Most gravies sold tend to be a mix of meat (often from factory farms) along with palm oil. Here are some better options. They taste like meat, but are all plant-based. Or make your own Easy Vegan Gravy (Minimalist Baker) with herbs, onions and dried porcini mushrooms for extra flavour.
Keep these ‘meat gravies’ away from pets as they contain onion, garlic and mushroom. Never feed foods with leftover meat gravy on them to birds, as the fat can affect the waterproofing/insulation of feathers. See how to help our garden birds.
Recipes for Vegan Gravy
Baked Parsnip Fries with Mushroom Gravy (Full of Plants) combined rosemary fries with a saucy black pepper mushroom stock. A comfort dish that is easy to make.
Easy Vegan Mushroom Gravy (Crowded Kitchen) can be made ahead of time, and takes 40 minutes. It’s gluten-free, and ideal to pair with mashed potato or cauliflower steaks.
Vegan Mushroom Gravy (The Simple Veganista) only has 5 ingredients (not including salt and pepper). This recipe can also be made gluten-free.
Where To Buy Good Vegan Gravy
9 Meals from Anarchy is a great brand of gravy stock. Sold in glass jars, the guys used to run a veg box scheme in Cheshire, and were always being asked of a good gravy brand. They could not find one, so invented one instead. The main product is made with organic carrots, celery, onion and leek, with garlic, turmeric and black pepper. Use as a gravy or stock, or use as the base of a vegetable casserole or stew. Also available in:
- Garden Herb has onion, celery, carrots and garlic, with parsley, sage, oregano and thyme
- Umami has a more savoury flavour with the veggies being combined with tamari sauce, balsamic vinegar, mushrooms and tomato puree.
The company comes from the quote by Alfred Henry Lewis in 1896 that ‘the only barrier between us and anarchy is the last nine meals we’ve had’. These guys have their own quote to sum up their company and everything else:
Your £ is your vote
Shop well
Cook something
Save some bees
Have some fun
The world will be awesome
- Steenbergs make gravy powders sold in glass jars. Made with real ingredients (despite ‘chicken and pork’ names, they are vegan).
- Miso is a nice Japanese stock that is made by fermenting rice and soybeans for several months, and makes a great replacement as a veggie gravy. You can buy jars of organic miso paste.
- Tideford Organic Vegan Gravy with Miso is a savoury stock of carrots, celery, onion and garlic. miso and a twist of black pepper. Also as red miso gravy (recycle the plastic tub)
Rich & Creamy Vegan Gravy (Rainbow Plant Life) is the best vegan gravy you will ever taste. It uses mushrooms, tamari, white miso, vegan butter with no palm oil, fresh herbs and red wine, for an incredible sauce for your mashed potatoes or veggie roast dinner. Keep mushrooms away from pets.
This recipe is so tasty, due to a umami taste explosion from the tamari and miso. Umami is a Japanese word for one of the five basic tastes (the others are sweet, sour, salty and bitter). Often found in broths and cooked meats, miso is great at responding to taste receptors, which it’s widely used in vegan foods and fermented recipes. Other foods with umami include mushrooms, tomatoes, soy sauce (tamari) and yeast extract.
Rich Thick Vegan Mushroom Gravy (Nourish) is made in a pot or skillet with onion and g arlic, and evaporated stock, then add mushrooms, tasty miso and flour to make it into a thick stock. Boil and simmer, add soy sauce, and simmer before serving or freezing (defrost the day before, in the fridge, then reheat).
Gaz Oakley’s Vegan Gravy (Avant Garde Vegan) has a mammoth list of ingredients, but is ideal for a special occasion. This is made with carrots, onions, mushrooms, garlic, leeks, celery and tomato puree, plus red wine, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, herbs and even some brewed coffee.
If you like this recipe, check out chef Gaz Oakley’s book Vegan Christmas, packed with wonderful recipes. Gaz is a professionally trained Welsh chef, who is taking the world by storm with his amazing recipes and photos.
Vegan Toad in the Hole with onion gravy (The Veg Space) is the ultimate side dish for your vegan Sunday roast. It’s made by coating vegan sausages in a Yorkshire pudding batter, and serving with onion gravy. Studded with roasted onions, you can make one big dish or in individual serving pie dishes.
