The best quick and easy vegan gravy that is ready in less than 15 minutes. It’s rich, hearty, flavorful, and perfect for the holidays over mashed potatoes, and more!
This is the perfect sauce for any holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but also for any special occasion.
However, this stuff tastes so good I could eat it every single day!
I firmly believe this vegan gravy goes well with plenty of savory recipes (I'm a huge sauce and gravy person myself).
I love to have it served over some mashed potatoes, meatloaf, or even make some biscuits and gravy.
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🌟 You’ll love this recipe because it is
- Made with just a few ingredients you probably already have on your refrigerator and pantry.
- Ready in less than 15 minutes and so inexpensive.
- An easier version that doesn’t require chopped veggies, just garlic, and onion powder.
- A healthier and lighter alternative to the classic gravy, but also extremely creamy and full of flavor.
- The perfect complement to comfort food favorites like mashed potatoes and vegan turkey.
🧾 Ingredients
- Vegan butter or olive oil.
- All-purpose flour: some recipes call for cornstarch (or any other starch), but I prefer to use flour as it's less processed and still turns out spectacular.
- Garlic powder: you could also use fresh garlic and sautée previously with a little bit of vegan butter or oil. If you don’t like garlic, use more onion powder instead.
- Onion powder: same as above. Fresh onion also works really well, and if you don’t like onions, add more garlic powder.
- Dried rosemary.
- Dried thyme.
- Ground black pepper.
- Soy sauce: use dark soy sauce if you want your vegan gravy to have a darker color.
- Vegetable stock: homemade or store-bought.
- Non-dairy milk: any type of unsweetened milk will do. Soy milk is my favorite one, but feel free to use what you have on hand (almond milk and oat milk are also delicious).
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
🔪 Instructions
Step 1: add the vegan butter (or olive oil) to a saucepan and when it's hot and melted, whisk in the flour.
Step 2: cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until it starts to turn golden brown, whisking frequently.
Step 3: incorporate the spices (garlic powder, onion powder, rosemary, thyme, and pepper) and whisk again.
Step 4: add the soy sauce and whisk one more time.
Step 5: slowly whisk in the vegetable stock and the milk until no clumps remain.
Step 6: bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until thickens, whisking frequently.
📋 Substitutions & variations
- Fat: including some kind of fat to make your vegan gravy is always a good idea, and vegan butter is my favorite choice.
- Extra virgin olive oil also works amazingly well, but you could also use pretty much any type of oil you like.
- For an oil-free version, omit the vegan butter or oil, add all the ingredients to the saucepan, bring to a boil, and whisk over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until thickens.
- All-purpose flour: you could also use other types of flour, like brown rice, buckwheat, or a gluten-free flour blend if you’re gluten-free.
- Spices and herbs: feel free to omit any spice or herb I've used if you don’t like it or add any other ones you like.
- Soy sauce: this gives the umami flavor to this vegan gravy, but you could omit it and add some salt to taste instead.
- Use tamari for a gluten-free version of this recipe, or with coconut aminos if you’re soy-free, instead of the soy sauce.
- If you’re a mushroom lover, you really need to try my mushroom gravy, it’s thick, creamy, flavorful, and absolutely delicious.
🍽 Equipment
This recipe doesn’t require any special equipment, just a saucepan, and a whisk, in addition to the measuring tablespoons, and the measuring cups or the scale you need to weigh your ingredients. That's all!
❄️ Storage
- Refrigerator: store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- Freezer: store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2-3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
- Reheat on the stovetop: reheat it over medium-low heat, whisking frequently to prevent lumps until it's hot. Add some water or vegetable stock if needed.
- Reheat in the microwave: transfer it into a microwave-safe container and use short 30-second bursts of heat, whisking or stirring in between, until your gravy is liquid and steaming.
💭 Expert tips
- Make sure your spices and herbs are fresh or they may have lost their flavor. Open up the jars and check if they smell like they should, or if they have a musty smell.
- Add more or less liquid depending on how thick you like your gravy. You can also can let it simmer for a longer or a shorter time.
- If your gravy is already too thick, just whisk in a little more stock until it’s thinned to the desired consistency. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
- Keep in mind that the longer you simmer it, the thicker it will become.
- If your gravy is already too thin or runny, make a new roux (one tablespoon of vegan butter cooked with one tablespoon of flour) in a skillet.
- The roux can be whisked into the gravy until it reaches the desired consistency. You shouldn’t have this problem if you follow my recipe, though.
- I prefer to use vegetable stock because is healthier, inexpensive, and easy to get, but there are many vegan stock options out there that replicates chicken or beef flavor.
❓Recipe FAQs
Although it’s a super quick and easy recipe, you can make it in advance if you want.
Simply store it in the refrigerator, then heat it back up on the stovetop or in the microwave and add more liquid if needed.
It’s easy to make lumpy gravy. It can be because you added the flour too quickly, or didn’t whisk continuously as you add it.
