Cocoa Gravy

This version of our classic Vegan Gravy was created after a tip-off from Pete Gardner at Cocoa Amore, Leicester's independent chocolate boutique.

You will need:

- 1 teaspoon of oil
- half a medium sized red onion, finely chopped
- 5 finely sliced medium sized mushrooms (you don't want big slices)
- a healthy pinch of freshly ground pepper
- half a pint of cold veg stock, preferably kept over from veg cooking
- one Kallo mushroom stock cube
- two heaped dessertspoons of fine cornmeal
- 2g 100% pure cocoa/cacao* (no added sugar, milk etc. - pure cocoa) - more if you want, after you've tasted

Do this:

Add the finely chopped red onion and mushrooms to the oil, and sautée gently till the onion's going clear and the mushrooms floppy and cooked through. Add the black pepper.

Crumble your Kallo mushroom stock cube to the (cold) veg stock, mix thoroughly.

Stir in the cornmeal, and pour gently into the onion and mushroom mix. Stir well.

Bring to the boil till it starts to thicken, then turn down and simmer gently.

Break the cocoa/cacao* into pieces and add to the gravy, stir till it melts, and stop cooking when it's as thick as you like it!

VEGAN TOAD IN THE HOLE. Yes.

You thought the Yorkshire Pudding mix was the Holy Grail, and it was - but this is the discovery of King Richard III under the car park...sort of. Well he had strong connections with York...

Tonight we made Toad In The Hole by pre-heating the oven to 220 degrees C (VERY HOT), adding a significant lump of vegan marge (you can use an oil if you prefer, it'll be a little greasier) to a metal pan and placing it in the oven to pre-heat.

After 5 minutes, add 4 un-meat sausages (Fry's are good, we don't recommend Linda McCartneys' for this) to the heating pan. Put it back in the oven.

Meanwhile, mix up our vegan Yorkshire Pudding Mix. For four sausages, divide the mixture's quantity in half. The quantity of batter mix in the original recipe will be good for 6+ sausages.

Once well mixed, take out your pan with sausages (don't leave more than about 10 minutes).
The fat should be smokin' hot and the sausages starting to brown.
Pour in the batter mix, distributing evenly over the sausages, quickly, and put back in the oven.

Cook for 20 minutes, and check nay poking the a sharp knife into a fat bit after 20 mins - it's OK for it to be a bit sticky inside!

Serve with Cocoa Gravy, roast spuds and plenty of green veg.