Easy as pie

I love pot pie.

...but I prefer it simply with a bottom crust and no top. My husband, however, wants a solid top AND bottom crust. So we compromised and I only used half as much top crust as he wanted. We'll just save the remaining strips of crust for another pie. Apparently being married means you have to compromise. Who knew?!



Using local veggies from our CSA, and a few other everyday things we had in the kitchen, we made the yummiest, warmest, most comforting pot pie in quite a while. (We didn't make the crust, of course. What can I say.. I was tired!)

Step 1: buy a vegan pie crust. No, this is not a difficult thing to do. Yes, it will be better than the cheap pie crusts you'll find in a grocer's freezer. No cholesterol. No saturated fat. Perfect. (We still can't believe the pie crusts with lard were about a buck in the freezer section, while this healthy, vegetable-fat pie crust was like 4x as much. Ridiculous!)

But I digress..

Step 2: gather your ingredients. This is a rough estimate of what I used.

INGREDIENTS
Veggies:
2 small beets (we had a red and yellow beet)
1 med-small potato diced into bite-sized pieces
Handful of fresh green beans, rinsed and sliced into bite-sized pieces
2-3 carrots, sliced
Diced, baked tofu (just follow the recipe but dice your tofu first)

Sauce (you'll want enough to fill in around your pot pie innards):
About 2 c almond mylk
1/2 head of garlic, diced small
1 T onion, minced
1 T whole wheat flour
3 T nutritional yeast
1 t soy sauce or sea salt
Optional spices: fresh thyme, onion,

Step 3: have your tofu pre-cooked or do that first. You can also substitute seitan. Or leave it out completely.

Step 4: let one of your pie crusts thaw and flatten it out. Slice it into thin strips. This will be the top of your pie.

Step 5: mix all of your sauce ingredients in a skillet. *Cook your onions and garlic in a little oil first if you'd like to. Then add remaining ingredients on top. Mix well. Let cook a few minutes until it thoroughly mixes.

Step 6: rinse and ready your veggies.

Step 7: now layer as you'd expect. Put your raw veggies in first. Make sure it's filled to the top!



Step 8: now cover with your sauce. *You can see from the picture that I didn't have quite enough sauce so I simply poured extra almond milk on top, to fill the pie to the rim. Your veggies need the extra juice.



Step 8: Place your sliced pieces of crust in any fashion you prefer. You can even cover with an entire bottom crust.

BAKE

To get a beautiful, flaky crust and perfectly-cooked veggies, you'll want to cook it slowly.

First, 45 minutes at 325 degrees.

Then, 25 more minutes at 350.

Finally, 5 minutes (or until browned) at 400.



Trust me.. this pie is worth every second.

Enjoy!