If you spend all your time before the holidays dreaming of the amazing foods you are going to cook up with the least amount of effort to impress those you love, put this Vegan Pot Pie on your list. It has a beautifully golden crust that makes the most delicious crispy, crackly sounds as you cut into it, and best of all you don’t actually have to make it–you can simply use store-bought puff pastry. Underneath that crunchy goodness is a bubbling, steaming, nutritious stew of veggies flavored with fragrant herbs that’ll take you all of 15 minutes to put together. And you can toss into it cubes of tofu or vegan sausage to make it even more nutritious and filling. I love pot pies with a passion, and so do many of you. Many moons ago I shared with all of you my vegan Mushroom Pot Pie and dozens of readers have written over the years to tell me it had been a life changer, literally. For many, they have become a Thanksgiving recipe tradition. This pot pie, I promise, is just as good. Try it once and you’ll be making it over and over.
What we love about this vegan pot pie
It has a divine puff pastry crust that requires almost no prep. It’s savory. It’s comfort food for the soul and the tummy! It’s hearty and filling. It’s versatile–you can mix and match your veggies. More on that later. It’s easy to make. You can make it as individual pot pies or one large one–works nicely either way.
Tips and steps
Use puff pastry for the top. Or use a store-bought pie crust if you want to stick with tradition. Really. You don’t have to add to the stressors around holidays by making a pie crust from scratch (although if you want to, you can learn how to make a divine vegan pie crust – the recipe makes two vegan pie crusts – or a gluten-free crust in this vegan French Onion Tart recipe). Keep in mind you are making most of this yourself, you’re just making it easy on yourself. The filling can’t be simpler. You don’t even need to make a roux, because the cashew cream (or pumpkin seed cream if you want this to be nut-free), will act as a nice thickener for the sauce. Start out by turning on your oven. Preheating your oven is a must for almost any baking recipe, as it is here, and if you start it before you begin the rest of this process it will be at the perfect temperature for you to add your pot pie to. Next make the cashew cream or pumpkin seed cream by blitzing the cashews or seeds with half a cup of vegetable broth. Make it really smooth (soak the cashews for half an hour first if your blender isn’t high-powered). You can use water in this recipe wherever I’ve called for vegetable stock, but keep in mind that making tasty vegan food that’ll appeal to everyone is all about layering flavors. A really good, storebought or homemade vegetable stock adds a great flavor base and umami, and if you make it once, you’ll be making it again and again. Next, you’ll create your flavor base for the pot pie by sauteing garlic and adding to it onions, celery and carrots. I like chopping everything fairly small here so they pretty much melt into the sauce. Next to go in are the potatoes and mushrooms and I like cutting these into chunkier pieces. You can dice and slice these veggies as thick or thin or as big and small as you like, although I’d advise keeping things on the larger side so your sauce has some hearty heft. You can also use other veggies, including frozen peas, carrots, cauliflower and sweet potatoes. Next will go in the wine, if you’re using it, and let it all cook out, which will leave in all the flavor and none of the booziness (although some of may object to that ;)) Add the herbs – I used sage, rosemary and thyme (with the parsley coming in later :)) and the butternut squash along with the cashew sauce and the remaining vegetable stock and cook another five minutes or until the potatoes are just tender (sweet potato would be nice here too). This pot pie filling is saucy enough for me but not too saucy. If you want a saucier filling, add another cup of vegetable stock (3 cups instead of 2). If you are using vegan sausage or tofu, you can add them now–I like cutting these in fairly hefty pieces too. Stir in parsley for a pop of freshness. Check the seasoning at this point and add more salt and black pepper as needed. Now comes the part where you put everything in a baking dish or casserole dish, so scrape every last bit into a baking dish–mine is an oval that measures 12 X 9 inches. If you’re making this in an oven-safe skillet, you can leave the sauce in place and proceed to the next step. Roll out the thawed puff pastry to a size that will fit snugly on top of your baking dish. It doesn’t matter if your dish is round or oval or square or rectangular – you can tuck the ends under. Make slits all over the puff pastry with a knife, each about an inch long. Now carefully transfer the puff pastry to the top of the baking dish or skillet and tuck any overhanging edges under the crust. I like brushing on some oil on the puff pastry before I put it in the oven, which gives a really nice, golden-brown crust. You can skip this. Bake 30-35 minutes on a rack in the center of the oven. Be sure to place a baking sheet under the skillet or dish to catch any juices that bubble and run, which will make cleanup much, much easier. Let the pot pie stand about 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven, sprinkle on more fresh parsley on top if you want, then serve hot.
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