Vegetarian Sundays::Veggie Pot Pie

Forgive the photos, I left my better camera at my in-laws home so I have been snapping photos with my phone and one of my lesser-quality cameras. Hopefully I will get my Cannon back soon and will have better photos to share.

However, this pot-pie doesn't need many photos to prove its delicious worthiness. I love to make my  pie crust  from scratch. Totally...from scratch. My friends are often astonished that I make my own dough, and don't typically use store-bought pie crusts. And please don't think I find anything wrong with store-bought pie crusts either. They are easy, quick, and typically a lot less messy than the home made versions. I just love the way my homemade  crust tastes, and I have adapted the recipe over time to suit my needs. The original pie crust recipe is from the MooseWood Cookbook.  I fill the inside of pie with any and every veggie I have in my fridge. It's a great use of that one potato you have laying around, or that one stalk of celery that is sadly wilting in the crisper drawer. For this particular pie I used golden potatoes, cauliflower, celery, broccoli, and yellow onion and mushrooms. I often will use peas, carrots and sometimes corn. I make a mushroom gravy for the inside, which can be easily substituted for store-bought cream of mushroom soup when wanting to make this a faster dinner. I hope you get a chance to enjoy this tasty dinner soon with your family. It's perfect for those last days of winter.

Pre-heat oven to 375
You will need a 9X9 or slightly larger pie pan/dish

Pie Crust Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flower (can be whole wheat)
6 TBS Butter (salted or unsalted- up to you!)
Dash of Salt
About 1/4-1/2 cup of water

Pot-Pie Gravy Ingredients:
4 TBS butter
White or brown mushrooms, sliced
1/2 TSP paprika
1/2 TSP Cumin
1/2 TSP Cayenne
1 TBS Dry Basil
1 1/2 cups broth
4 TBS Flour
1-2 Cloves of Garlic Crushed

Pot-Pie Veggies:
3 small Golden Potato chopped
1/2 head of Cauliflour chopped
1 head Broccoli Chopped
1 small Yellow Onion Diced
2 Stalks Celery Diced

To mkae Pie Crust:
1. Slice up butter into small chunks and place in a food processor.
2. Add the flour and salt and pulse just a few times until the mixture looks like lumpy corn meal
3. Slowly pour the water into the food processor and pulse a few times. Keep adding the water until a dry, but cohesive dough is formed.
4. Remove half of  the dough from the food processor and place on a floured surface. Roll out until it will cover a 9X9 pie dish.
5. Place the rolled out dough into your pie dish. Roll out the remaining half of the dough. Reserve until Later.


To make pot-pie gravy:
1. place butter and all spices except the garlic in a saucepan and cook thoroughly for about 5 minutes. Be sure not to burn the butter or the spices. Add the flour into the pan and combine with the butter and spices. The contents of the pot will become thick.
2. Add in the mushrooms with a TBS water. Cook for 5 minutes until the mushrooms have released their water.
3. Add in the broth slowly, stirring to combine all of the ingredients. Turn the heat to high until the gravy just begins to boil. Then turn the heat to low and  let the gravy slowly cook for for 5-10 minutes The gravy should thicken to a nice sauce.

To make the veggies:
1. Add the onion into it's own sauce pan with a little butter or high-heat oil. I like touse vegetable or coconut oil. Cook onions until they are translucent.
2. Add in the potatos and let cook for about 10 minutes until the potatos are soft.
3. Add in the celery and then the broccoli and cauliflower. Cook until all veggies are tender.

Assembling the pie:
1. Place all of your cooked veggies into your prepared pie crust. Add in the the gravy over the veggies. Place the remaining rolled dough over the veggies to seal the insides. Roll the edges of the extra pie crust together. Poke at least 4 holes into the top of the pie so it can release heat while being cooked. Place in yor oven at 375 F for 40 minutes, or until the top of the pie is golden brown.