Vegan Thyme Cabernet Gravy. The best gravy around for all you red wine lovers. Dairy-free, oil-free and has a rich, deep flavor from red cabernet wine and fresh thyme. Great with potatoes.
I’m dead serious when I tell you that the first batch I made of this vegan gravy, I slurped up the whole gravy boat. Would you believe I got just as excited about this gravy as I do desserts? It is that dang good. Even my husband agreed, it is sensational.
This gravy is the perfect topping to my Fluffy Buttermilk Vegan Mashed Potatoes I posted 2 days ago. The wow factor to this better-than-typical-boring gravy is using a Cabernet Sauvignon, which basically means red wine. There are many red wines though and a cabernet is considered to be the best of red wines and strongest in flavor because it is a full bodied red wine. It is deep in color and very rich, as well as a higher alcohol content than many other wines. It has more flavor than most red wines, so less is needed. If you want to learn more about them, you can read this source.
I seriously could drink this gravy…heck I practically did. I was eating it with a spoon as if it were soup. Oops.
VEGAN RED WINE GRAVY
The inspiration for this recipe came from a meal my husband and I had back in 2008 in New York city at a steak house. I don’t remember the meat that much, but I sure as heck remember the red wine gravy. I could not get over how rich and flavorful it was. It was absolutely incredible and I still remember that night very clearly. I finally got around to recreating it, haha. The original didn’t have any thyme in it I don’t believe, but that is my own twist and I think it really completes the gravy. It gives a wonderful depth of flavor and is very aromatic. You cook the whole sprigs in the gravy and it really infuses it with flavor.
This Cabernet Sauvignon by CalNaturale is unique, as they are the first apparently to offer eco-friendly containers instead of glass. All of their wine is also made using organic grapes and it is also a vegan wine. Believe it or not, a lot of wines are not vegan, as they are made using some animal products during the filtering process. To be sure I was posting a vegan wine for my readers, I did my research. I was thrilled to find this brand and even better, at my local HEB grocery store! I believe some Whole Foods also carries them. This is great news because instead of having to buy a whole bottle for the recipe, I could just buy one little box, which was less than $6. Totally cost-effective too. And NO, this is not a sponsored post.
MORE VEGAN SIDE DISHES
- Vegan Oil-free Zucchini Fritters
- Best Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Vegan Scalloped Potatoes
- Skillet BBQ Baked Beans
If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Thyme Cabernet Gravy
Ingredients
- 1/2 of a large white/yellow onion finely chopped (you will need about a cup)
- 3 extra large cloves of garlic minced (you will need 1 packed tablespoon of minced garlic)
- 2 cups 480g LOW sodium veggie broth, separated (I use Pacific brand)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper this gives a bit of kick which I think is perfect, but if you are sensitive, use a little less
- 3 tablespoons brown rice flour OR regular all-purpose flour
- 2 long sprigs of fresh thyme use 4 if they are short sprigs
- 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast per preference
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon Cabernet Sauvignon or use another similar full-bodied red wine
Note
- Since this is a red wine gravy this of course will have a red wine flavor to it. Keep in mind that different red wines will yield different flavors and colors...some more brown, some more purple hue, but the taste should still be amazing! I recommend CalNaturale for flavor. If you cannot find it, make sure to pick a good quality one with good flavor, as this is what your gravy will taste like! It is added early in the cooking, so the alcohol burns off and the flavor is much more mild towards the end. I found it to be absolute perfection. However, if you hate red wine, you can try subbing half of the wine amount with apple juice or more broth, just keep in mind, the flavor will be more of a basic gravy. If you do that, I would increase the nutritional yeast by 1 tablespoon for flavor)
Instructions
- It’s best to have all of your ingredients measured out and ready to go, so as the sauce is cooking, it is very easy to quickly add the ingredients, as you don’t want to be stopping to measure during.
