Caramelised Carrot Gravy

Carrots contain a lot of sugar, and roasting them hard turns that sugar into deep caramel flavours you cannot get any other way. On their own that would just be sweet, so white miso goes in to pull it back towards savoury. The result is bright orange, thick and very good with anything green on the plate.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, five servings

• 600g (1lb 5oz) carrots, cut into thick diagonal slices
• 2 onions, cut into wedges
• 4 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp white miso paste brown rice miso to keep it gluten free
• 700ml (1 1/4 pints) hot vegetable stock gluten free
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
• salt and black pepper

Kit

• Roasting tin
• Saucepan
• Blender

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C, 200C fan, gas 7. Toss the carrots and onions with the oil and a good pinch of salt, and spread them in a single layer in a roasting tin.

2. Roast for 40 to 45 minutes, turning twice. You want the carrots shrivelled with genuinely blackened tips and the onions dark brown. Pale roasted carrots will give you baby food, not gravy.

3. Scatter the ground coriander over for the last five minutes of roasting so it toasts in the hot oil rather than going in raw.

4. Tip everything into a saucepan. Pour a ladle of hot stock into the empty tin, scrape it hard with a wooden spoon and add those scrapings to the pan with the rest of the stock.

5. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes so the carrots soften completely and the roasting flavours spread through the liquid.

6. Blend until absolutely smooth, in a jug blender if you have one, as it gives a silkier result than a stick blender for something this thick.

7. Return it to the pan over a low heat, stir in the miso, ginger and cider vinegar, and warm through without boiling. Season, and thin with hot stock until it pours properly rather than sitting in a lump.

Tips worth knowing

• Cut the carrots on a steep diagonal. More cut surface means more browning and more flavour.
• The blackened tips are wanted. Whole burnt pieces are not, so pull out anything that has gone completely black before blending.
• This gravy is naturally very thick. Have extra hot stock to hand and add it until it flows off the spoon in a ribbon.
• Add the miso off the boil to keep its flavour, and taste before adding salt because miso brings a lot.

Keeping and reheating

Five days in the fridge and three months in the freezer. It sets very thick when cold, so reheat with plenty of extra stock and whisk hard.

Questions people ask