Smoky Paprika Vegan Gravy

Smoke is one of the flavours people miss most in meat free cooking, and smoked paprika delivers it without any tricks. Bloomed in oil for thirty seconds it goes from dusty to fragrant, and paired with cooked out tomato puree and a spoon of molasses it gives a gravy with real weight. Good over bean burgers, jackets and roasted squash.

Ingredients

Makes about 550ml, five servings

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika or a pinch of chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tbsp (30g) plain flour
• 600ml (1 pint) hot vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tsp black treacle or molasses
• 1 tsp American mustard
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar

Kit

• Saucepan
• Whisk

Method

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion for 10 minutes until soft and well browned at the edges. Take it further than you would for a normal gravy, because you want that darkness behind the smoke.

2. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, then take the pan off the heat and stir in both paprikas. The residual heat is enough to bloom them without burning them.

3. Paprika scorches in seconds and turns bitter, so keep the pan off the flame for those first 20 seconds and stir constantly.

4. Back on a medium heat, add the tomato puree and fry it for two minutes, pressing it against the base, until it darkens to a deep brick red and smells sweet rather than sharp.

5. Stir in the flour and cook for two minutes so it coats everything and toasts, then pour in the hot stock a third at a time, whisking hard between each addition.

6. Add the treacle and the soy sauce, bring to a simmer and cook for eight minutes until glossy and thickened. It should be very dark by now.

7. Off the heat, stir in the mustard and the cider vinegar. Taste and season. The vinegar is what keeps it from tasting like a sweet barbecue sauce, so do not leave it out.

Tips worth knowing

• Smoked paprika and ordinary paprika are not interchangeable. Ordinary paprika gives colour but almost no flavour.
• Bloom the paprika off the heat. Burnt paprika is unmistakably acrid and there is no saving the pan once it happens.
• Black treacle is stronger and more bitter than molasses sold as such. Either works, but start with less treacle.
• If you want more smoke without more heat, add a quarter teaspoon of liquid smoke rather than more hot paprika.

Keeping and reheating

Five days in the fridge and three months frozen. The smoke flavour holds up well to freezing, unlike fresh herbs.

Questions people ask