I’m happy to report that the basic chemistry of traditional white sauce works without wheat flour or dairy products. Wuu Huu!!

I was craving my Turkey Mushroom & Rice Casserole, but the original recipe required 3-4 cups of milk-based white sauce. I tried just serving the turkey-mushroom sauté over rice with a little gravy, but it just didn’t have that comfort-food feeling. [I also learned the hard way that potato starch is NOT a substitute for Wondra flour in making gravy . . . thickened turkey gelatin is what I got . . . yuk!!]

I decided to just try a small batch of very basic white sauce: 2 Tbls fat, 2 Tbls “flour”, 1 cup “milk”, but used Spectrum® Organics Shortening (made from palm oil), the Food Philosopher’s® Brown Rice Flour Blend for the flour and Edensoy® Unsweetened Soymilk (which is just soybeans and water) for the milk. And Voilá ! Nice, thick (though admittedly rather tasteless) white sauce. Adding salt, pepper, and thyme perked it up just right.

So, for the record, you melt the fat, stir in the “flour,” cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, then gradually add the “milk” stirring until thickened.

I have yet to try the complete Turkey Mushroom & Rice Casserole recipe (I just fixed a small lunch-sized portion of the rice, turkey-mushroom sauté, and white sauce), but I’m thrilled by the result so far!   Ah (*sigh*), Thanksgiving leftovers become gluten-free, dairy-free comfort food.