The Never-Enough-Mushroom Vegetarian Gravy

duonyte's Note:

From the Chicago Tribune. I made turkey croquettes for dinner, but had no gravy and no pan drippings. This recipe was in the Sunday paper. It takes longer than other recipes, but the flavor is worth it. The author described how her brother created this recipe to help her feel more included at Thanksgiving dinner.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 -2 garlic clove, minced (optional)
• 2 lbs white button mushrooms, sliced
• 8 ounces portabella mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 bay leaf (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a 5 quart pot on medium heat. Add the onions and saute until caramelized, about 20-30 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally.
2. Add garlic, if using, and saute 2 minutes, or until softened.
3. Pour in 5 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
4. Blend with an immersion blender (or in blender or food processor, in batches).
5. Add the mushrooms, wine, salt, pepper, bay leaf and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, occasionally pushing the mushrooms into the liquid. Reduce heat and simmer 45-60 minutes, or until of desired thickness.
6. Remove bay leaf and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
7. Note: I added some rehydrated wild mushrooms, and used the soaking liquid as part of the water. I also added some fresh chopped thyme before serving.

Reviews

[more snax]

This gets 5 stars as a great place to start! I changed a few things, and what I got is going to be hard not to eat before thanksgiving. I sauteed my mushrooms first, and I used primarily baby bellas, some shitake and wood ear. pulled those aside, then followed caramelizing in the same pot, added a LOT more garlic and a veggie bullion cube with the water and wine, and used a lot of pepper. at the end I also added 1T of cornstarch for a little more body.
this one is going in the recipe books!

[bluemoon downunder]

WOW! Another new favourite recipe for this mushroom-lover. Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this! :) We greatly enjoyed it with some meatloaf but it would be great with so many different meat dishes, with pasta or as Some Girl served it: with mashed potatoes. I'm not always in the mood for tomato-based sauces and I'm just so happy to have found this yummy recipe. There was a recipe similar to this that I used to make decades ago but have forgotten. This recipe was even better and, for me, has filled the gap where my memory has failed me. Loved the wine in this and that it was so low in fat. My only addition was fresh thyme and I doubled the garlic. I'll be making this often. Made for 1-2-3 Hit Wonders.

[Some Girl]

This was amaaaazing. I didn't have white button mushrooms, and only 6oz of ports. To compensate, I reduced the recipe to about 1/4 (just estimated) and used what I had. I used veggie broth instead of wine (most wine isn't vegan). I used a sprig of rosemary instead of a bay leaf. I ran 1/2 of it through the blender (mushrooms and all). Mmmm... so perfect on mashed potatoes, it was just what I was craving. Thank you!