Gluten free and dairy free gravy

What to swap, what to check on the labels, and how to keep the texture right when the flour and butter come out.

Taking the gluten out

Cornflour is the straight swap and it is in most kitchens already. Use about half the weight you would use of plain flour, slaked in cold water, added at the end. You get a glossier gravy rather than a matt one, which is a look, not a fault.

Gluten free plain flour blends also work as a roux and give a finish closer to the original. Rice flour, arrowroot and tapioca starch all thicken well, with arrowroot giving the clearest result.

The hidden gluten

The flour is the obvious one. The awkward ones are the flavourings. Standard stock cubes, gravy granules, Marmite and other yeast extracts, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and most beers all contain gluten, and all of them turn up in gravy recipes constantly.

Swap soy sauce for tamari, Worcestershire for a gluten free version or a splash of balsamic, and check the stock. Marmite has no straightforward gluten free equivalent, so use tamari and browned mushrooms for the same job.

Taking the dairy out

Butter is easy: use oil, or a block style plant butter, which browns more like the real thing than a soft spread does. Meat fat and dripping are dairy free anyway.

Cream is harder. Thin plant milks split when they hit acid or a hard simmer. Oat based single and double cream alternatives hold up best, coconut cream is stable but tastes of coconut, and cashews blitzed with hot water make a thick neutral cream that behaves beautifully.

Keeping the texture

The thing you lose without flour and butter is body. Put it back with reduction, with blended roast vegetables, or with a spoon of red lentils simmered in the stock until they collapse. All three thicken and add flavour rather than just bulk.