16/08/2023
I had to find a vegan version of bechamel sauce as it is my all-time favorite sauce. Here it is:
- 1 liter of almond milk ( no added sugars, but can be a blend with other types of ingredients like soy, oat, or rice. As long as there is no sweet flavor to the milk)
- 1 onion, if not organic, peeled and cut in 4 (if organic, keep the peel)
- 3 garlic cloves, if not organic, peeled and each one cut in half (if organic, keep the peel)
- fresh ground black pepper
salt
- one or two bay leaves
fresh nutmeg
- 1/2 cup of vegan butter or a neutral-flavored vegetable oil
- a few tbsps of white flour
- nutritional yeast (optional)
It's all about marinating your milk. So put all the milk in a sauce pan on a low fire. Add the onion, garlic, a good amount of fresh black pepper, start with a tsp of salt (you can always add more later), the bay leaves, and some freshly grated nutmeg. Let it slowly get warm, like 20 minutes on the fire. It doesn't necessarily need to get to a boiling point. Once your milk starts to smell nice and savory, you can sift the onion, garlic, and bay leaves out and start making your bechamel sauce. For those who don't know how to do that, here is the classic recipe:
In a sauce pan, melt your butter or let the oil get hot. Turn your fire low. Add flour until you get a crumbly dough. Stir until these crumbles start to smell like cookies. Now it's time to bit by bit add your milk. Stir consistently, you will notice in the beginning it gets ferm pretty fast. Add more milk and give the mixture the chance to become homogenous before adding more milk. You keep adding milk until you reach the consistency of a nice thick sauce. Taste if it needs more salt and add nutritional yeast for extra flavor.
