What makes gravy? Well, its basically a liquid thickened by roux (flour particles coated with fat). You can use any liquid (broth, milk, cream) and you can use any fat (meat drippings, butter, olive oil, or vegetable oil). Meat drippings, as in what comes out of a turkey when it’s roasted, creates the most flavorful gravy but since I’m not making a turkey this year I decided to make a butter-based Mushroom Herb Gravy instead. Simply swap out the butter for cooking oil to make this insanely scrumptious and herb infused gravy vegan.
Originally posted 11/18/2010, updated 10/11/16
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There is always at least one vegetarian or vegan guest at Thanksgiving, so it’s nice to make this delicious gravy that can accommodate all your guests. This Mushroom Herb Gravy is so good (especially when made with butter) that I promise no one will even notice. You can make one gravy this year and all your guests will be happy.
What Makes Gravy Flavorful
Since the gravy does not use flavorful meat drippings, most of the flavor comes from vegetable broth, mushrooms, and herbs. You can use any of your favorite herbs, but I happened to have fresh thyme and I love sage with mushrooms. The combo turned out quite spectacular if I do say so myself. ;)
Make it Vegan
Simply swap out the butter for cooking oil to make this insanely scrumptious and herb infused gravy vegan.
Mushroom Herb Gravy
Servings 6 (1/3 cup each)Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp butter or cooking oil ($0.33)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 8 oz mushrooms ($1.99)
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour ($0.03)
- 2 cups vegetable broth ($0.25)
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme ($0.32)
- 1 tsp dried sage ($0.10)
- Salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)
Instructions
- Rinse the mushrooms to remove any dirt or debris, then slice them thinly. Mince the garlic.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes or just until soft and fragrant. Add the sliced mushrooms and continue to sauté until they are soft, dark, and all of the moisture they release has evaporated (5 minutes).
- Make sure that all of the moisture released by the mushrooms has evaporated and just the butter oil and mushrooms remain in the pan. Turn the heat down to medium-low, add the flour, and continue to sauté the flour with the mushrooms and butter. The flour will form a paste like mixture all over the mushrooms and eventually begin to coat the bottom of the skillet. Continue to sauté for 3-4 minutes, or just until the flour begins to turn golden brown on the bottom of the skillet. This will slightly toast the flour and give the gravy better flavor.
- Slowly whisk in the vegetable broth. Whisk well to make sure that all of the flour has dissolved off the bottom of the skillet and no lumps remain. Add the sprigs of thyme, sage, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir to combine.
- Allow the mixture to come to a simmer. The gravy will begin to thicken as soon as it simmers. Allow the gravy to simmer for 7-10 minutes, whisking often, until it is the desired thickness. Remember that the gravy will continue to thicken as it cools. Taste the gravy and adjust salt and pepper to your liking.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Mushroom Herb Gravy – Step By Step Photos
Rinse and thinly slice 8oz. mushrooms. Mince two cloves of garlic.
I use Better Than Bouillon to make my broth, so I dissolved the concentrate in water before beginning the recipe. That way it’s ready to go when I need it. You’ll need 2 cups of vegetable broth for this recipe.
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and sauté for just 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and fragrant, but not brown.
Add the mushrooms to the skillet and continue to sauté over medium heat. Sauté the mushrooms until they release all their water and the water has completely evaporated. The skillet should just have mushrooms and some residual oil from the butter and it will sound a little like it’s frying.
Turn the heat down to medium-low and add 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour. Stir the flour into the mushrooms and butter. The flour will form a paste over the mushrooms. Just continue to stir and cook. The flour will eventually begin to coat the bottom of the skillet. Keep stirring and cooking until the flour starts to turn golden brown (but be careful to not let it burn). This toasts the flour and gives the gravy a much better flavor.
Whisk the vegetable broth into the skillet, using the whisk to help dissolve the flour off the bottom. Keep whisking until all the flour is dissolved into the broth.
Add a few sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 tsp dried sage, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir to combine. Allow the gravy to come up to a simmer, at which point it will begin to thicken (turn the heat up to medium to help it come to a simmer, if needed).
Let the gravy simmer for 7-10 minutes, whisking often, until it has reached the desired thickness. Just remember, the gravy will thicken a bit once taken off the heat.
Taste the gravy and adjust the salt or pepper if needed. The amount of salt needed will depend greatly on the type of broth you use. Better Than Bouillon tends to be on the saltier side, so I did not need to add any. Remove the thyme stems, if desired, or leave them in for visual effect.
Oh Mushroom Herb Gravy, how I wish I could drink you with a spoon!
Say – can this be made Wednesday and warmed back up for Thursdays feast?mmmm!
This does reheat pretty well, in my opinion. :)
Oh goody, thank you! We’ll enjoy this atop your olive oil mashed potatoes which were a VERY big dairy free hit last holiday season. #CookingBringsMeNoJoy – but I’m ever so grateful for you Miss Beth and all of your budget byte recipes and tips! https://www.budgetbytes.com/olive-oil-mashed-potatoes/
Thank you, Dana!