- Add your onion, garlic, ONLY 1 cup of the broth, salt and pepper to a small pot and stir it well. Bring to a boil and once boiling, turn the heat down to between medium and low and put a lid on. Let it cook for 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times during along the bottom and sides. After 10 minutes, it should have greatly reduced by about half, with some broth still remaining. I literally set my timer for 10 mins.
- Very slowly add the brown rice flour to the pot while whisking at the same time, so it blends in easily and doesn’t clump. It will start to thicken immediately.
- Add your remaining 1 cup of broth, cabernet, nutritional yeast and sprigs of fresh thyme and stir. You will be adding the sprigs whole, as the herbs will fall off on their own as it cooks. Bring the gravy back to a boil and once boiling, turn to the lowest heat setting and cover. Cook for 15-20 minutes until it has thickened up nicely. Check on it a few times during, stirring the sides and bottom. I cooked mine for exactly 20 minutes. If you want it a bit thicker in the end, just cook it a little longer or very slowly whisk in another tablespoon of flour. Rice flour is much easier to work with than regular flour and blends in well when whisked in slowly.
- Now remove from heat and pull out the sticks from the thyme and discard. Using a hand immersion blender, VERY carefully blend it up to a smooth consistency. Just pulse it a few times going around the pan. Be very careful to watch for spatter. If you don’t have an immersion blender, just add it to a food processor to blend up, but do not overblend or use a blender, as it will turn into soup and be runny! Serve over my Fluffy Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes immediately!
Notes
Looks delicious! I can’t wait to make this for dinner, with mashed potatoes, of course!
Yay Cathy! Please let me know how everything turns out, thank you so much!
Hi Brandi,I just had to tell you that I have been cooking 58 years and everyone expects the same food from me this Christmas as every year.But boy will they be shocked,I am changing a lot of our dinner dishes this year.I just made your gravy and it will knock your socks off or make you slap your mama.Lol.This is my new favorite gravy.I don’t drink but do cook with wine and the flavor is there.I found a new recipe for mashed potatoes that has cream cheese in it that will go great with your gravy.I expect to have to write this down for everyone or tell them where to find it.Thank you so much for posting a great recipe.
Thank you SO much Peanut for such amazing feedback, wow! That means the world to me that you love it so much, because I feel the same way and so does my family! I really could drink the gravy, it is so good! Thanks so much for letting me know, I really do appreciate it and enjoy hearing from my readers so much. Merry Christmas! xx
Hi! This sounds fantastic, especially since I have a sensitive stomach and cream sauces do not agree with me. For this gravy, if I do not have brown rice flour, would whole grain flour do or if not, what would? Thank you! 🙂
Hi Tahni! I have only tried it with brown rice flour and it blends in much better than other flours when added to the hot liquid. If you want to add another flour, you could try whole wheat, but instead of the step where I have to add it to the hot liquid and whisk in, instead scoop out about a 1/2 cup of the liquid into a bowl and then whisk in the flour and then add it back to the pot…this way you avoid getting a bunch of lumps throughout and when you pulse it later, you can get it totally smooth. I think that should work fine. I wouldn’t really recommend any other flours, as I’m not of their texture, taste or thickening powers….definitely don’t use oat flour. Please let me know how it turns out, thank you!
Delicious! Made mashed cauliflower to go with it. I brought some to work and my coworkers loved it. Thanks for the recipe.
Yay Krista! So glad you and your coworkers loved it! Thanks so much for letting me know!
Brandi I made your thyme cabernet gravy and mashed potatoes for our thanksgiving dinner and Wow !! It was so delicious !! I will definitely be making it again !!
Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback Jackie!! I’m so glad you loved it!
Thanksgiving Day was my first time making this gravy. I just had to try it with the Fluffy Buttermilk Vegan Mashed Potatoes. I am not equipped with the necessary vocabulary to describe how incredible this gravy is. When Brandi says that she can drink it, she is not kidding! This is definitely worthy of scooping spoonfuls into your mouth!
My grandfather was amazing at gravy as I was growing up. It is a memory that has always stayed with me. I wish he was alive today, so he could have had this. He would have been proud of my dish. Thank you Brandi. It was delicious and brought back warm memories of a time passed.
