One of the things that worried me, and worries many people is the question of how to make gravy on GAPS. No typical thickeners are allowed. The more usual ones: cornstarch or flour are on the no-no list, but the unusual items like agar agar, arrowroot, and potato starch are, too!

Does a GAPSter just have to learn to live without gravy?

No, you don't. If you can eat onions [affiliate link] and cauliflower, you're going to have gravy, and it will be delicious and nutritious.

I've already shared an Onion Gravy recipe, but this time I came up with one that includes mushrooms. I used baby portabellas and the end result was nice brown gravy. To tell you the truth it could easily pass for Cream of Mushroom soup! I'm serious! The taste and mouth feel was perfect.

This recipe does take two hours to cook in the oven, so plan ahead on a day when you have plenty of time to get it started earlier in the day.

Mushroom Onion Gravy

• 3 large onions
• 1/2 head of cauliflower
• 8 ounces portabella baby mushrooms
• 2-4  Tablespoons butter
• 2 to 3 cups chicken, turkey or beef stock
• salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a medium sized glass casserole dish. Peel the onions and chop into eight pieces. Rinse cauliflower and break into small florets. Rinse and trim bottoms of seven baby portabella mushrooms. Place all ingredients in the glass dish with 1/2 cup of water. Cover with aluminum foil, or use a lid if your casserole dish has one.

Bake for one hour, remove from oven. Stir ingredients. Replace in the oven and allow to bake for another hour. While the onion mixture is baking, wash and slice the remaining mushrooms. Saute in two tablespoons of butter. Cook down until all liquid is gone.

After the second hour, the cauliflower should begin to look somewhat caramelized, and the onion should be translucent and fork tender. The baked portabellas will have a firm texture. Remove from oven.

Place 2 cups of the onion, cauliflower and mushrooms mixture into your blender. Add 1 cup of broth and blend until pureed (1 to 2 minutes). Pour gravy into a saucepan. Continue to puree all the vegetables with stock. Once it is all in the saucepan, add butter and salt to taste. You may also add pepper. Mix in the sauteed mushrooms. Serve while warm.

I love Cream of Mushroom soup, and used it regularly. I am really happy to have a GAPS friendly substitute. Although it is not exactly the same as Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, it is a close substitute, and it is gluten free and dairy free. It is much more nutritious as it contains good stock.

This gravy would be delicious alongside beef roast, chicken, topping faux-tatoes, or other vegetables or you could even make a loaf of GAPS-friendly bread, slice it, toast it and make gravy toast.

You'll have to let me know if you try it out. Because of the caramelized onions, this gravy does have a bit of a sweet taste to it, but I thought it was delicious. My husband normally won't eat anything caramelized because he doesn't like sweet on his vegetables, but he loved this. Even my 21 year old who shuns anything “abnormal” thought it was pretty tasty.

Let me know if you try it!