This is probably my favorite vegan white sauce—it doesn’t taste fake and I think even non-vegans would have a tough time complaining about this one. It’s simple to make and versatile. I added diced mushrooms, but feel free to add other veggies, or just serve it plain over pasta. I like to serve it with a little sprinkle of Daiya cheese and I made garlic toasts out of leftover buns—a great meal!
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 C Earth Balance
1/2 C minced shallots
3 Tbs all-purpose flour
1 Tbs dry white wine
1 C vegetable broth
2 C unsweetened soy milk
Dash ground nutmeg
1 bay leaf
Salt and ground white pepper
DIRECTIONS:
I recommend having all the ingredients measured out and ready to go–it’ll be a lot easier. In a medium sauce pan, heat the margarine over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Do not brown. Stir in the flour until it is absorbed. Stir in the wine, broth, soy milk, nutmeg, and bay leaf and cook, stirring until thickened, about 5 minutes. (For me, after about 12 minutes it had not thickened, so I resorted to ever-trusty tablespoon of cornstarch and 1/4 C of broth mixture–worked immediately). Remove the bay leaf and discard. Here, the recipe says to transfer to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth, which baffled me since the sauce was pretty smooth already. If the shallots weren’t minced finely enough, I could understand, but after thinking about it, I opted to not have to clean the food processor, too. Maybe something spectacular was to happen and I missed out, but I decided to take my chances. It turned out great. I added about 1-1/2 C of diced mushrooms and removed from the heat. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
During all this, I cooked up some fettuccine and made up some garlic toast with some leftover sandwich buns by spreading them with some Earth Balance, sprinkling on some garlic salt and Daiya mozzarella cheese. Under the broiler for about 2-3 minutes, they came out great. Enjoy!
Recipe source: 1000 Vegan Recipes
Hi there – I just made this. I had the same problem with the thickness of the sauce – I think the original recipe calls for too much soy milk. Also, thinking it needs a little something extra for flavour, not sure what. Still, this was easy to make, I’m bookmarking this. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the feedback. It’s been a while since I’ve made it last, so next time, I’ll use less soy milk.
Hello! I need to tell you the recipe is amazing! I usually don’t respect all steps and quantities, so I put less milk. Just for confirmation:) Thank you!!!!!!
I added a little ginger and garlic near the begining to bump of the flavor, then folded in some fresh basil and diced tomatoes at the end. I also used half a cup of unflavored almond milk in lou of soy and topped it off with some vegan parm. Very very good. Thanks!
I love the idea of tomatoes and basil in this sauce. I wouldn’t have thought to add ginger to the mix, but that sounds delicious!
I’m going to use this as a base sauce for vegan enchiladas, and I’m planning on adding 1/2 c. of roasted tomatillo salsa that I made earlier, so it will be a creamy green sauce.
That’s a great idea! I never thought to use the sauce in Mexican food–I’m going to have to remember that. Let me know how it turns out.