This authentically flavored Thanksgiving “turkey” homemade vegan gravy is reminiscent of all the flavors that will make your family celebrations special! This recipe uses ingredients including poultry seasoning, thyme, liquid aminos, and chicken-flavored bouillon.
Just because we aren’t eating turkey doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy coming together for food celebrations and special times! This homemade vegan gravy is highly seasoned and the perfect accompaniment for poultry-like roasts, slices, or other dishes. (See below for some recipe suggestions).
This vegan turkey gravy is made with cornstarch instead of flour, so depending on the brands or other ingredients used, this homemade cornstarch-based gravy might be gluten free. (As always, it’s the user’s responsibility to check all ingredients to see if they meet with your health needs.)
Table of contents
Looking for some other delicious vegan side dishes or toppings for your holiday meal?
- Creamy Vegan Funeral Potatoes
- Sweet Potato Brown Sugar Praline Boats
- Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes with Garlic, Chives, and Cream Cheese
- Creamy Brussels Sprouts made in the Instant Pot
- Sausage Tofu Crumbles (which are great on top of anything!)
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Ingredients needed to make homemade vegan gravy taste like Thanksgiving:
- white or yellow onion
- garlic
- avocado oil (or similar light-tasting oil)
- extra veggie broth if you are oil-free (see below)
- vegetable broth
- cornstarch
- liquid aminos (can sub in soy sauce or tamari sauce – liquid aminos are best though)
- Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base (Use this for the most authentic flavor. If you are unable to find it then use vegetable flavored bouillon.)
- poultry seasoning
- dried thyme
- apple cider vinegar
- You’ll also need a blender.
How to make vegan “turkey” gravy:
Read through the following directions so that your homemade vegan “turkey” gravy will be as fabulous as mine. There is a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post with all of the exact measurements and directions.
Jump to RecipePreparing the ingredients (including the saute step):
Start by sauteing the chopped onions and garlic in a little avocado oil. You can use another light-tasting oil, but don’t use oil that is overly flavorful like coconut or olive oil. There are plenty of flavors already in this vegan gravy that you risk being overwhelmed with too much flavor if your oil isn’t mostly flavorless. (See the “Health it Up” section below if you eat oil-free.)
Saute until the onions are quite soft and even starting to brown slightly. The onions won’t be softening further during the later cooking process. This should take 5-7 minutes.
Add the cooked onions and gravy along with the other ingredients (EXCEPT for the apple cider vinegar) to a blender. Blend well for a few minutes till the onion chunks are no more and you have a nice smooth mixture.
Cooking the homemade vegan gravy:
Pour the blended gravy mixture into a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil on high while stirring.
Turn down slightly and continue to stir and cook for another minute until thickened. (It will also continue to thicken as it sits.)
The apple cider vinegar:
Stir in the apple cider vinegar. Give it a taste to see if you want to add in any salt or pepper. I can’t imagine you would because this is very highly seasoned already.
Why do we use apple cider vinegar? Well….I never knew about this before either, but it really helps to meld the flavors together. I read about it on Buzzfeed just today and WOW!
Health it up!
If you eat oil-free, you can have homemade vegan gravy without oil. Just line the saute pan with about 1/2 cup veggie broth and watch carefully to make sure the onions and garlic don’t burn.
Serving suggestions:
I love this gravy on a baked potato with a little vegan butter.
It’s also really good on my Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes!
It would be tasty served over a poultry-type of cutlet, nugget, slice, or roast.
If you are looking for homemade vegan turkey “meat” you can try one of these recipes from a couple of my blogging friends:
And now for the recipe:
Did you love this recipe? Want to share the love? It would thrill me if you could leave ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ stars and even a comment. Did you know that this will help google to find this recipe when others are looking for something similar? Thanks, Cindy
Homemade Vegan Gravy – Thanksgiving Turkey Flavored
Equipment
- blender
- med/large saucepan
- stovetop
Ingredients
- ¾ cup onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 Tablespoons oil light tasting, such as avocado oil
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon liquid aminos see notes for substitution
- 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base see notes
- 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Chop onion and garlic.
- Heat oil in a med/large saucepan. Add chopped onion and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes or until softened.
- Add to a blender the sauteed onion and garlic, along with the rest of the ingredients: vegetable broth, cornstarch, liquid aminos, Better Than Bouillon, poultry seasoning, and thyme. Blend on high until smooth and creamy.
- Pour the blended ingredients back into the saucepan and heat on med/high until bubbly, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for another minute to allow the gravy to thicken.
- Stir in the ¼ teaspoon apple cider vinegar. Surprisingly this small amount helps to round out the flavor.
- Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. It's really pretty flavorful already and I never add any.
Notes
- You really need a flavorless oil for this recipe. There are already so many flavor complexities. I suggest avocado oil
- You can make this recipe oil-free if desired. Just saute onions and garlic in a veggie broth lined pan. Watch the pan carefully so that it doesn’t burn.
- You can sub in soy sauce if you do not have liquid aminos. It will still have a salty savory flavor but Bragg’s Liquid Aminos lend a real umami taste.
- Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base is hard to find. I buy mine on Amazon. If you can’t find it then sub in some vegetable flavored bouillon.
- The serving size is a generous 1/3 cup.
Yum, yum, and yummy. Love ❤️ it
Oh my goodness I’m so glad you like it!
Delicious! Written in my family recipe book. Thank you!
I am soooo glad you like it! Thanks for letting me know, Cindy 💜
I had no idea Better than Bouillon made vegan options! That’s fantastic! I discovered Better than Bouillon Roasted Turkey base, recently. I had never seen that before. I’m going to see if they make a vegan version of that, too. Thanks so much for sharing the info and your recipe.
Can I make this a day before I use it?
Can this be made ahead?
Will definitely make again. Nice flavor but it didn’t thicken as much as I thought it would. I did use an immersion blending in the pot rather than my Blendtec. I don’t know if that made a difference in it’s thickening up.
I’m really glad you enjoyed this. Thank you so much for letting me know! As far as the thickness, using an immersion blender shouldn’t make a difference. I’m sorry that it wasn’t as thick as you expected. I oftentimes have the opposite problem with this recipe. You could try using a tiny bit more starch as see if that makes a difference to you. Let me know if you decide to do this and what the outcome is. Thanks again for letting me know that you enjoyed this recipe:) Cindy
Hi Cindy. Actually, I was going to update my post. Apparently the gravy just needed some time to set. When I used it today for supper, it was plenty thick! 😊
I’m glad I tried this recipe as it gave me exposure to new-to-me products, such as vegan Better Than Bouillon and Liquid Amino‘s. Thanks again.
Oh awesome! Thanks for the update:) Cindy