Vegan MoFo Day 30: How to Fix a Broken Sauce + Recipe

Above is a really delicious, but REALLY broken, sauce. It's a lemon butter sauce. The base is a little soy milk, reduced, and a little no-chicken broth, reduced. And sometimes, for one reason or another, when you add your fat, everything sort of falls apart. And you get this sort of speckled, animal print looking sauce. It's really frustrating for a vegan because the best way to fix a completely down-right ruined sauce is to use an egg yolk. But for obvious reasons, that won't work.

So, in honor of my failures this week, I thought I'd give you all some tips on how to fix your broken sauces.

1. If you see it start to break, immediately obtain some of your base [[this could be soy milk, broth, whatever you started with]] and whisk some in, about 1-2 tsp., until the sauce comes together again.

2. You can whisk a little flour in when you add your fat [[oil, butter, etc.]]. This way, your sauce is less likely to break since flour is a pretty awesome binding agent.

3. You can also try blending a little tofu, a flax egg, or using an ener-g egg replacer in order to bind the sauce again.

4. To prevent, add you fat slowly and whisk quickly. And don't let it sit on the heat too long.

[[Lemon Butter Sauce]]

1 tbs olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
1/4 cup chopped assorted mushrooms
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup no-chicken broth
1/2 cup soy milk
2-3 tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice
4 tbs earth balance
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp fresh black pepper

-- Heat olive oil on medium heat.
-- Add shallots, mushrooms and garlic, when oil is heated. You can test the oil with one piece. If it sizzles, it's ready.
-- Cook vegetables for 3-4 minutes. Allow the garlic to become fragrant and the shallots to become soft and translucent.
-- When ready, add the no-chicken broth. Turn the heat up to medium high. Bring to a simmer.
-- When the broth has reduced in half, add the soy milk and whisk together. Once again, allow the milk to reduce in half at a simmer.
-- Add the lemon juice. Whisk together.
-- Add the 4 tbs of earth balance and whisk quickly. Add the earth balance slowly! If you add it too quickly, it will break. Try one teaspoon at a time. If the sauce begins to break, try any of the methods to salvage the sauce as stated above.
-- Add the parsley and pepper. Serve over any meat substitute, vegetables, pasta, mashed potatoes, rice, etc. Be sure to not let this sauce sit on the heat too long, as that will cause it to break. Prepare it right when everything else is ready. And if you refrigerate it, you're doomed! Dun, dun, DUN! [[like scary music?... ok.]]