Oat Milk Gravy

Oat milk has a natural sweetness and a bit of body from the oat starch, which makes a gravy that is gentler than a straight brown one but still savoury enough to belong on a dinner plate. It is the one to make for people who find dark onion gravy too aggressive. Browned onions and nutritional yeast keep it from being bland.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, four servings

• 40g (1 1/2oz) vegan block butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 tbsp (35g) plain flour
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• 300ml (1/2 pint) unsweetened oat milk
• 300ml (1/2 pint) hot vegetable stock
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and white pepper

Kit

• Saucepan
• Whisk

Method

1. Melt the vegan butter in a saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion for 10 minutes until it is soft and has taken proper golden colour. Since this gravy is mild, that browning is doing more work than usual.

2. Add the flour and whisk it in, then cook the roux for two minutes until it turns the colour of pale sand and smells biscuity.

3. Stir in the nutritional yeast and cook for a further minute so it toasts in the fat rather than going in raw.

4. Pour in the hot stock first, a third at a time, whisking hard between each addition until you have a smooth thick sauce.

5. Now add the oat milk in a steady stream, still whisking. Adding the stock first and the milk second keeps it smooth, because milk poured onto a hot dry roux tends to seize.

6. Bring it up to a gentle simmer and cook for six to eight minutes, stirring often. Oat milk catches on the base of a pan easily, so keep the heat moderate and do not wander off.

7. Take it off the heat, stir in the mustard, nutmeg and lemon juice, and season with salt and white pepper. It should be pale, glossy and thick enough to sit on a plate rather than run off it.

Tips worth knowing

• Use unsweetened oat milk, and preferably not a barista version, as those are formulated to foam and can behave oddly in a hot pan.
• Oat milk scorches faster than dairy milk. Medium heat and regular stirring, or you will taste it.
• Oats are a cereal containing gluten under UK labelling rules, and there is plain flour in here too, so this is not a gluten free gravy.
• A pinch of nutmeg in a pale gravy does the same job that black pepper does in a dark one. It gives it somewhere to go.

Keeping and reheating

Three days in the fridge. It sets firm and needs whisking with extra oat milk to loosen. Freezing is possible but the texture goes slightly grainy, so it is better made fresh.

Questions people ask