Holy grail gravy: the flour-free vegetable-thickened sauce from a slow-cooked roast

Most AIP gravies use arrowroot or cassava flour as a thickener. This one uses neither. The vegetables that cook beneath the pot roast - onion, carrot, celery, and garlic - have spent two or more hours absorbing the fat and collagen from the meat. When you pull the roast out and blend the vegetables with the liquid they cooked in, the result is a smooth, savory sauce that thickens on its own from the vegetable starch and the gelatin that has leached out of the bones and connective tissue.

The name 'holy grail gravy' belongs to Eileen Laird at Phoenix Helix, who named it that because it solved a problem that many AIP cooks describe as insurmountable: how do you make real gravy that is not starchy, gummy, or thin? The answer is time and vegetables.

Collagen from the braising liquid is the invisible thickener here. As meat braises, connective tissue breaks down into gelatin - the same compound that makes a good bone broth gel in the refrigerator. That gelatin, combined with the natural pectin in the carrots and celery, produces a sauce that clings and coats the way a flour-thickened gravy does, without any of the added starch.

This recipe is written as a standalone sauce. It is typically made alongside a chuck roast (2 to 4 lbs, slow-cooked over the vegetable bed), but the sauce itself - the blended vegetable-and-broth combination - can also be made without a roast by simply braising the vegetables in bone broth for 1.5 hours.

AIP note: Fully compliant on elimination phase as written. Omit optional black pepper.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 4 carrots, cut into large chunks
• 2 stalks celery, thickly sliced
• 2 to 4 cloves garlic, whole and peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 branches fresh rosemary
• 1/4 cup bone broth or water (plus the pan drippings from the roast, if using)
• Fine sea salt, to taste

If making alongside a pot roast: these are the braising vegetables placed under the roast in the pot.

If making as a standalone sauce: add 1.5 cups of bone broth instead of 1/4 cup and braise covered for 90 minutes.

Method

Alongside a pot roast: Place the vegetables, garlic, bay leaf, and rosemary in the bottom of a Dutch oven or slow cooker. Place the seasoned roast on top. Add the broth. Cook low and slow: 275 F in the oven for 3 to 4 hours (or 8 hours in a slow cooker on low).

When the roast is done, remove it to a cutting board and cover to rest. Remove the bay leaf and rosemary branches from the pot. Transfer all the remaining vegetables and pan juices to a blender. Blend until completely smooth. Taste and adjust the salt. The gravy should be deeply savory, slightly sweet from the carrots, and pour easily.

If the gravy is thicker than you want, thin with a splash of warm bone broth. If thinner than you want, simmer in the pot for a few minutes over medium heat to reduce.

As a standalone sauce: Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot with 1.5 cups bone broth. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook on low heat for 90 minutes until the vegetables are very soft. Remove the bay leaf and rosemary. Blend until smooth.

How to use it

• Spoon over sliced pot roast at plating
• Serve as a gravy alongside roasted chicken
• Pour over mashed white sweet potato or cauliflower mash
• Use as a warm dipping sauce for AIP meatballs
• Serve in a small pour-dish alongside roasted vegetables as a sauce

Storage

Refrigerator: up to 4 days. Reheat over low heat with a splash of broth to loosen.

Freezer: up to 3 months.

*Adapted from phoenixhelix.com/simple-tender-pot-roast-with-holy-grail-gravy/ by Eileen Laird*