I made this for my family this weekend along with your Thanksgiving meatballs and OMG it’s ridiculously delicious!! I have to admit that I’m usually really bad at making gravy. It either turns out lumpy or the flour taste is “off” but I followed the directions to a T and it is seriously one of the best gravies I’ve ever had. We practically licked the pan clean haha! Next time I will double recipe. Thank you! =)
I used this as our main gravy for Thanksgiving today, and it was absolutely lovely. I knew I could try it out because the Green bean Casserole was great last year (and again this year). Thankful for your recipes!
This gravy was so good!! I used dried thyme instead of fresh and still loved it. I will definitely make this again!
I made this but used 1 cup broth and 1 cup coconut milk instead of the 2 cups of broth. Delicious.
Do you think I could swap out the flour for a gluten free flour? One of my guests can’t eat gluten.
Unfortunately I’ve never worked with gluten free flour, so I’m not sure how it performs when used as a thickening agent.
You could use cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken (in a slurry). I would sill add the butter for flavor!
My daughter is gluten free so I use cornstarch like flour In gravy. Same ratio of butter n cornstarch brown in pan then add the linguistic.
If you use sweet rice flour, you will get the same texture as wheat flour. Just use the same amount as regular flour. Cornstarch tends to give it a more gelatinous feel. You can buy a box of sweet rice flour (Mochiko) for about $1 at any Asian market or for about $5-8 at Whole Foods or similar stores.
Thanks for letting us know!
Hi! I just heard a really cool tip from Sue Becker, the whole grain fresh milled flour bread lady. In one of her classes, her daughter says: grind any dried white bean (including Garbanzo beans), and use 1/4 white bean powder to every 2 cups broth. Boil it for 3 minutes, and it will thicken as it cools. She said use red or brown bean flour for brown gravy, so I guess any bean powder works if you don’t care about the end color. But she said the white doesn’t change the flavor at all, and the brown adds a rich earthiness. If you don’t have a grain mill, you can use your blender, or wipe out your coffee grinder and use that. I have a separate non-coffee coffee grinder that I use for herbs and small amounts of things I want to powder, they are so powerful.
Can this gravy be frozen
I haven’t tried freezing it. Sometimes sauces thickened with flour don’t freeze so well (they can tend to separate).
I’ve successfully frozen bechamel (flour/butter roux, milk), so I think this should freeze well. The bitch is in defrosting, at least with a milk-base. It crystallizes and never really defrosts even overnight in the fridge. Just reheat slowly and keep whisking. I would freeze this for sure.
Please advise where to purchase fresh tyme for 32 cents. My grocer sells it for 2.99 and broth is $2.50 for a quart. I️ don’t remember the last time dry sage was used so really the cost of the jar is more applicable. Looks like a good recipe but definitely more expensive.
I estimate the cost of the portion of the ingredients used because I don’t buy a brand new container of each ingredient every time they’re used, nor do I want to count an ingredient as free if it’s already in my pantry. Here is a post about how I calculate my recipe costs.
Hi Cindy. Just some things I do to keep my costs down. I trade out bitter herbs (thyme and sage) for other bitter herbs. In this area, we have a large Hispanic population, so have both Mexican grocery stores and ojer grocery stores have Fiesta-brand dried herbs and spices that are good-quality products that come in cellophane (inexpensive) packaging. I often use their dried dried Mexican oregano and bay leaves. I mix in one more herb from herb and spice rack. So much flavor comes from Fiestas products that I am satisfied with the end result.
To keep broth costs lower, I use 1/2 boxed broth and 1/2 Beth’s recipe for bone broth. I freeze the bone broth in 2-cup servings in regular plastic containers for pre-measured ease.
Just some thoughts.
How would this do if I make this a day or two in advance and heat it back up? I’m trying to plan out thanksgiving and we are deep frying a turkey this year so I won’t have any dripping to make the gravy with this year. My siblings want to do the canned stuff…. but this is a special thanksgiving for us this year and I thought we needed something better.
Hmmm, If I remember correctly leftovers held up pretty good, but I would suggest trying to make it just the day before and not any longer to make sure it’s as fresh as possible. You may want to test a half batch or something before the big day just to make sure it holds up to your liking.
Tried this recipe today. Very delicious🤗🤗🤗
I made this to go with some vegetarian sausages and mashed potatoes and it is so so good. Thank you!
I made this for Thanksgiving this year. Subbed out beef stock for the veggie stock (because that’s what I had handy, Better Than Bouillon for the win!!).
And let me tell you, it was a HUGE crowd pleaser! Especially with the fresh herbs from my daughter’s school garden, it was a Thanksgiving winner, everyone wanted the recipe and I happily sent them your way!
Thanks for helping make my Thanksgiving awesome!
One of the things I am thankful for is YOU! :)
I made this gravy to use up some leftover mushrooms and I loved it so much that I may go buy some more! Since I didn’t have chicken broth on hand, I made this gravy in the same pan as my chicken and was NOT disappointed. It was easy and super delicious. Thanks, Beth!
Can you freeze this?
I haven’t tried it, but from what I understand, roux (flour+fat) thickened sauces don’t freeze well.
Tastes good :) But there is some left, so i have to keep it in the fridge. Do you know how much it stay in the fridge?
Probably 4-5 days. :)