Friday, June 3, 2011

Veggie Pot Pie with a Whole Wheat Crust

This was a spur of the moment recipe that I threw together. I'm used to seeing pot pies with chicken, but this one is meat free! It's a vegan recipe, but it is not gluten free. The recipe actually came together because I wanted use a bunch of our baby spinach, since I harvested all of it yesterday. Then the family was wanting pot pie and I thought lets put the two together with a bunch of extra veggies. I love pot pies, I typically cook them in the fall/winter because to me they seem like a comfort food. It's been cold and rainy here the past couple of days so a healthy comfort dish was needed. There are so many pot pie recipes out there, so don't let this one hold you back. Every time we make a pot pie, we just throw whatever we have together and make up the recipe as we go. Add, remove, change anything you want from the veggies, herbs, to the crust :) You'll see that this time around I ventured in trying to different types of crusts using olive oil vs. vegan margarine.

Bottom Crust:
This recipe is a slightly modified version of Betty Crocker's Pat-in-Pan recipe. For the original recipe click here. This is always my go to recipe for a bottom pie crust. I love that I don't have to roll out any dough!

1 1/3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1/2 tsp of Salt
2 Tbsp Cold Water

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix flour, oil and salt till everything is moistened. Then add water and form into a dough ball. Place in bottom of dish and spread dough out to cover entire 9' glass pie plate. Cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
Set aside for 30minutes to cool, as you prepare the filling.

Filling:
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 clove of Garlic
1 cup diced Broccoli
1 cup diced Cauliflower
1 diced Onion
5 diced Baby Potatoes
1 cup Frozen Mixed Veggies(corn, peas, beans, carrots)
1 bunch of Spinach
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups Vegetable Broth
1 cup of Soy Milk (Or whatever milk you prefer)
Dash or two of sea salt and pepper
Any herbs of your liking (We used oregano, rosemary and thyme)

Sautee garlic in olive oil for a minute or two on low heat. Cook all veggies except the frozen mixed vegetables and spinach. Let the veggies cook until the potatoes feel tender then add the frozen veggies and spinach. Once the spinach wilts, sprinkle the whole wheat flour in and mix. Then add the vegetable broth and milk. Stir and cook for 20 more minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes to thicken. Then add to bottom pie shell.

Top Crust:
This recipe is also a modified version, this time it's Betty Crockers Single Pie Crust. It's basically the same as the bottom crust, but instead of oil you use shortening. In our case we used a vegan margarine. Worked out well!

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1/3 cup vegan margarine
2-3 tbsp of cold water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in vegan margarine with a fork or two knives. Sprinkle with cold water, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened. Gather pastry into a ball. Add extra tbsp of water if the dough seems crumbly.

Then roll out pastry using a floured rolling pin. Place rolled out dough on top of filling and pie plate. Use a fork to seal the edges. Then take a knife and score the top of the dough 2-3 times. This will let steam release as it cooks. Cook the veggie pot pie at 400F for 20-25 minutes till the top crust is golden brown.

Let it cool for 10minutes and then dig in! So delicious!

The bottom olive oil crust was definitely meant to be a bottom crust it held together well, yet was still soft. The top vegan margarine crust was meant to be a top crust, it was flaky, soft and tender. Remember you could always purchase your pie crusts, but homemade is always better! You know what ingredients go in it and lets be honest these two pie crusts are really not that hard to make.

Enjoy!

10 comments:

Berendina Dykema said...

Yum Yum that looks good :). I like that your back to blogging again. Its best to do it when you love it. The free samples and giveaway wins are what have pump me up to do more posts :), It makes it fun :). Did you see my brand new banner? To cute :)

Maggie said...

Hey :D Yeah sometimes I get to much going on and the blog tends to get put on the back burner. Oh well, back at it now like you said :D Giveaways are always fun! I'm actually got one coming up..hehe I have something in mind, so I might do it soon after the postal service comes back. Maybe next month? I did see your banner, it's cute! I like the cupcake's expressions lol :D

Anonymous said...

OMG Maggie, your pot pie looks SO good, we love them! Could you pass me a fork, PLEASE! Hugs!

Maggie said...

hehe thank you Pam! I cut that slice of pie just for you :D

candice said...

i keep wanting to make a pot pie and never do. now i think i just might!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Maggie -did you ever get my email I sent a week or two ago?? SOme people have said it went to their spam folder!!???

Maggie said...

Candice- You should try it out, sooooo yummy! I always think it's going to take to much work..but really it doesn't :D

Maggie said...

Rawkinmom- OH no, I didn't get it :( I check daily, but I'll check my junk mail/spam folder right away hun :D Let you know ASAP :)

FearlessFilly said...

I made this yesterday and it was quite good! Since I am not a fan of vegetable shortening, I simply made the top crust the same as the bottom, except added more water so that it was less crumbly. The crust was certainly my favorite part—crumbly, flaky, and buttery without actually containing butter! Thank you!

Casey said...

I made this the other day and it was delicious! I used whole wheat pastry flour rather than regular whole wheat flour, and also put a bit less flour in the gravy than you suggested. Overall a great recipe, I can't wait to do it again!