Your feedback was so special to me, thank you for sharing. I’m so glad you loved it so much and it brought back wonderful memories for you. I really appreciate the feedback, it made my day!
Thank you sooo much for this gravy recipe! It is fantastic and I love knowing I can have as much of it as I want – I love lots of gravy on my mashed potatoes 😉 !! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!!
I love lots and lots of gravy too! I’m so glad you loved it, thanks so much for leaving me feedback, I really appreciate it!
I made this gravy with your Fluffy Buttermilk Vegan Mashed Potatoes and it was perfect!! I was even eating the gravy as a soup. To think that this gravy was not only so easy to make, but vegan and only 8 ingredients is simply amazing!! This gravy will be used for many future meals. I appreciate all the work you do to create and post these recipes. Thank you for all that you do!!
Thank you so much Vince for your amazing feedback! I’m so happy you loved it so much! Thanks for sharing your gorgeous pic on Instagram too!
I made this gravy with your Fluffy Buttermilk Vegan Mashed Potatoes and it was perfect!! T
I made your mashed potatoes and Cabernet gravy for our main meal yesterday. Kapow! Really fabulous. Your recipe was all you said it would be. My family loved it. I cooked up a whole bag of Yukon golds and doubled the gravy recipe, knowing that I could trust you to give me a recipe that I would love Thank you Brandi!
Aww Nancy!! Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback! I’m so happy to hear it was such a hit!!
We loved this gravy! I used mushroom broth (from Whole Foods) and it was super yummy. Mine is more of a purply brown color–not as pretty as yours–but the taste is great! Thank you.
Wonderful Heidi! I’m so glad to hear you loved it! Thanks so much for leaving feedback! The mushroom broth probably changed the color, but as long as it was still yummy, that’s what is most important
This gravy!!?!?! It looks amazing!! Honestly, the addition of cabernet sounds like it would give such a wonderful depth to the gravy – I can’t wait to try! I now know what we’ll be using as our holiday gravy for Xmas!! And I kind of just want to face plant into those mashed potatoes 🙂 Pinned!
Awesome Ceara! It really is a step above traditional gravy, as far as depth of flavor goes! It is THE best gravy I’ve ever had, no lie, and the fact it is vegan and just a bonus! I hope you do get to try it and let me know, thanks so much girl!
I LOVE this gravy! I just made it for my family and it’s ridiculous! So so good! Tastes like it’s from a fancy restaurant and super easy to make! I always fail at making gravy and ended up buying it canned or powder, but not anymore! I love this website and I go to it for most of my recipes since we recently became vegetarian and on our way to vegan. Thanks again! Recipes are so easy to follow and the taste is always amazing.
Thank you so much for the amazing feedback Ana!! I’m so glad this was easy and such a hit with everybody! Thanks also for your feedback on Instagram as well, I love that it was so good, you “could drink it with a straw”, haha! That was my exact feeling too as I just wanted to eat it as soup. Thanks again for following and making my recipes 🙂
Thyme & wine? OH yes. Yes please. I’ve never made red wine gravy, but there’s no time like the present. Hopefully it turns out as pretty as yours. :] // â–² itsCarmen.com â–²
Haha, I love it, you just rhymed!! 🙂 I should have named it “Thyme Wine Gravy”! Yay! Can’t wait to hear what you think of it, please let me know! Just checked out your site too….so adorable!!
I like “Wine Thyme Gravy.” Serves two purposes. Thanks for this delicious alternative to the standard vegan mushroom gravy.
You are so welcome Traci! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Oh wow, this gravy looks amazing and I’m loving the mixture of flavors. It looks so fancy! I also want to faceplant into those mashed potatoes! LOL!
Girl, I’ve gone through 3 huge mounds of mashed potatoes in the past few days, so I UNDERSTAND completely, hahaha!
I’m just going to go ahead and swim in this ok?? Cabernet and thyme are two of my fave combos!! Love it girl!
