Recipe: Punk rock chickpea gravy

This recipe is from the fabulously talented Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s  cookbook “Vegan with a Vengeance”.  I first tasted this gravy when a friend made it and thought it was amazing! Since then, my partner has made it a few times for us now, to have on top of mashed potatoes. Don’t let the fairly long list of ingredients put you off. It really is worth the effort! The only modification we have made to the recipe is putting less lemon juice in. The original recipe calls for juice of 1 lemon, which turned out to be way too much for our taste.

What you will need:

4 tbsp plain flour (I use a gluten free variety)

600ml of water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium sized onion, quartered and thinly sliced (optional)

2 tsp mustard seeds

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (optional)

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed and then roughly mashed (okay if some lumps, you don’t want a paste consistency)

2 pinches ground cumin

2 pinches paprika

Pinch dried rosemary

Pinch dried thyme

Pinch dried oregano

Pinch ground coriander

3 tbsp soy sauce/tamari

Juice of half a lemon

4 tbsp nutritional yeast

Method:

Mix flour with 475 ml of water until flour is mostly dissolved.

Heat pan over medium heat and add olive oil. Add onions and mustard seeds, and cook for approx. 10 minutes, stirring now and then.

Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Add chickpeas, herbs, spices, soy sauce/tamari, and lemon juice. Lower heat and pour flour mixture in. Stir constantly until a thick gravy forms. Stir in nutritional yeast. If too thick and pasty, add water and mix well.

Serve on top of a mountain of mash potatoes and enjoy!