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Friday, December 14, 2012

Vegetarian gravy for the holiday meal

Growing up, everyone I knew ate meat. Now, so many people I know now are vegetarians. At many holiday gatherings, it's a mixed bag, some partake of the meat and others skip it. And that seems to be fine. There are enough options on the holiday table which satisfy the vegetarian. But what about the gravy? Just about everyone likes gravy on their mashed potatoes, right? 

I had the TV on the other night, watching Steven and Chris, and they were talking about this very thing. How the vegetarians, at the holiday feast, miss out on the gravy. Well, here's a really great recipe for a vegetarian gravy that's rich and flavorful.

This recipe originally aired a year ago. And I just thought I'd share it today, just in case you deal with this, too -- accommodating the vegetarian at the holiday feast. We're getting close enough to Christmas that many of us are menu planning for our holiday dinner. 

For our family, this would solve one other problem we encounter with the gravy -- there's never enough gravy for all the leftovers! I don't know what they're doing with that gravy boat at the other end of the table. But we use up most of our gravy on that first dinner. Hardly any left over for our leftover meals. This will give us some extra gravy for all the leftover turkey and ham that fills our freezer. And I love that it can be made the day before, and simply reheated. 

There are onions, carrots, celery, garlic, tomato paste, herbs, red wine, vegetable stock and dried mushrooms in this gravy. The recipe calls for dried porcini mushrooms, but the chef who designed this recipe said that any dried mushrooms would work. If you do give this recipe a go, I'd say to use whatever dried mushrooms are inexpensive for you. Here's the link -- Ultimate Vegetarian Gravy.

6 comments:

  1. Gravy is the highlight of Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner because we don't have it any other time of the year. I'm happy with either version.

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    Replies
    1. Hi live and learn,
      that would make it special. Hope there's plenty of gravy on your Christmas table this year!

      Delete
  2. I always have to make PINTS of onion gravy for my family! In fact, I'm think about freezing several pints for my husband's birthday present as he likes just a cup of gravy with bread to dip.......

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jessica,
      now that would make a very interesting (and I'm sure very appreciated) birthday gift. I can hear the family stories now, "remember the year Mom gave Dad gravy for his birthday?"
      Onion gravy sounds delicious, BTW!

      Delete
  3. You can use fresh mushrooms as well. I actually do a really simple mushroom gravy... chunk the mushrooms, saute them, throw flour on top, then add water (vegan), wine, or milk for the roux. Salt and pepper to taste. Generally I'll add rosemary and thyme at the saute step. The important thing is to get the umai, which the mushrooms provide. (Tomato paste also has umai, but I prefer just mushrooms for gravy.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi nicoleandmaggie,
      that's good to know about using fresh mushrooms in gravy. I'm going to give that a try.

      Delete

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