An easy vegan gravy recipe with heaps of hidden vegetables!
So, you've made yourself an amazing vegetarian main course for Christmas. You've cooked the perfect roast potatoes, and made an amazing vegetarian stuffing to go alongside. All that's left is an awesome vegetarian gravy to bring everything together! This vegetable gravy is 100% vegan, but even better, it contains lots of hidden vegetables!
Christmas indulgence
This vegetable gravy is an easy way to get a bit of extra nutrition into your Christmas dinner. For a lot of people, Christmas is all about chocolate, roast potatoes, and festive drinks - and while that does all sound rather delicious (correction: incredibly delicious), it can be easy to forget that your body does actually need a bit of goodness to survive on too.
With this vegetable gravy, you can have your Christmas dinner and eat it too!
Just smother your Christmas feast with this vegan gravy, and you'll be getting your veggies in without even noticing. It's also gluten-free (assuming you use GF veggie stock), and low in calories too!
How to make vegan gravy
This vegan vegetable gravy couldn't be easier to make. The main base of the gravy is loads of vegetables, cooked up in some vegetable stock. Then, you just blend everything together, and add whatever flavourings you fancy.
This is the kind of recipe where I'll just open the kitchen cupboard, and add a dash of anything that sounds like it might work - feel free to switch up the ingredients depending on what you have in the house! I used a few different everyday spices, along with some nutritional yeast, and Marmite*. I know these last two ingredients aren't common in everyone's kitchen (unless you're British, in which case you probably have Marmite running through your veins), but you can easily swap them out for other things.
Just keep adding your herbs and spices until you end up with a really tasty vegetable gravy! Then just let it simmer until it's nice and thick.
What vegetables can I use?
Here's my (not so) dirty little secret: I used almost entirely frozen vegetables to make this gravy. Not only does this completely remove any need for peeling and chopping, it also means you can easily fill your pan with a nice big variety of vegetables in one fell swoop. Lazy people unite!
The frozen mixture I used contained broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, sweetcorn and green beans - far more veg than I would ever have bothered to prepare individually! Of course, if your bag of frozen veg contains a different combination, that's fine too.
The only fresh vegetable I added was a potato, which helps to thicken the gravy and make it nice and creamy.
Vegan Christmas dinner
If you haven't yet planned the entirety of your vegan Christmas dinner, here's my little formula for the perfect veggie feast:
- a vegan 'main' dish - something to be the focal point of your table. There are lots of vegetarian ideas here (not all vegan) - something encased in pastry like this vegetarian haggis and mushroom wellington is always a showstopper.
- crispy roast potatoes - obviously. So easy to make vegan!
- vegan stuffing - chestnuts are perfect for giving that rich flavour.
- at least one 'simple' vegetable side - simply cooked veggies like roasted carrots, sauteed Brussels sprouts, or steamed green beans.
- one 'fancy' vegetable side to make your meal feel really special - something like a whole roasted cauliflower cheese (made with vegan cheese if needed!)
And of course... lashings of vegan gravy on top!
Do you tend to eat to excess at Christmas? Or do you try to stay in control, and continue trying to get some nutrition into your diet? I think I'm somewhere in the middle - there's definitely significantly more chocolate involved in my day-to-day life than usual around the festive period, but if I can take an opportunity to get some extra veggies into my meals, I will! This vegan vegetable gravy is the perfect solution - it feels indulgent, but is pretty good for you too!
Vegan Vegetable Gravy
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Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 350 g (~ 2 ½ cups) mixed frozen vegetables (mine was a mixture of broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, sweetcorn and green beans)
- 1 medium-small potato (~ 130g / ~ 4 ½ oz, diced)
- 750 ml (~ 3 cups) vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
- ½ teaspoon Marmite (optional)
- ½ teaspoon garlic granules
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- Black pepper
- Salt
Instructions
- Add the frozen vegetables, diced potato, and vegetable stock to a large pan, and bring to a simmer. Cook until the potato is very soft - around 10-15 minutes.
- Use a hand blender to carefully blitz the mixture until it's completely smooth (or as smooth as you want it!). Add the remaining ingredients (or whatever combination of herbs and spices you prefer), and season to taste. Simmer until the gravy reaches your desired consistency (add a dash more water if it ends up too thick). Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
Janice says
That sounds like a really flavourful gravy. I hope you had a good festive season.
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
Thanks Janice! It's been fantastic so far. Hope you had a lovely Christmas :)
Jacqueline Meldrum says
What a fabulous idea and just what I need in the run up to Christmas. Thanks Becca and I hope the three of you have a wonderful Christmas xx
Sharing x
Kavita Favelle says
That's a really clever way to make a tasty vegetarian sauce, what a great idea for a different style of Gravy. It looks really good too!
Ros says
I was just telling hubby we can't eat meat and carbs only this Christmas! This will definitely get some nutrition into our meals with a side of veggies and a hot bowl of soup. Thanks for the recipe :)
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
You're welcome Ros! Then you can justify more roast potatoes :D