1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms (or sub 2 cups chopped cremini or shiitake mushrooms as the recipe is written*)
2 1/2-3 cups vegetable broth (or store-bought – we like Imagine brand best!)
2 Tbsp olive or avocado oil (if avoiding oil, sub water)
3/4 cup diced yellow or white onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp cornstarch (or all-purpose flour or arrowroot starch)
1 tsp minced fresh thyme (or sub dried)
1 Tbsp minced fresh rosemary (or sub dried)
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup unsweetened plain almond milk (optional)
For Serving (optional)
Mashed potatoes
Fresh parsley
Instructions
Rehydrate dried mushrooms in vegetable broth in a large saucepan or pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once bubbling, turn off heat, cover, and let rest.
In the meantime, heat a large rimmed pan over medium heat. Once hot, add oil (or water) and onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Then add garlic and sauté another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add cornstarch and stir to coat. Then cook for 2 minutes more. Next, add herbs and mushrooms with their broth (reserving a little of the broth so you can play with the thickness) and stir to combine (see photo). Cook for 2-3 minutes.
Transfer gravy to a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend until smooth and creamy. You can leave some of the onions or mushrooms unblended for more texture. Then transfer back to your pan and warm over low heat for 2-3 minutes more. At this time, you can add a bit of almond milk to lighten the colour and flavour a bit (optional), but we opted not to.
Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more salt and pepper to taste. If gravy is too thin, scoop out a small portion of the gravy and whisk in 1-2 tsp more of cornstarch until no clumps remain. Then add it back to the larger batch – repeat as needed until the desired thickness is reached. If too thick, thin with a little of your reserved vegetable broth.
Serve with dishes like mashed potatoes, biscuits, and more! Store completely cooled leftovers covered in the refrigerator up to 5 days or in the freezer up to 1 month. Reheat in a saucepan until hot and bubbly, adding more vegetable broth to thin as needed.
Notes
If subbing fresh mushrooms for the dried, don’t add them to the broth in step 1. Instead, add them directly to the pan when sautéing the onions so they can reduce in size and caramelize. Then continue with recipe as instructed.
Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated without optional ingredients.
