White roux and dark roux

Ingredients

• 225 g vegan butter
• 225 g sifted flour
• 1 thick slice of onion, in case you need to stop the browning (optional)

Missing an ingredient?

• What to use instead of onion
• What to use instead of all-purpose flour
• What to use instead of vegan butter

Instructions

1. Melt the vegan butter in a saucepan, preferably enameled or heavy-bottomed, and leave it over low heat until it stops foaming.
2. Add the dry, sifted flour and stir with a wooden spoon over medium heat, never high, scraping the bottom and especially the edges so it doesn't burn.
3. As soon as it starts to change color, spoon half of it into a jar: that's the white roux, cooked flour with hardly any color.
4. Keep stirring the rest, which will gradually darken. When it's the color of a broken bar of chocolate (the inside, not the outside), take it off the heat and keep stirring for a few minutes, because the pan keeps toasting it. If you think it's done, add the onion slice to stop it. Transfer it to another jar: that's the dark roux.
5. Keep them covered in the fridge, where they last for weeks. To use them, scrape off as much as you need with a spoon; don't add it in a single lump. They thicken soups and sauces with the taste of cooked flour, not raw flour: the author calls them the backbone of vegetarian cooking.

Nutrition facts

Approximate, per serving (about 24 g). Calculated with data from USDA FoodData Central.