Vegan Brown Gravy (And a simple vegetable-forward holiday meal)

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Standard / by / November 17, 2019 / No Comments

Bean-based gravy is nothing new in the vegan world and I've been riffing on a white bean gravy of my own for years and years. Several variations have made it into my cookbooks.

My white bean gravy is "famous" locally - I have students who make my annual holiday cooking classes simply to eat the gravy - and after a recent class I decided to try a new approach to the gravy. I was in Denver last week teaching a plant-sourced holiday cooking dem at the library. Someone asked if they could use sweet potatoes for mashing, instead of the russets that I used. The answer was of course. However, we had just been talking about building flavor profiles and how often color choices can impact that (white miso for the white potatoes I was mashing). So I said, you know what? I think mashed sweet potatoes would be amazing with a red-miso gravy! And so it began. And how here it is: a vegan brown gravy using red beans.

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Vegan Brown (Red Bean) Gravy

Makes about 2 cups

Course Sauce / Dip
Servings 4
©JLFields JL Fields

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons vegan butter
  • 1 tablespoon red miso
  • 1/2 cup red onion diced
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon whole dried rosemary
  • 1/4 teaspoon whole dried thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 1/4 cup beef-style vegetable broth
  • 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
  • 3/4 cup cooked or canned Christmas lima beans (or red kidney scarlet runner, or Anasazi beans
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

Instructions

  1. Heat vegan butter and miso in a saucepan on medium-high. Add onion and garlic sauté until translucent. Add thyme, rosemary, cumin, ground black pepper and stir well. Stir in the beef-style vegetable broth and soy sauce. Bring back to a boil. Add beans and lime juice. Bring back to a boil.
  2. Use an immersion blender in the saucepan to blend the gravy, approximately 20 – 30 seconds. (You can use a blender; simply return the gravy back to the saucepan once blended.) Try to leave some texture with a few chunky beans and onion and flecks of the rosemary and thyme
  3. Add nutritional yeast, cover and cook on medium heat for five minutes, stirring as needed.

Creating a vegetable-forward holiday plate can be pretty simple. Here's what's on the plate:

  • I cooked sweet potatoes (diced) in an Instant Pot for 6 minutes, high pressure, quick release. I mashed them with a little red-miso and vegetable broth.
  • In a skillet, beginning with a mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot), I added cooked millet, cooked Christmas Lima Beans, and cumin, rosemary, and thyme. Simple cooking until heated through, this was a very fast main dish.
  • For the cabbage: I steamed (via pressure) the cabbage wedges for 3 minutes on low pressure (quick release). I drizzled glaze of rice vinegar, tamari, agave, and white pepper over it and air fried for 15 minutes on 400°F (I did both processes in an Ninja Foodi). To do this in the oven, skip the pressure cooking step and simply pour the glaze over the cabbage and roast for 25 to 30 minutes at 425°.

So how can you make this fast?

  1. Prepare the Christmas Lima Beans a day or two in advance (or use canned red beans).
  2. Prepare the millet in advance.
  3. Chop up onion, carrot and celery (the mirepoix) in advance.

It can be a lot of fun recreating pre-vegan holiday dishes and using vegan holiday roasts. And it's just as fun to play with beans, grains, and vegetables to make exactly what you want to serve and eat during the season!

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