Sweet Wine Mushroom Gravy

Categories : lent, main dishes, potatoes & vegetables, Recipes, vegetarian or vegan

A delicious gravy made with mushrooms, vegetable stock and sweet dessert wine. A great vegetarian or vegan alternative, ideal for accompanying a good old nut roast (nut loaf) or anything else that requires a tasty sauce (like mashed potatoes, polenta or rice). Look out for the mini nut loaves coming up next on the blog, they were – literally – made for each other!

You know how I’ve been posting festive veggie dishes lately? We’ve had garlic olive oil mash with truffle and balsamic maple roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots; well here is the next instalment. Because you can’t have a holiday meal without gravy, right? Mushrooms and sweet red wine… it seems they suit each other very well!

If you’re vegan or a strict vegetarian you will need to look for a suitable wine. I’ve only just discovered the whole “fining” thing… Those are some strange methods they use! For those of you who don’t know what I’m on about, fining is a process used to make wine clear and get rid of floaty things (I am using non-scientific terms in case you hadn’t noticed). And what do they use to do this? Stuff like egg whites, casein (milk protein), gelatin and isinglass (don’t ask, I’ll just say the words fish and bladder). There are some alternatives, but the majority of wine production does in fact involve animal products. So, choose according to your dietary preferences.

Whatever wine you use, I really hope you try the gravy, it’s delicious. And perfect to smother the mini nut loaves coming up next on the blog. Watch this space!

Sweet Wine Mushroom Gravy www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: A plate filled with festive food. Mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables (Brussels sprouts and carrots) and muffin-shaped nut loaves smothered in mushroom gravy.

Ingredients

2 Tbs olive oil

100 gr onion, finely chopped

250 gr mushrooms, sliced

20 gr flour, all purpose

500 ml vegetable stock, good quality

60 ml sweet red wine (dessert wine) or suitable alternative for vegans or vegetarians

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper, freshly ground

Step 1

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium/high. Cook the onions for 3 minutes stirring continuously and add the mushrooms. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes. The onions will darken in colour but that’s ok. Just don’t let them burn.

Step 2

Add the flour to the pan and stir well with a wooden spoon for about 30 seconds to one minute (until there is no white flour visible). Pour in the vegetable stock while stirring quickly to avoid lumps. Then add the wine. When the mixture comes to the boil add the salt and pepper and turn the heat down to medium. Let the sauce simmer and thicken while stirring continuously (about 10 minutes).