Nut Roast Gravy

A nut roast is dry by nature and rich at the same time, so it needs a gravy with proper savour and enough body to stay put on the plate. This one gets its depth from browning, not from stock cubes, and it is made in a pan so it does not depend on anything roasting alongside it.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, enough for six plates

• 3 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• 200g (7oz) chestnut mushrooms, chopped small
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tbsp (30g) plain flour
• 800ml (1 1/2 pints) hot vegetable stock a strong one
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp yeast extract Marmite or similar
• 2 sprigs thyme
• salt and black pepper

Kit

• Heavy saucepan
• Wooden spoon
• Sieve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and cook the onions over a medium heat for twelve minutes, stirring often, until they are soft and starting to brown at the edges. Do not rush this, there is no meat here and the onions are your foundation.

2. Turn the heat up, add the mushrooms and cook hard for eight to ten minutes. They will release water and then reabsorb it, and only after that will they brown properly, which is the moment you are waiting for.

3. Add the garlic and the tomato puree and fry for two minutes, stirring constantly so the puree cooks and darkens from bright red to brick. Raw tomato puree in a gravy tastes sharp and thin.

4. Stir in the flour and cook for two minutes until everything is coated and the pan looks dry and slightly gritty.

5. Pour in the hot stock a third at a time, stirring firmly to break up any lumps and scraping the base clean each time.

6. Add the thyme, soy sauce and yeast extract and simmer gently for fifteen minutes, uncovered, until the gravy has reduced a little and gone glossy and dark.

7. Fish out the thyme stalks. Either blitz the gravy smooth with a stick blender and pass it through a sieve, or leave it chunky if it is going with something plain like a roast potato and a wedge of nut roast.

8. Season at the end. Yeast extract and soy are both salty, so taste first and finish with a good grind of black pepper and a small splash of red wine vinegar if it needs sharpening.

Tips worth knowing

• Chop the mushrooms small rather than slicing them. More cut surface means more browning and a darker gravy.
• A nut roast usually comes with its own tin residue. Deglaze that tin with a ladle of the finished gravy and tip it back in for extra flavour.
• Vegetable stock cubes vary wildly. Taste yours in hot water first, and if it is mostly salt, use less cube and more yeast extract.
• If you need it thicker for a loose nut roast, simmer it for another five minutes rather than adding more flour.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps five days in the fridge and freezes for three months. It thickens on standing, so reheat with a splash of stock and stir until smooth.

Questions people ask