Dairy Free Creamy Gravy

Most dairy free cream sauces fail for one reason: the wrong plant cream. Thin unsweetened almond or soya drinks split the moment they meet acid and heat. What works is a proper plant cooking cream with fat in it, and the two that behave best in a British supermarket are Oatly Creamy Oat and Elmlea Plant Double. Use one of those and this is as good as any dairy version.

Ingredients

Makes about 400ml, enough for four plates

• 2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
• 2 shallots finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 350ml (12fl oz) hot vegetable stock
• 2 tsp white miso paste contains soya
• 1 tsp cider vinegar goes in with the stock
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour slaked in 3 tbsp cold water
• 150ml (5fl oz) oat cooking cream Oatly Creamy Oat or Elmlea Plant Double, not a thin oat drink
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard optional
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Saucepan
• Small bowl
• Whisk

Method

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan over a medium heat and cook the shallots for six or seven minutes until soft and properly golden at the edges. Without butter or meat fat to work with, this browning is where most of your flavour is going to come from, so give it the full time.

2. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for one minute more, stirring so the garlic does not catch.

3. Pour in the hot stock and the cider vinegar, whisk in the miso paste until it dissolves, and simmer for five minutes. Both the acid and the salty seasoning go in now, before the plant cream, for exactly the same reason they would with dairy.

4. Stir the cornflour into three tablespoons of cold water until smooth, then pour it into the simmering stock in a steady stream while whisking. It will thicken and turn glossy in half a minute. Simmer for two minutes to cook the starch out, then taste and season.

5. Turn the heat down to its lowest setting and pour in the oat cooking cream. Warm it through for two or three minutes. A proper plant cooking cream carries enough fat and enough stabiliser to hold at this temperature without separating.

6. Do not let it boil hard, and do not add extra vinegar or lemon at this stage. Plant creams are more fragile than double cream and a shot of acid straight into the finished sauce will make them grainy just the same.

7. Stir in the mustard if using, grind in black pepper and serve. It thickens as it stands, so loosen it with a splash of stock if it needs it.

Tips worth knowing

• The cream is the whole decision. Oatly Creamy Oat, sold as a single cream alternative, and Elmlea Plant Double both hold a gentle simmer well. Thin unsweetened oat, almond or soya drinks are not creams and will split.
• Coconut cream also holds heat very well because of its high fat content, but it tastes unmistakably of coconut, which is fine in a curry and wrong in a Sunday gravy.
• Miso does the job that meat juices would otherwise do. White miso is mild and salty, so add it early and season the gravy afterwards rather than before.
• If your plant cream does split, whisk hard off the heat and add a teaspoon more slaked cornflour. Starch will usually hold a plant cream back together better than it would dairy.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge in a sealed tub, which is longer than most dairy versions. Reheat gently, whisking, and add a splash of stock as it will have thickened. It freezes for two months and comes back better than dairy cream sauces do, though it needs a good whisk.

Questions people ask