Vegan Gravy with Marmite and Soy

Sometimes you have twenty minutes and no stock worth the name. This gravy leans on two things most British kitchens already have, yeast extract and soy sauce, both of which are packed with the savoury compounds that meat juices would normally supply. It is salty, dark and very easy to overdo, so build it up by the half teaspoon.

Ingredients

Makes about 450ml, four servings

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 500ml (18fl oz) hot vegetable stock
• 2 tsp Marmite or other yeast extract
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 3 tbsp cold water for the slurry
• black pepper

Kit

• Saucepan
• Small bowl
• Whisk

Method

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium high heat and fry the onion for eight to ten minutes, stirring, until it is soft and has taken proper golden brown colour at the edges. Do not stop at translucent.

2. Add the garlic and dried thyme and cook for one minute, until fragrant. Dried herbs need a moment in hot fat to wake up.

3. Pour in the hot stock and scrape the base of the pan clean. Add the Marmite, soy sauce and sugar, and stir until the Marmite has completely dissolved with no dark blobs left.

4. Bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes so the flavours settle together and the raw onion edge disappears.

5. Mix the cornflour and cold water in a small bowl until there are no lumps at all. It should look like thin white paint.

6. Pour the slurry into the simmering gravy in a steady stream while whisking constantly. It will thicken within 30 seconds. Cook for a further two minutes to lose the chalky taste of raw cornflour.

7. Taste and adjust. It should be dark and savoury with a little sweetness behind it. Add black pepper, and only add salt if it genuinely needs it, which it usually does not.

Tips worth knowing

• Marmite, soy sauce and stock cubes are all salty. Season with pepper first, taste, and only then think about salt.
• The slurry must go into liquid that is actually simmering, and it must be whisked in. Dumped into a still pan it forms rubbery lumps.
• Marmite contains barley gluten, so this gravy is not gluten free even if you swap the soy sauce for tamari.
• For a smoother finish, blitz the gravy with a stick blender before you add the slurry.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge. Cornflour thickened gravy can go slightly watery on freezing, so if you want to freeze it, do so and simply whisk it hard as it reheats.

Questions people ask