The Comfort Food Series...Part 2: Pot Pie Perfection

Poll almost anyone on what their Top Ten list of comfort food contains and I’m willing to bet almost all of them will include “chicken pot pie” somewhere above number 6.  It’s a universal hug-in-a-bowl that combines delicious bite-size morsels of veggies smothered in a rich, creamy sauce and topped with homemade crust. Seriously, it’s a cold winter night’s dream-come-true.  

And surprisingly, it is extremely easy to veganize. I was worried about this.  After all, when I was growing up, the only way my mother could sneak veggies past my ‘all things green are poison’ radar was to put them in a pot pie with chicken and smother the heck out of them in sauce.  Having a super-finicky daughter who has inherited that vegetable-hating radar of mine, I wondered how I was going to carry on the tradition of “deceptively deliciousness”.

My first attempts led me to re-create “chicken” pot pie, using several different forms of vegan “chick’n” and veggies. Now there’s nothing wrong with this; in fact, if you take the recipe below and add in some diced Gardein Chick’n Filets (the best ones on the market in my opinion) in place of some of the veggies, you’ve got an awesome dinner. But our quest has been to cut back on processed foods – vegan or otherwise – and I wanted to create a dish that could be awesome without being a “re-creation”.  With the help of my always willing to taste-test husband, and my “I’ll eat the potatoes and the crust” kid, I set out on that quest.  I played with various different vegetable combinations, trying to find a balance between colors, nutritional values and textures.  Oh and taste. Because it can be the most nutrient-rich dish on the planet, but if it tastes like asphalt, no one’s gonna care. I’m pretty confident this version below nails it, but I’ll let you be the final judge.

(P.S. next time I’ll remember to photograph the inside of the pie too! I think I might have a pic of it in the archives somewhere…)

Enjoy!

Vegan Pot Pie 

Pie Crust:
Ingredients (single crust)
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup vegan butter (earth balance or becel vegan)
Ice water
NB: for a double crust use 2 ½ cups flour and 1 cup vegan butter

Directions:
Chill flour and butter in freezer for 30 minutes. When chilled, combine both in a food processor and mix until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. With processor running, stream in ice water in small amounts until dough starts to form/clumps together. Alternately, use a pastry cutter (also chilled in the freezer with the flour and butter) to cut the butter into the dough, then drizzle water in a little at a time and combine with a fork until dough forms.
Handling the dough as little as possible, form into a ball of dough; wrap in wax paper and chill in fridge until ready to use.

Pot Pie:

Ingredients
2 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil (or vegetable broth if you want to avoid the use of oil)
1 large white onion, diced medium
2 stalks of celery, diced small
1 yukon gold potato (or sweet potato), peeled and cut into cubes

1 cup butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes

1 cup each chopped broccoli and cauliflower florets
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 cups of vegetable broth
2 tbsps mustard powder (This is my secret weapon. It is amazing what it does to the sauce!)
½ can small tender peas
½ can cooked whole carrots, chopped
1 tbsp Melted vegan butter

Directions
1. In a pot of boiling water, cook potatoes and squash until fork tender; drain and set aside.
2. Steam broccoli and cauliflower in microwave-safe dish with a few tablespoons of water for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat, add oil or vegetable broth, and cook onion and celery until translucent. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.
4. Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated; about two minutes. Add vegetable broth, a little bit at a time, and stir, scraping down the sides and bottom of the pot to release any bits of flour. Reduce heat; add mustard powder, salt and pepper and simmer until filling has thickened; about 10-15 minutes.
5. Stir in peas and carrots. Taste and adjust salt/pepper seasoning as needed. Set mixture aside to cool slightly.
6. Set out 6 ceramic ramekin or pot pie dishes. Fill with pot pie filling to within ¼ inch from the top of the dish. Roll out pie dough until it’s approx ¼ inch thick and cut in circles about ½ inch larger than the ramekins (I use a small soup bowl inverted on the dough and a paring knife to “cut” out the shape). Cover the dishes with the dough, crimping the sides all the way around. Brush lightly with melted butter.
7. Place ramekins on baking sheet and bake at 420F for about 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and crisp. Remove from oven; let cool slightly and serve.

{Quiche} Me...

