Vegetarian Gravy?!
Vegetarian Gravy?
I was at a restaurant and the waitress told me the gravy was vegetarian. How is this possible? I thought they used meat drippings for the gravy. I was suspicious so I declined. She seemed kinda miffed about it though.
Answers:
Gravy can be made using cubes of vegetable broth, salt and brown color. Sometimes vegetables are added to create the flavors instead of meat.
You can make vegetarian gravy using vegetable "chicken" or "beef" stock.
That being said, some people in restaurants think it is vegetarian if there are not chunks of actual meat floating around in it! So I would be suspicious too! It would totally depend on how familiar I was with the restaurant and what else they served.
I never heard of vegetarian gravy, but maybe they used the water from the vegetables and made a cream gravy (kind of like sausage gravy without the sausage) The "country Gravy" mix I have (powdered) in my pantry doesn't have any meat products listed as ingredients so maybe that is the gravy they were serving?
I would think that they just use a vegetable stock instead of beef or chicken. You can buy boxed veggie stock in the soup aisle in the supermarket. I haven't used it, but the chicken & beef are very good for gravies.
It's entirely possible to make vegetarian gravy, but I'd be suspicious in a restaurant, too.
I like to make cream gravy w/out drippings. It's just flour, milk and salt and pepper. Really good over biscuits or mashed potatoes.
I actually make vegetarian gravy. What you do is melt butter in a saute pan and add some flour, whisk together and cook for about 1 min just to get rid of the raw flour taste. then take vegetable stock either from a can or carton and whisk that in until it thickens. A lot of the time i will saute leeks, onions and garlic (you could also do shallots)until they are translucent and then add the butter and flour to that and then the stock and after it cooks you could strain the veggies out if you want a smooth gravy or if you don't mind the veggies in it,then its finished
GRAVY WHICH CONTAINS ONLY ONION,TOMATOES,GARLIC AND GINGER IN OIL,WITH SPICES LIKE SALT,CORRIENDER AND CHILLI.
Yeah I would be a bit suspicious too. Oh there is such a thing as vegetarian gravy, I had it with my "turkey" (Roast from Quorn) and it was really good. I don't remember the name but it tasted really good.
You can make a great gravey from flour and veggie soup mix.
YES mmmm it is good too with herbs and spices.
There are tons of vegetarian gravies out there. You can even buy vegetarian gravy mix at the grocery store. I usually buy Simply Organic I think its' called. They have a mushroom sauce that is similar in taste to a brown gravy. It's really good, in fact I served it at Christmas to my carnivorous family and nobody even knew it was vegetarian. Even McCormick has a vegetarian version, although they don't bill it as such. I recently discovered that their "Mushroom Sauce for Steak" is vegetarian, however their regular "mushroom gravy" is not. Weird!! But yeah... long story short... it does exist, and it's actually quite yummy (in most cases).
well like for thanksgiving i eat mushroom gravy with my tofurky. sooo maybe thats what it was.
I make a great vegetarian gravy and nobody is the wiser actually so maybe what they serve is vegetarian...who knows.
Mushroom gravy is kinda popular, looks like normal gravy, and well.... might have been what it was....
And, depending on the type of restaurant, they probably don't use meat drippings for the gravy.... Too much effort.... Probably just a powdered mix... At least that's what they used in the restaurant I used to work at, and it was a smallish cafe, the type where I would have assumed they would have taken the time to make real gravy.
And, honestly, you can't always trust the waitress... I know tons of people (and Y! answers also supports my experiences) that lots of people have less than accurate information on what a vegetarian actually eats. I've almost been served vegetarian minestrone... until I specifically questioned the broth base, which happened to be chicken. They thought that just because there weren't chunks of meat in it, it was vegetarian... Apparently meat juice was okay.
Also had some trouble with bacon grease being used to season green beans... Gotta watch out.
I would have probally done the same. Most people do not "KNOW" what is in they food they serve or eat.
But here at home I use Veggie Broth & do make gravy.
I buy vegetarian gravy mix at whole foods, and there are ways of making it, but I would doubt that they would at a restaurant unless they specifically cater to veggies. Maybe the waitress doesn't understand what you mean by vegetarian. Lots of people don't really understand that even the "stock"is not vegetarian, even though there is no actual meat in it.