This item was a last minute addition to the Thanksgiving menu, as someone else had promised to make gravy with the turkey drippings, but I knew my husband wouldn’t be able to enjoy it, since it would be made with wheat flour. And then another friend joined the party who is a vegetarian, so I had all the more reason to make an alternative gravy. I checked with Gluten-Free Girl, who swears that “its absurdly easy to make gluten-free gravy”, with sweet rice flour. I decided to go with a mushroom gravy since I remembered it being tasty from my own vegetarian days, and I couldn’t imagine vegetable stock alone providing enough flavor. Here’s a shot of the production taken by my husband, who remembered to take pictures for my blog when I forgot.
You can see the Sweet Rice Flour from Trader Joe’s, as well as the Mushroom Broth, that made this recipe a snap to make.
Sweet Rice Flour actually works much like regular flour, added slowly to melted butter, it makes something resembling a roux, which then makes a nice thick delicious sauce as liquid is added. I’m not a purist about the roux step, so I go ahead and sprinkle the flour right on the sauteing mushrooms. It works fine.
You could use a wide variety of mushrooms for this gravy, it all depends how much mushroom flavor you want. White button mushrooms are going to give you a fairly simple gravy without too much mushroom flavor, while the more flavorful varieties (oysters, chanterelles, shitakes, porcinis) will of course make a much more mushroomy, and even meaty tasting gravy. I used a pack of Royal Trumpets, and a pack of a type that I think was called Velvet Pelliopini, but I’m not sure. The closest I can find on line is called Flammulina velutipes, and seems to look similar, but what do I know. They tasted mighty good.
Mushroom Gravy (gluten-free)
4 T Butter
1 1/2 C Diced Mushrooms
1 t Italian Herb Mix
3-4 T Sweet Rice Flour
1 1/2 C Mushroom Broth
Saute the mushrooms in the butter with the herbs. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the mushrooms are nice and soft, sprinkle in the sweet rice flour, one Tablespoon at a time. Allow the flour to fully soak in to the butter before adding more flour. When you have a thick flour butter mixture surrounding the mushrooms, add the broth, a little at a time, allowing it to cook and begin to thicken before adding the next half cup.
That’s it! Easy-peasy.