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Gravy for a nut roast

The gravy that has to work as hard as the main course

From Gravypedia, the encyclopaedia of gravy

🕑 History Last edited 2026-09-21 👁 2 views #christmas#nut roast#vegan#vegetarian

A rich, glossy vegetarian gravy designed specifically for nut roasts and vegetable mains, with port, mushrooms and redcurrant for a celebration table.

A nut roast is dense, nutty and often a little dry — exactly the conditions a gravy exists to fix. It needs more than a stock cube and a spoon of flour.

This recipe is built for the job: dark, glossy, faintly sweet, with enough depth to sit on a Christmas table next to whatever everyone else is eating.

Ingredients

Serves 6 · 40 minutes · vegan as written

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 carrots, finely diced
  • 250 g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 15 g dried porcini, soaked in 200 ml hot water
  • 2 sprigs thyme, 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 150 ml port (or red wine)
  • 800 ml vegetable stock
  • 1 tsp redcurrant jelly
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
  • ½ tsp yeast extract
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Method

  1. Soak the porcini in the hot water for 20 minutes. Lift out, chop, and keep the liquid — pour it off carefully and leave the last spoonful with the grit behind.
  2. Heat the oil in a wide pan. Cook the onions and carrots over medium heat for 20 minutes, until deep brown at the edges. This is the foundation.
  3. Add the mushrooms and turn the heat up. Cook for 8–10 minutes until they have released their water and browned properly.
  4. Add the garlic, thyme and bay for 1 minute, then the tomato purée for 2 minutes.
  5. Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes.
  6. Pour in the port and let it reduce by half.
  7. Add the stock, the chopped porcini and the strained soaking liquid. Simmer 20 minutes.
  8. Stir in the redcurrant jelly, soy sauce, yeast extract and balsamic. Taste and season.
  9. Strain for elegance, or blend a ladleful and stir it back in for body.

Serving it with a mixed table

If you are cooking for vegetarians and meat-eaters together, this gravy works on both plates — but the reverse is not true. Make this as the main jug and keep any meat gravy as the extra, rather than the other way around. Nobody's Christmas is improved by finding out afterwards.

💡 Chef's tip

Nut roasts absorb liquid. Make half again as much gravy as you would for a meat roast, and serve some spooned over as it comes to the table.

See also

More in Recipes

Make-ahead gravy Gravy from stock Emergency gravy Proper roast-dinner gravy from meat juices Gravy for Christmas dinner Large-batch gravy Simple everyday gravy Gluten-free gravy