If you do end up with lumps, strain them out with a fine-mesh strainer or pulse with an immersion blender to smooth things out.
It might taste doughy or chalky if you didn't cook the flour enough when making the roux. You need to cook the flour for 1-2 minutes or until it starts to turn golden brown.
If you notice when you've already added your stock, bring the gravy to a simmer and cook it, stirring constantly for a few minutes to try to cook out that chalky flavor. Add additional liquid if needed.
🥧 More vegan Holiday recipes
⭐️ Did you like this vegan gravy recipe? Leave a comment and rating below!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Gravy
Ingredients
- ¼ cup vegan butter, or extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk, I used soy milk
Instructions
- Add the vegan butter (or olive oil) to a saucepan and when it's hot and melted, whisk in the flour.
- Cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until it starts to turn golden brown, whisking frequently.
- Incorporate the spices (garlic powder, onion powder, rosemary, thyme, and pepper) and whisk again.
- Add the soy sauce and whisk one more time.
- Slowly whisk in the vegetable stock and the milk until no clumps remain.
- Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until thickens, whisking frequently.
- Serve your vegan gravy immediately with vegan mashed potatoes, or vegan meatloaf, or make some vegan biscuits and gravy with it.
Notes
- In addition to vegan butter or extra virgin olive oil, you could also use pretty much any type of oil you like.
- Oil-free version: omit the vegan butter or oil, add all the ingredients to the saucepan, bring to a boil, and whisk over medium heat for 5 minutes or until thickens.
- You could also use other types of flour, like brown rice, buckwheat, or a gluten-free flour blend if you’re gluten-free.
- Feel free to omit any spice or herb I've used if you don’t like it or add any other ones you like.
- Soy sauce gives the umami flavor to this vegan gravy, but you could omit it and add some salt to taste instead.
- Use tamari for a gluten-free version of this recipe, or with coconut aminos if you’re soy-free, instead of the soy sauce.
- Refrigerator: store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- Freezer: store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2-3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
- Reheat on the stovetop: reheat it over medium-low heat, whisking frequently to prevent lumps until it's hot. Add some water or vegetable stock if needed.
- Reheat in the microwave: transfer it into a microwave-safe container and use short 30-second bursts of heat, whisking in between, until it's liquid and steaming.
Nancy says
This recipe was phenomenal! I didn’t have garlic powder so I left it out. But it got raves all around!
Iosune says
Hi Nancy! Thank you so much 🙂 So glad you enjoyed it!
Marie says
By far the best gravy I have ever had vegan or not! We made the recipe as is using Miyoko butter and Unsweetened almond milk. My 10 year old made this is accidentally doubled the milk so we made a second batch sans milk and added them together. The second half of the batch we ran out of vegetable brought so made broth using not chick'n bouillon cubes we had on hand. This gravy was so good I could eat it with a spoon and my vegan husband agrees!
Iosune says
Hi Marie! I'm so happy to hear that 🙂 So glad you and your family enjoyed it!
Jasper Valery says
Badly needed a thickening agent, so I looked into corn starch, but didn't have any. I did have vegetarian Jiffy corn muffin mix, added about 1/6th cup. Absolutely superb.
Adriana @ Simple Vegan Blog says
Hi Jasper! So glad you liked it 🙂
Louise says
Finally a veg gravy without msg! Actually tastes really good too and not complicated
Iosune says
Hi Louise! SO glad you liked it 🙂
Esiuol says
This recipe has soy sauce which has msg, and msg is unjustly maligned, anyway.
Iosune says
Hi Esioul! The soy sauce I used hasn't msg 🙂
Markell says
Amazing and so easy! I am shocked to find a recipe that only required basic ingredients that I already had.
Iosune Robles says
Hi Markell! Thanks for your kind comment 🙂
Lisa says
I also used homemade almond milk...
Lisa says
Delish!
I used slightly caramelized onions instead of onion powder, and finished it with about a tablespoon and a half of nutritional yeast at the end. It was slightly less thick than I like my gravy, so I added one more tablespoon of AP flour too. While I made this to put over my vegan Shepard's Pie that needed a little added moisture, having this much yummy gravy hanging around inspired me to make some biscuits! 😉
Thanks for the recipe!
Iosune Robles says
Hi Lisa! So glad you liked it Lisa 🙂
Gabriele Powell says
Delish with our prime rib and German noodles for Christmas dinner.
Iosune Robles says
So glad you liked it Gabriele 🙂
Cathie says
OMG this is one of the best gravies I’ve ever had I stayed true to the recipe and it was perfect for me. I made French Toast and Hash Browns this morning and the gravy went so well with both of them.
Iosune Robles says
Hi Cathie! Thanks for your kind comment 🙂
Joyce says
This gravy was great. Was skeptical about using coconut milk due to expected taste, but I didn’t detect any coconut. This is a keeper.
Iosune Robles says
Hi Joyce! Thanks for your kind comment 🙂