Veggie Pot Pie Goodness
Oh my oh my oh my!
I made the most ridiculously delicious dinner last night for my darling twin. She was most impressed! 1
What did I make you ask?? Oh wait, you didn’t ask? OH RIGHT! I put it in the title. I made the yummiest veggie pot pie in the universe. And I didn’t even use a recipe! Although honestly forces me to admin that I looked at quite a few recipes to get some ideas, but none of them were THE ONE. You know? So I just went at it kind of hap-hazardously like.
Ok! I’m terrible at writing recipes, so I’m going to try and remember what I did in what order and write it down for future reference.
1) Using a bit (tbsp?) of olive oil, i sauteed the carrots (diced), green beans (cut to about an inch) and potatoes (cubed). I tossed in some minced garlic (loving my new garlic press I got for Christmas!), kosher salt (i only cook with kosher salt these days), fresh ground pepper, onion powder, parsley, thyme, a bit of rosemary as it can be overpowering, and basil. Then, i added a cup of veggie broth (i used Campbells) and brought to a boil.
2) After some amount of time that I didn’t keep track of, I added chick peas (from a can), chopped onion, celery and zucchini. I added a bit more veggie broth and let it simmer some more.
3) I started a roux in another pan, (add some flour and butter and mix it a bit) then added some veggie broth till I had a decent paste and added it slowly to the veggie pot. Being careful not to mush my veggies, I mixed it in well until the sauce started to thicken. Once the sauce has thickened up, I added some cream cheese , and carefully folded it in. NOM!
4) Then i turned the burner off and let it sit there for a bit while i grated some extra old white cheddar and firm tofu (pressed). I sprinkled the grated tofu over the veggies and then the cheese on top of that and let it sit while I rolled out the puff pastry. Oh! I also cut a few slices of mozza into cubes and threw those on top as well! I didn’t mix in the cheese or tofu!
5) Then i poured the veggie mix into the caserole dish, sort of in two layers so the cheese was in the middle and on top , but with out mixing! Then i placed the puff pastry on top and brushed it with a little melted butter and cut a few slits. Then I baked it for 45 mins at 230 C.
MAN OH MAN. Did it ever smell good.
Doesn’t it look delicious? SUPER YUMMY!!! And filled with nutrients and protein! I’m pretty sure I could have tricked my dear Andy, had he been home, into eating it! Because you couldn’t even tell there was tofu! With the melted cheese and veggies, it was just a blend of mouth watering flavors! I had been a bit hesitant to add chickpeas too, but I don’t know why because they were perfect as well!
The only thing I would do differently next time is cook the potatoes a wee bit longer, they weren’t at the melt in your mouth level i would have proffered, although Joules said they were perfect. Also, it was my first time ever working w/ puff pastry and I think I let it get too doughy. I had worried about it being too frozen in the middle after having it out for quite some time and had nuked it 2o secs, so next time, I’m not going to worry about that and just roll it out after thawing it on the counter for 30 mins. The top was perfect, but the part of the dough touching the casserole seemed too moist. Once again, Joules said she didn’t notice anything, but I know there’s always room for improvement!
I whipped up some veggie gravy 2 and a simple salad 3 and BAM! Just typing this is making me sooooooo hungry.
Any who, I’m really enjoying making super yummy vegetarian food! I’m not missing meat at all! But for those of you who love the meats, you could easily make this same pie w/ chicken in place of the chickpeas/tofu or what not. I love dishes like this, because it’s basically a “what do i have in the house” dish! Next time I might attempt to make the pastry myself!
And if I wasn’t baked out already, as soon as I finished loading the dish washer, I whipped up a batch of peanut butter and chocolate chip (a mix of dark and white) cookies! HOLY MOLY WERE THEY EVER GOOD. I suppose it cancelled out any health advantages in my dinner, but oh well! At lease they were hand made and not those terrible prepackaged cookies filled with all that junk! It was just the perfect thing to go with our after dinner peppermint tea!
You know what else is fun about this whole cooking phase I’ve entered? It’s got me blogging again!
Until next time,
Christine and Chibi
PS. I couldn’t find Chibi at all this morning until I realized I’d left my PJ drawer open and sure enough…
- Although, the true test would have been my mothers reaction, one of the hardest ladies to cook for ever! [↩]
- Which is really a cheater gravy cause it’s a brown gravy mix made w/ veggie broth instead of water which by the way makes it taste a million times more amazing! [↩]
- some lettuce, some crushed pecans, sunflower seeds, some feta and a sun-dried tomato dressing [↩]
Originally published at C.P.. You can comment here or there.