Mushroom Lentil Gravy

A creamy, flavorful mushroom lentil gravy! Packed with nutritious ingredients and delicious fall flavors. Best way to describe this recipe—it taste like Thanksgiving. Okay, okay.. I know. Thanksgiving isn’t a taste, but it has all those Thanksgiving meal flavors (minus the turkey and the pumpkin pie, of course) and brings me back to Thanksgiving memories.

This gravy is sure to elevate your plant-powered meal. Serve over mashed potatoes, Lentil Quinoa Stuffed Squash (pictured below), or your favorite dishes. Use this gravy year round in place of any traditional or store bought gravy.

This gravy also makes a great cream of mushroom soup. Feel free to use this gravy in place of any recipe that calls for cream of mushroom soup—or add in some minced onions, mushrooms, lentils, fresh herbs, and make this its own delicious meal! As of Nov 2021, I am also working on a new mushroom stroganoff recipe that features this mushroom gravy- so watch out for that!

A few recipe notes:

Miso paste is a healthier replacement for salt, so that’s why you’ll often see this used in my recipes. Feel free to omit in this recipe.
This recipe calls for cashews. You can omit these if you want, I like them for added creaminess to the gravy. For a nut-free option, swap in 2 tablespoons of tahini.
Feel free to swap in fresh herbs. My original recipe used all fresh herbs, but do to connivence I decided to use dried herbs in this recipe. I love using fresh herbs, but find that dried herbs are easier to store and have on hand. Originally I used: 1 Tablespoon minced garlic and 2 teaspoons fresh thyme. Feel free to adjust to taste.
My original recipe calls for water, but a salt-free homemade vegetable broth would be great! I have used store-bought vegetable broth for connivence with my gravy, so feel free to use that too (just look for a lower sodium or even salt free option). If the broth has salt in it- omit the miso so it’s not too salty.

Ingredients:

½ cup uncooked lentils

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup celery chopped

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons thyme

1 teaspoon ground sage

8-10 oz of mushrooms, sliced (or about 2 cups sliced)

3 cups water or more as needed for thinning

3-4 bay leaves

1-2 tablespoon white miso paste

1/4 cup cashews

Pepper, to taste

Method:

Bring 1½ cups of water to a boil in a small space pan. Rinse the lentils well and then add the lentils to the boiling water. Reduce the heat. Cook the lentils until they are soft (about 20 minutes). Drain off any extra water.
Wash and chop the veggies. In a large pan or sauce pan, add 1-2 tablespoons of water. Add in the onions and sauté until translucent. Continue adding 1-2 tablespoons of water as needed throughout the cooking process to keep the veggies from sticking.
Next add the celery, garlic powder, thyme, and sage to the pan with the onions. Add a small amount of water as needed to keep from sticking. Cook lightly and then add in the mushrooms. Sauté until the mushrooms start to soften.
Add 3 cups of water and 3-4 bay leaves to the pan with the veggies. Bring to a boil, and then simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.
Allow the mushroom and lentil dish to cool down. Remove the bay leaves.
In a high speed blender, combine the lentils and mushroom with the miso paste, cashews, and black pepper. If your blender is small, do this in batches. Blend all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Add more water as needed for thinning and more black pepper to taste.
If serving right away, transfer back to the sauce pan and heat on low heat until desired temperature is reached.
Makes 4-4.5 cups