Roasted Garlic Gravy

This simple vegan roasted garlic gravy recipe is perfect on loaf, mashed potatoes, stuffing, or anything you like to smother in gravy. And it makes a nice, flavorful addition to any Thanksgiving or holiday spread. Finally, a vegan gravy without mushrooms!

The most time consuming part of this recipe is roasting the garlic. The rest is quick execution. While not everyone has raw cashews lying around, most of the other ingredients are pantry staples.

While it makes it easier, you don’t have to use a high speed blender (i.e. – Vitamix) to make this recipe for vegan garlic gravy. If you use a regular blender, make sure to soak the raw cashews in water for 4-6 hours, and drain off the water before adding them to the blender.

Roasted Garlic Gravy

1 bulb of garlic

Olive oil, to drizzle

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp cornstarch

1 fake chicken bouillon cube (I used Edward and Sons Not-Chick’n Bouillon Cubes)

2 ½ cups water

2 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce (OR gluten free tamari)

½ cup raw whole cashews (see note above if using a regular blender)

¼ tsp dried thyme

2 tsp-1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 350º F. Slice a ¼ off the top of the garlic. Place it on top of a piece of aluminum foil that’s about as big as a sheet of paper. Drizzle it with olive oil. Wrap the aluminum foil around the garlic. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the center clove is very soft.

2. When cool enough to safely handle, remove the outer peels of the garlic to reveal the clove inside. Do this clove-by-clove until all are free of the peels. Then, discard the peels and then, add the roasted cloves of garlic to a high speed blender.

3. Add the onion powder, cornstarch, bouillon cube, water, soy sauce, and raw cashews to the high speed blender. Blend until completely smooth. Then, pour into a medium saucepan.

4. Add the dried thyme. Over high-medium heat, whisk the gravy in the medium saucepan. Never stop whisking it, or it could burn, get lumpy or bubble over and get all over the stove. If the gravy starts bubbling up and looks like it might overflow, lower the heat, but continue whisking. After ~5 minutes, it should thicken up.

5. Stir in the balsamic vinegar. Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed (more soy sauce? more balsamic?). Serve.