Gravy

Why gravy is rated high

Gravy is high FODMAP, and the reason is what goes into the pan before the liquid does. It is usually built on onion and garlic, and thickened with wheat flour, and all three bring fructans. The rating is estimated from that composition rather than from a weighed and measured serving, and it lands high overall. The ladder does carry a lower rung, and it is the most useful thing on this page: a Small serving reads moderate, and a Large serving is high. There is no low rung here, so a small amount is not a way of making gravy fit. Stock cubes, powders and packet gravies tend to be built the same way, with onion and garlic in the seasoning even when they are not obvious on the front of the box.

What changes your risk

• Serving size A Small serving is moderate and a Large serving is high. Pouring less lowers the load, but there is no rung here that comes in low, so portioning alone does not make gravy a low FODMAP food.
• Onion and garlic in the base These are the main source of the fructans. A gravy started with garlic infused oil and the green tops of spring onions instead of the bulb is a genuinely different food from one started with chopped onion.
• Wheat flour as the thickener The flour whisked into the fat carries fructans of its own. Cornflour, rice flour or a gluten free flour blend thickens just as well without them.
• Packet mixes, cubes and jars Read the ingredient list rather than the name. Onion powder, garlic powder, onion extract and wheat are standard in commercial gravy granules and stock cubes, and inulin or chicory root fibre sometimes appears too.
• Stacking across the plate Fructans add up across a meal. A roast dinner often pairs gravy with wheat stuffing, bread sauce, a bread roll and onion in the vegetables, and each of those is pulling on the same subgroup.

Swaps

The role gravy plays is savoury, glossy and pourable, and that can be rebuilt without the aromatics. Start with the pan juices from roast meat or poultry, skim some of the fat, and thicken with cornflour slaked in cold water rather than with a wheat flour roux. Build the flavour back with garlic infused oil, the green tops of spring onions, leek leaves, chives, a pinch of asafoetida, fresh thyme or rosemary, black pepper and a splash of red wine. Homemade stock from bones with carrot, the green parts of spring onion and herbs gives the depth a shop bought cube is supposed to provide. For an onion like sweetness, well browned carrot in the pan works. What does not solve this is swapping to another onion: shallots, leek bulbs and the white part of spring onion all carry the same fructans, and so does thickening with ordinary wheat flour.

How to lower the load

Make gravy from scratch on days it matters, since that is the only way to control the two ingredients that drive the rating. Keep cornflour and garlic infused oil in the cupboard and a bag of frozen homemade stock in the freezer, so a roast does not end with reaching for a packet. If someone else is cooking, ask whether the gravy started with onion, or whether it came from granules, and expect the answer to be yes to one of them. Restaurant gravy, roast dinner gravy and pub gravy are almost always onion based, so ordering the meat and vegetables without it is more reliable than asking for less. When you do serve your own, keep it in a jug rather than poured over the whole plate, so the amount stays nearer a Small serving than a Large serving.

Common questions

is gravy high fodmap

Yes. Gravy is high FODMAP overall because it is usually built on onion and garlic and thickened with wheat flour, all of which carry fructans. A Small serving reads moderate and a Large serving is high.

is gravy high in fructans

Fructans are the subgroup that drives the rating. They come from the onion and garlic in the base and from the wheat flour used to thicken it.

how do you make low fodmap gravy

Start with the roast pan juices, thicken with cornflour instead of wheat flour, and build the savoury flavour with garlic infused oil, leek leaves, the green tops of spring onions, herbs and black pepper rather than onion or garlic.

can i have gravy on the elimination phase

Not the standard kind. There is no low rung here: a Small serving is already moderate and a Large serving is high, so a homemade version built without onion, garlic and wheat flour is the way to keep gravy on the plate.