Veggie Pot Pie

Photo: Mateja ^_^

Ingredients

Ingredients for veggies:

4 medium carrots

5 small potatoes

1 cup green peas, frozen

1/2 cup sweet corn crenels, frozen

1 cup broccoli florets, frozen

2 cups water

1 tablespoon Vegeta

Ingredients for creamy sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil

cup all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

2 cups veggie stock

1 tablespoon ground sage

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 small onion, finely chopped

Ingredients for crust:

1 stick unsalted butter, very cold or frozen

1/2 cup olive oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup ice water

2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar

Preparation

Directions veggies:

Dice carrots and potatoes.

Into a big enough pot, put water, carrots, and Vegeta. Bring to a boil over high heat. When it starts to boil, add potatoes, turn heat to medium, and cook tightly covered for 7 minutes, or until potatoes are just soft.

Add green peas, corn, and broccoli. Cover the pot, remove from heat, and let it stand covered for 5 – 10 minutes. Peas, corn, and broccoli will become soft, but will still be bright in color.

Strain veggies and preserve the veggie stock for cooking the creamy sauce.

Directions for creamy sauce:

In a big enough pot over low medium heat, put olive oil. Add the finely chopped onions, salt, and black pepper. Sweat the onion until translucent. Add flour and cook until slightly changes color to golden brown, about 3 minutes. Add sage and nutmeg. Now is time to start adding the liquid ingredients. I always heat my milk before adding it to the rue. Slowly start adding the milk, constantly stirring with a hand whisk to prevent clumps from forming. After you add all the milk and veggie stock keep stirring until it comes to a boil. Let it boil for a minute or two, to cook out the raw flour flavor.

Add the strained veggies and stir to combine.

Directions for crust:

Into a food processor, put flour, salt, and butter cut into small pieces. Pulse until ingredients resemble coarse meal. While the processor is running add olive oil and ice water mixed with vinegar. Turn the ingredients onto a lightly floured board and gently knead so they just come together. Divide the dough in two and form two discs. Wrap them in plastic wrap and let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

Divide the creamy sauce with veggies into baking dishes. You can either choose to go family style with one baking dish or with individual baking dishes. This time I went with individual baking dishes. Roll the dough on slightly floured board and cut circles in size of the baking dish. Place the crust circle over the veggie mix and smoother with sour cream (I mix 1 tbsp of sour cream with 1 tbsp of milk).

Turn the heat of the oven to 300*F and bake the pot pies for 45 minutes. Turn the heat up to 375*F and bake additional 10 minutes. If the top is not yet golden brown to your liking, you can leave the pies in the oven for 5 more minutes. Pull the pies from the oven and let them rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.

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About

Pot pie from scratch may seem like a lot of work, but since it is comfort food I really don’t mind spending some extra time in the kitchen. And the flavors are so divine: the contrast between the crunch of the crust and the creamy sauce, deep note of sage, the nutty tone of nutmeg, and then come all the bright flavors of the veggies…yea comfy indeed!

Of course there is a shortcut and you don’t even have to sacrifice the composed flavors of slow cooking. And believe me a perfect pot pie can be ready in as little as ½ an hour!
For a quick version of pot pie you just have to have ready to use puff pastry on hand and you are ready to roll. Cut a defrosted puff pastry to the size of your baking dish and bake until golden brown (see the package for baking directions). Meanwhile, prepare veggies and sauce. When cooking the creamy sauce, use 1 tbsp more flour, so that the sauce is a little thicker. Distribute the creamy sauce with veggies onto your serving vessel, and top with freshly baked puff pastry tops. Serve and enjoy!

This time I did the long version. It’s snow outside. Kids were home from school and I had company. My daughter is making plans for college, so we were chatting and discussing and having me and her time…ahhhh, they fly away too quick!