90s Nutritional Yeast Gravy

90's Nutritional Yeast Gravy

Ingredients:

Good cooking oil
Onions (or onion powder)
Garlic (or garlic powder)
Rice flour (brown or white)
Water
Nutritional yeast flakes
Tamari (or soy sauce if you don't have it)
Mustard seed powder (or regular mustard)
Powdered Sage
Turmeric
Basil
Thyme
Salt and Pepper (I like to use white AND black pepper)
Rice Vinegar or White Vinegar
Cayenne powder if you like it spicy
(maybe Dill if you feel weird)
Soy milk (only unflavored unsweetened, also not necessary, but nice)

Directions: Dice or mince garlic and onions, put into stock pot with plenty oil, more than enough to saute, this plays a large part of your sauce, so use a yummy cooking oil (olive, sunflower, grapeseed, etc, coconut if yr feeling goofy), saute on medium-low heat til the alliums are clear. (If you're working with powders, just skip this step and whisk them into some water or soymilk and add oil over medium heat).

Once the alliums are good and liquified, add in the soy milk if you have it, otherwise water will do. Put in rice flour and salt and pepper. Whisk. Make sure you're not using a metal whisk in a teflon pot, dude. Once it boils, turn to low-medium heat and get to a creamy consistency. This is called a roux and is the base for many creamy sauces. Then pour nutritional yeast into the mix while whisking and adding a little more water, and the vinegar and soy sauce. These just give it a salty tang, so don't overdo it, you can add more of them later. Once you have added about as much nut yeast as you did rice flour, and its at a nice thin consistency (plenty of liquid) add a tiny amount of mustard seed powder. This really makes the sauce, but is easy to overdo, and when you do, its ruined. Just tastes like weird mustard after that. You can in fact use regular mustard out of a bottle, but just go slow and keep track of how much you're adding. After adding that small amount of mustard, start adding the other spices to taste. If you think you might need more mustard after tasting it, add a little more, but remember, you are going to cook it for a while longer and it will get thicker. The idea is to just barely notice the mustard flavor.

Once you have a nice spice profile that you like, put it on a low heat setting to thicken. Come back to stir every 3-5 minutes, make sure its not sticking on the bottom or sides. Once it gets to a gravy like consistency, cut the heat and let it cool, covered for a bit. If left in the pot or uncovered in the fridge it may develop a skin on the top, you can mix that back in or eat it or toss it out, up to you. Should keep for a week refrigerated. I am in the habit of adding a little extra water and bringing the whole batch to a boil then simmering for 7 minutes every time I use some, this kills off any bacteria and will extend its life in the fridge.

Notes:

1 to 1 with the nut. yeast vs. rice powder. If its too spicy/tangy/mustardy/etc., you can always just add more of these to tone it down.

If you want to thicken it with corn starch, cool it all the way down first.

Tamari/Soy Sauce/Vinegar gives it the salty tang that ties it all together.

GO  EASY AND SLOW on the mustard and mix well between doses. Barely noticeable is the goal.

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