Easy Vegan Gravy and Mashed Potatoes
/Happy Halloween!
Now let’s talk about Thanksgiving.
Today I give you mashed potatoes + easy vegan gravy.
I figured with all the treats flyingaround the interwebs [and in real life] you probably needed something savory to round out the sugar coma you’ve been riding all week.
Can we talk about Halloween for a minute, though?
Because I’m kind of the worst at it. I mean, I love fall and pumpkins and orange everything and cooler temperatures and gourds on my dining room table and candy and kids in adorable costumes waddling down the street and so on.
But me + Halloween? I fail.
Here are the reasons why.
- I’m basically the worst at coming up with costume ideas. So bad in fact that I just don’t dress up. I can’t remember the last time I dressed up. And the last time I dressed up was probably a terrible attempt. Wait. Yep. It was! I believe it involved a Mardi Gras mask and a feather boa.
- Chris is the 2nd worst at dressing up for Halloween. This makes it much harder to get motivated to try.
- Our dogs go insane during trick or treating hours. I asked Chris what he wants to do Friday night and he said, “turn the lights off and go in the basement with the dogs.” We are really FUN!
Glad I could share my deep, dark Halloween secrets with you.
Now let’s get to the good stuff.
GRAVY.
This gravy loving girl has been gravyless for way too long. I’ve thought about making it the past few years but never actually executed.
So this year I finally decided to stop being ridiculous and just make some freaking gravy. And now I have 2 jars filled with gravy in my fridge and pounds of mashed potatoes.
Do you know how filling mashed potatoes and gravy are? Hellooo, dinner.
I am 210% happy with how the gravy turned out. The mushrooms and herbs are the absolute key to the crazy amazing flavor of this gravy. The onion and garlic help, too, but the mushrooms create an incredibly rich and savory flavor while the herbs help brighten it up just a bit. You can fully blend the gravy until it’s creamy or leave it with a bit of texture.
You’ll just have to trust me on how good it tastes because it’s not the most photogenic thing ever.
recipe adapted from: vegan gravy, Choosing Raw
Easy Vegan Gravy
gluten-free, vegan // yields appx. 2 cups
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup diced yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 1/2 tablespoons gluten-free tamari
- 1/4 cup gluten-free oat flour, or 3 tablespoons arrowroot starch
- 8oz baby portabella mushrooms, chopped
- 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 2 1/2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- pepper to taste
Heat oil over medium in a medium pot. Once hot, add the onion and cook for 6-8 minutes until softened and translucent. Stir frequently. Add the garlic, rosemary, and thyme and stir for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
Add the tamari then stir in the oat flour. Stir until a paste forms and let cook for about 1 minute. Add a few splashes of the broth and the mushrooms. Let cook for 2-3 minutes then pour in the rest of the broth, nutritional yeast, and pepper. Whisk until well combined.
Bring to a boil [uncovered] stirring occasionally. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer for about 5 minutes. Carefully pour into a blender and blend [starting on low] for 10-30 seconds, depending on the desired consistency. [Or use an immersion blender in the pot.] Place back in the pot and simmer for 12-18 minutes until the gravy thickens, stirring every few minutes. Add more pepper or a splash of tamari if desired.
Remove from the heat for about 5-8 minutes to further thicken. Stir before serving. For smooth gravy, pour into a blender and blend until fully smooth.
Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes gluten-free, vegan // yields appx. 6 servings
- 3lbs [about 6 large] red potatoes, skin on
- 1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1-2 cups unsweetened almond or soy milk
- salt + pepper to taste
Scrub potatoes [peel if desired] and cut each into about 6-8 pieces. Place in a large pot and fill with water just over the tops of the potatoes. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to low boil and cook until potatoes are tender, about 18-23 minutes. Drain water. Set pot aside.
Heat a small pan over medium-low heat with 2 teaspoons of oil. Once hot place the garlic in the pan stirring constantly until just starting to brown, 2-3 minutes. Keep the heat low to avoid burning. Scrape contents into the pot of potatoes.
Add 1/4 cup oil to the pot along with 3/4 cup milk and start mashing. Add more milk and keep mashing until desired consistency is reached. Salt and pepper to taste. If topping with gravy avoid heavily salting the potatoes as the gravy is quite salty.
If potatoes cool down too much while mashing return to the burner over low heat and stir until hot. Add a bit more milk if needed.
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notes:
-If you don’t like the texture of mushroom simply blend the gravy until smooth. The mushrooms add an amazing savory flavor, so I don’t recommend skipping them.
-If using fresh rosemary use 1 tablespoon chopped. If using fresh thyme use 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped.
-To make kale mashed potatoes: Remove stems from about 6-7 medium kale leaves. Chop the kale. Add a bit of oil to a medium-sized pan and heat over medium. Add the kale to the pan and stir until just starting to wilt, 2-4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Once potatoes are fully mashed incorporate kale into them.
-If you’d like a heartier flavor, feel free to mash with half milk and half low-sodium vegetable broth.
-If you want a nice bite to your potatoes and don’t require that they’re vegan, mash in 4-6oz herb goat cheese.
Potato gravy coma. Face plant.
Happy Friday!
Ashley
