How do I make a flavourful vegetarian gravy that is acceptable to my family, to serve with both roast meat and a vegetarian option? They all seem to rely on dried mushrooms and alcohol for flavour, both of which are unpopular with the children.
Jennifer, Blackpool
Good gravy is so much more than an accompaniment; it’s the backbone of any roast dinner, holding together all the different elements on the plate, whether that’s meat or a veggie offering, alongside all the usual suspects – potatoes! Yorkshires! Carrots! “Great gravy, vegetarian or otherwise, is all about the quality of the stock,” says Sarah Wasserman, director of food at plant-based Mildreds in London. “Homemade is best, and you can store vegetable offcuts in the freezer until you have a nice full bag for making stock.”
Wasserman favours a dark stock, which she achieves by roasting onions, carrots, mushrooms (sorry, kids), tomatoes, leeks and the like, until sweet and caramelised. “Use the whole vegetable,” she says. “Onion skins, for example, are especially good for adding colour.” You’ll want herbs such as rosemary and sage in there, too, for a “nice base note”. Then, once the roast veg are at collapsing point, fry them in a deep saucepan, cover with water and boil “until the liquid is deeply coloured”.