Yes, but did you bring your pool pass?! LOL!
That photo of the thick rich gravy slowly covering those potatoes is food porn at it’s best. The gravy sounds incredibly delicious, just put a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy in front of me and I am very happy, add some lima beans and corn on the side and I will be in heaven. May sound weird I guess but I love the combination. Delicious recipe Brandi.
Doesn’t sound weird at all, it sounds like perfection to me!! Thanksgiving is all about the sides for sure, always has been for me and mashed potatoes with lots of gravy is right up there. Thanks Suzanne so much!
I don’t have rice flour, but I have a GF flour mix (cup4cup.). Will that work? I’m new to GF cooking and was wondering if GF flour thickens the same as wheat flour.
Yes, I think so Leslie! Just make sure you slowly whisk it in, so it doesn’t clump, but I’m assuming it would work as long as the GF mix isn’t grainy, because the rice flour totally dissolves. Please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Thanks! Two more questions: I need to make four times this recipe for Thanksgiving. Any problem doing that in one big batch? Can I make it ahead and reheat it? I’m excited to make this and more excited to eat it!
Yes, that should be no problem at all! Just double check all the measurements, so it ends up right. You can definitely make it ahead. I’ve reheated the next day with no problem. I would just gently reheat it over the stove and whisk it really well, in case it has gotten really thick in the fridge. Or you could always blend it in a blender right before you reheat it to make sure it’s smooth, only if necessary.
Since those gluten-free flours tend to have starchs/gums added to them, I’m not sure if the flour amount that I used would be the same equivalent measure. I would hate for it to be a mess the day of Thanksgiving, especially you making a much larger batch. I’d probably do a test run with your gf blend beforehand, just to make sure 🙂
Let me know how it turns out!
I’m not messing around. I’m buying rice flour. Thanks so much! I’m grateful for your blog and this recipe. 🙂
Thank you so much Leslie! You won’t regret it! Let me know how it turns out!
Oh and yes, it totally thickens up just like regular flour. In fact, the rice flour may even thicken up slightly more and you don’t have to cook away the flour taste like regular wheat flour. I know gluten-free flour mixes tend to contain starches, so I’m sure it would thicken up nicely, I just don’t know exactly what it would do to the sheen, etc. Just let me know 🙂
I know that glass might weigh more and therefore there’s more CO2 in transport, but it isn’t as simple as then using tetra-packs. They are also not just happy environmentally friendly packaging. Nice that this company is trying to make a difference, but I am not entirely sure if this is the magical answer and if it should be put straightforwardly as a better option than glass.
Hi Aster! I’m certainly not an environmental expert, I was just thrilled to find an organic wine that I didn’t need to buy an expensive bottle of wine for, since I just wanted it to make a recipe. I know many people who make individual recipes will not want to purchase a whole bottle, so this was a perfect find. 🙂 I’m also sharing what I have learned by reading about them and they have won some awards for their different style and wine. You can certainly use any wine you like, that you love the flavor, I just can only vouch for this one that I used in the recipe. 🙂
I had another gravy pinned for Thanksgiving, but I think I’ll take yours for a test drive. I just bought a thyme plant, so I’m excited to start using it. 🙂
Awesome! Please let me know what you think of it! I’ve made 3 batches this week alone, I can’t get enough of it, haha! It definitely is richer in flavor than your typical Thanksgiving gravy made with flour and butter. Hope you love it!
I have a family of 5. How do I make this enough for everyone? We love gravy. Also, I couldn’t find fresh thyme. Does it ruin the gravy?
Hi Lucy! Doubling the gravy recipe should be enough for 5 people. Fresh thyme is located in the produce/veggie section of any grocery store located where all the herbs are. Thyme definitely adds to the flavor. If you checked that area and didn’t see it, then at least use dried thyme out of the spice isle. Use 1-2 teaspoons. Let me know how it turns out! 🙂
I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the quick reply. Fresh thyme apparently is sold out at the three stores I went to. I have some dried instead. I’m excited to try this and so is my hubby.