ve squeezed out most of the good stuff!

• Mix the cornflour with a little water so it is all dissolved into a thick paste.

• Pour the gravy back into the pan and heat to a gentle simmer.

• Add half the cornflour mix, but make sure you whisk it in quickly with a fork or you’ll get lumps. Allow the gravy to thicken and add the rest of the cornflour gradually until you get the right consistency. It will take about 3-5 minutes for the cornflour to work. You may not need to use all of it, or you might want to add more depending on how thick you like your gravy!

• Add red wine vinegar, salt and simmer gently for 5 minutes.

Tip

• If you don’t have Marsala, you could switch for sherry, vermouth, madeira or port.