Roasted Vegetable Stock for Sauces and Gravies
 

I'm the sauce and gravy maker come holiday time. I always try to "wow' everyone with the richness and flavor of my gravy. I've found that using roasted vegetable stock really adds a new dimension to the flavor, even if it is a meat-based sauce. The RVS is pretty easy to make, but it does take some time. I got this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, <I>The Millennium Cookbook, Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine, by Eric Tucker and John Westerdahl, M.P.H., R.D., C.N.S. Dessert Recipes by Sascha Weiss.</I> (The Millennium is a famous, plant-based restaurant that was in San Francisco for many years and now resides in Oakland. If you ever find yourself in that part of the world, you should really stop by and have a dinner.)

Here's my take on this recipe:

Spread a thick layer of saved, vegetable scraps on a rimmed sheet pan. (I keep mine in the freezer and add to them anytime I have usable scraps.) I like to add a couple of carrots, tomato tops, some mushroom stems, broccoli stems, garlic cloves and a roughly chopped onion if they're not already in the mixture. Some people add a potato for denseness, but I prefer not to add starchy vegetables to my mix. Drizzle lightly with olive, or canola oil.

Bake at about 375 degrees F for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are cooked through and have a nice, medium-dark brown color on the edges. There will be some very dark spots on the pan where the liquid from the vegetables has carmelized...that's the good stuff!

Remove the sheet pan from the oven and let cool.

Transfer all of the browned veggies into a stock pot and add water to cover the veggies about 4 inches. Deglaze the sheet pan with water, or veggie stock, scrapping to get all the crusty browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Carefully pour the liquid into the stock pot with the browned veggies. You may have to do this a couple of times to get all of that browned goodness. At this point, you can also add some fresh herbs, s/a thyme, oregano, sage, parsley. However, don't add any salt or pepper at this stage.

Cook on medium heat until the mixture is bed boiled down to half the volume. Strain, season with salt and pepper and save for your other recipes. It can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days, or in a zippy in the freezer for a few months. This broth makes an excellent, plant-based gravy, or sauce. It is also great when added to a meat stock, or gravy.

I'm making my RVS today and plan to add it to my Christmas day, rib-roast drippings, along with some brown roux and a little, white wine for a fabulous gravy to go over the pan-roasted potatoes.

~ C.

Sounds yummy!
I never do the gravy if I can entice someone else into doing it. I aways have lumps.
I do use the gravy mixes bought in stores.

Oh, man, I'm gonna make this for us. We all love good gravy! Thank you so much for this recipe. Barny

For another option, add a few quartered Roma tomatoes and rosemary sprigs....Where you get to "Remove the sheet pan from the oven"....Don't add too much water, just enough to de-glaze, and puree it before straining (take out the rosemary first) and you've got a lovely thick soup.

Watson

If you freeze your stock in ice cube trays before putting in the zippy bags, you can take out only what you need each time. I save all unused meat drippings this way also for flavoring fried rice and other rice dishes too.