I’ll admit: I still love eggs. I don’t eat them, but I love them.  I wasn’t crazy about meat, so that was easy to give up; and thanks to Daiya and Sheese, my lifelong love affair with “cheese” hasn’t skipped a beat.  But eggs were a tough one to replicate.  Yes, there’s tofu for the texture and protein, but how do I make them exude that rich decadence that only an egg yolk can provide?  

Meet nutritional yeast. Cheesy, nutty, creamy and rich, yet it contains absolutely no animal by-products and no dairy.  Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast
(which means that it is no longer living and will not produce the effects of “active” yeast), and is a complete protein.   Add a tablespoon or two mixed with water in a food processor, blitz for 30 seconds, and you have an egg yolk. Seriously. I’m not kidding. 

I’ve used nutritional yeast as a cheese substitute when cooking but never thought to try it as an “egg” until recently, thanks to Daddy Vegan’s discovery of a product called Vegg. It’s basically fortified nutritional yeast with black pepper, beta carotene and a bit of salt.  And it has changed my life (and my breakfast menu).

I love quiche.  It’s rich, satisfying and always a crowd-pleasure. Most importantly, I can hide all kinds of vegetables in it and Little Miss Vegan is none the wiser as she gobbles it down. 

I had recently posted a picture on Facebook of a vegan caramelized onion, roasted potato and cheddar “quiche” I made.  The most asked question I got was, “it looks like it has egg in it. How did you do that?” followed by, “can I please have that recipe?”

Well, now you know how I did it. Here’s how you can too. 

Enjoy!

Caramelized onion, roasted potato and cheddar “quiche”

The building blocks of this recipe are the crust and the “egg” mixture. The toppings are optional and totally up to whatever suits your taste. If you’re looking to add a “meaty” addition, I recommend Field Roast brand vegan sausages, removed from the casings, chopped and mixed in with the cooked onions.)

This recipe is adapted from an original recipe for a creamy leek and cashew quiche that can be found at: http://mouthwateringvegan.com/2011/03/23/creamy-cashew-leek-cheezy-quiche/

Ingredients:

Crust

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup unbleached all purpose flour

¼ cup vegan butter (Becel Vegan or Earth Balance. I find Becel Vegan blends into dough better)

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

Cold water

 

Filling

2 large Vidalia or sweet onions, cut in half and sliced into half circles

Vegetable broth for sautéing

1 cup soy cream

½ cup soy milk

2 teaspoons: Vegg and ½ cup water blended in a food processor (if you don’t have Vegg, just use the same amount of nutritional yeast and a few turns of black pepper)

2 – 3 yukon gold potatoes (skins on), cut in small cubes

1 cup shredded Daiya cheddar cheese

½ cup roasted, unsalted cashews (totally optional – this is just a topping)

1 teaspoon olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.       In a large bowl, mix both whole wheat and all purpose flour. Measure out butter into a measuring cup.  Put flour and butter and pastry cutter (or two forks) in the freezer for 30-60 minutes.

2.       Preheat oven to 425F. Toss potatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and combine. Spread evenly onto a parchment-lined baking sheet in a single layer and roast for 25 minutes.

3.       In a large non-stick sauté pan, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable broth on medium high heat (6), add onions and sauté for approx 15-20 minutes, until onions are soft and golden. Stir often to ensure onions do not stick to the pan and add more vegetable broth (a tablespoon at a time) throughout the cooking process to keep onions from drying out/burning. Remove from heat when done and combine with potatoes. Set aside to cool.

4.       Remove flour and butter from freezer. Cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse ‘corn meal’ type texture.  Add cold water, 2-3 tablespoons at a time, and combine with fork until a dough is formed. Add more water a tablespoon at a time until dough comes together. Place dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll out until it covers the bottom and sides of a quiche , tart or baking pan. I use a silicone round baking pan. 

5.       In a medium size bowl, combine egg replacer (Vegg or nutritional yeast) with soy milk, soy cream and salt. Whisk until combined.

6.       Add onion/potato mixture to the pan, and spread out to evenly coat the bottom of the pan.  Pour the egg/soy mixture over the filling and tilt pan/spread with spatula until liquid covers all filling. Top with shredded cheddar and cashews if using.

7.       Place on a baking sheet and bake at 400F for 40 minutes, until cashews are browned, cheese is melted and mixture is bubbling. Remove from oven and let it sit at least 20 minutes to firm up before serving.