First, preheat the oven to 375. Then you’ll want to pre-bake your bottom crust. I make my own pastry crust from the MyVeganPlanet recipe, found here.  Once you’re ready to use your pastry dough, pull it out of the fridge and roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut the dough to your liking to create a bottom crust for each pie and a top crust. If you’re really ambitious, you can make a lattice top for the pot pies by cutting strips of dough and “weaving” them together to form a tic-tac-toe board type of topping. It looks cute and will make old ladies go “awwwwwww, how precious!”. Spray your pie pans or dishes with a little baking spray. Place your bottom crusts in the pie dishes and bake until they are golden. Remove from the oven and set aside.

*Note* The bottom crust thing is totally optional. Personally, I like a lot of crust in my pot pie, which is why I have a top and bottom. Also, if you don’t feel like making your own pastry dough, you can use ready-made puff pastry, which works just as well and tastes pretty damn good. Again, this is all up to you and how much time you have.

Here is the recipe for the filling:

-2 potatoes, cut into small cubes and boiled until tender, but not mushy (you should be able to stab them with a fork without them turning to mush)
-olive oil
-3 or 4 carrots, small diced
-1 yellow or white onion, minced
-about 1 cup of frozen peas (or more, or less, depending on how much pea you can handle…you can also add fresh or frozen green beans, just make sure they are chopped to 1in. in length…if you use fresh, steam them a little first to soften them up)
-1/3 cup vegan butter
-AP flour (about 1 cup)
-1 quart soy cream and soy milk mix (half and half)
-salt and pepper
-veggie bouillon powder (optional)
-extra vegan butter (optional)

To start, add about 2 teaspoons of oil to a frying pan and begin cooking your onion and carrot. Once they about halfway done, add the frozen peas and green beans and cook until everything is soft and tender. I add a little knob of butter about halfway through this for extra flavor, but not enough to really add extra liquid. Once this is done, add the potatoes. Cover the sauté mix with a lid and set aside.

In a medium saucepan on medium/high heat, melt your butter. Once its melted, start whisking in the flour until you get the consistency of peanut butter, but not quite as dark as a roux. Then, turn the heat down to low/medium and start whisking in the vegan half and half slowly. What you’re looking for here is a thick white liquid about the consistency of thick potato soup, almost too thick to be soup. This is the step where I add the  bouillon powder just for a little extra kick. Its totally optional, but highly recommended. Just keep in mind that most seasonings like this contain salt, so remember that when you’re doing the final seasoning at the end.

Start pouring your cream sauce into the veg mixture. (If your sauté pan isn’t big enough, you can transfer this step into a large mixing bowl.) Stir it as you pour and keep an eye on your cream sauce/veg ratio. You don’t want it to be too goopy, but a good amount of saucy goodness is delicious. If you have any filling left over, you can freeze it for future use. Taste your filling for correct seasoning and add a little salt and pepper accordingly.

Spoon the filling into the pie dishes, on top of the bottom crusts. Make sure each pie is equal and then place your unbaked pot pie crusts on the tops. If you chose to use a cut-out instead of lattice, poke it a few times in a cute pattern with a knife so that air can pass through. If you made a lattice, air will pass through ok on its own.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and the filling is all bubbly around the edges. Cool for about 20 minutes and serve!

Happy Cooking, Folks!

1 1/2  cups AP flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup cold vegan butter

1 T cold water

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the cold vegan butter in chunks.  Mix with your hands and in the middle of it, add the cold water.  Once you have a big ball of dough, you’re ready.  Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour before using.  You can do this up to 24 hours in advance, too.

When you’re ready to pull it out and use the pie crust, just sprinkle a little flour on your surface and remove the ball of dough from the fridge.  Knead it a few times with your hands to get some of the flour on it and then roll it out with a rolling pin to fit the pie pan that you are using.  Or, if you are making small pastries or empanadas, this would be your cue to cut it into the shapes you will be needing.

Happy Cooking!

What you need:

3 oz  potato; peeled, cooked, and mashed

2 oz  soy milk

egg replacer for one egg

2 oz corn flour

4 oz  rice flour or gluten free flour

1 oz  olive oil

1 t  baking soda

1 t  cream of tartar

1 t  tartaric acid

salt

1 t raw sugar

Mix together the milk, the “egg” and the potato.  Mix all the dry ingredients together with the olive oil in a seperate bowl.  Fold the mixture into the wet puree.  It is SO important not to over mix or let stand, as this will make the bread lose its shape.  Line a 10 inch square tray with parchment paper and spread the mixture about 1 inch, or you can use a Yorkshire Pudding tray to make little baby potato breads!  (omg – cutest thing ever!)

Bake in a preheated oven at 425 F for about 40 minutes.  Always check that the bread is cooked by using a skewer through the middle.  Once the loaf is looking thoroughly cooked on one side, you can always turn it over to ensure even cooking on both sides, since its a flat bread.

Yum!

What you need:

1 tablespoon olive oil
a big pinch of salt
1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cups veggie stock

1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons

more good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes – it’s o.k. to uncover to stir a couple times. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a few more minutes, until the cabbage softens up. Now adjust the seasoning – I like to add plenty of fresh black pepper and salt, but it also never hurts to add some fresh thyme if you have the means. Taste and add more salt if needed, the amount of salt you will need to add will depend on how salty your stock is.  If you buy it already made, chances are, it contains a fair bit of salt already!  After you’ve perfected your soup’s taste, all that is left is to slice up some yummy bread, pour yourself a bowl of soup, and chow down!