Anything Pot Pie

So if you were coming over my house, this is what I'd make for you, and you'd feel great.  You'd walk in, my house would smell amazing and you'd smile at the thought of flaky pie crust smothered in gravy and sweet potatoes.  And secretly, I'd be glad because the happiness-to-effort factor works out in everyones favor because the secret is - this is seriously easy.  (it actually "blows my mind" that people buy these things frozen in little boxes from some factory far away...)

Anyways, the great thing about pot pie is that in one fell swoop it can use up all those vegetable bits that you're contemplating throwing out next time you clean your fridge.  This time I used carrots, celery, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, tofu and onion - next time I'll probably add some broccoli or cauliflower, and maybe some spinach for color - really, anything goes.

Here's the basic recipe - but as with all my recipes, take it as a grain of salt because I pretty much don't measure anything ever when I cook

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter
Medium/largish onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped small
2 cloves minced garlic (okay, maybe more like 4.. if you're me)
Fresh herbs + seasonings (I used fresh sage and thyme)
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup (non-dairy) milk
Carrots
Potato (any variety, sweet, orange, red, white, purple!)
Peas
Tofu - optional
Recipe (read: box of) 2 pie crusts
(can I just rant for a second? I'm all for homemade, but I really hate making pie crust - it makes a huge mess on the       counter and the store brand box of 2 pie crusts is almost always vegan, and its super cheap! so yes, in my house you can almost always expect the palm oil laden pie crusts, sorry.)

1. Melt butter in saute pan, add chopped onion, celery and garlic.  Meanwhile boil some water and add veggies (stuff like carrots, potatoes, broccoli - not peas)
2. Add tofu to saute pan, and cook for ~2 minutes
3. When the onion and celery mixture is softened, and golden brown sprinkle flour over mixture and stir.  Simmer for about 2 minutes and slowly add milk.  Add fresh herbs and spices.  Simmer and stir until mixture thickens.
4. Use a slotted spoon to add veggies to saute pan.  Slowly add some of the water from the veggie-boiling-pot to the saute pan to thin out the gravy a bit (roughly 1/2 cup - 1 cup)
5. Once you have a nice thick roux with the flavor you desire, take the pan off the stove and put it into the fridge and let it cool for at least 30 mins.  The mixture should be at least room temp, if not cooler before baking
6. While it is cooling, spread one pie crust into the bottom of a pie pan and bake until lightly browned.  When the mixture is cooled, fill pre-baked pie crust and spread remaining crust over top.  Bake at 400 until crust is golden brown on top, and the filling is bubbling.

The thing about this recipe is that while it's not the quickest, it's SO forgiving, and the end result is a complete meal.  You can also do so much with this recipe as a base - for a potluck this weekend I made the filling and baked it into dinner rolls stuffed into a muffin tin to make "pot pie cupcakes" so everyone at the party had their own little vegan pot pie.  When I got home, I had leftover filling and two extra pie crusts in my fridge, so I made 4 mini pot pies baked into small pyrex dishes and then I froze them so on a night when I don't have time to cook, I can just pull one out of the freezer and re-heat in the oven.

Pot pie cupcakes!

sorry for the lame photography - but maybe the lack of detailed pictures will compel to bake it and see how awesome it is IRL!