Dave’s Veggie Pot Pie Recipe

This is my friend Dave’s fantastic recipe for veggie pot pie, of which I made two for our annual “harvest dinner” party a few weeks ago.

What makes this recipe so tasty is the phenomenal thyme/mushroom gravy, so I actually increased the proportions thereof and decreased the other filler ingredients. You should also feel free to not make the pies and simply use the gravy recipe for some other application; it’s well worth it.

This recipe makes two pies. You should feel free to use store-bought crust if it’s simpler, although you’ll be missing out on a design opportunity (you don’t want to know what was on the crust of the other pie I made).

Mushroom/Thyme Gravy (two pies)
1/2 c olive oil
5 medium onions, medium slices
2 bunches fresh thyme
7 c chopped mushrooms
3/4 c flour
1 1/2 c port (substitute sherry if necessary)
6 c veggie or mushroom stock
3/4 c soy sauce

Saute onions in olive oil for roughly 3-4 minutes or until slightly softened; add thyme and mushrooms and saute for another 5 minutes. Add flour and mix well while continuing to saute, then add everything else and saute until reduced to a thick gravy.

Pie Filling (two pies)
3 medium potatoes
2 medium onions, thinly chopped
4 medium carrots, sliced to not-too-thick coins
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 1/2 c peas (frozen is fine and easiest)
Olive oil
salt
Optional: more exotic mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, or bell peppers; you can also sub tofu in for some (not all) of the potatoes if you want a protein; just crumble it small.

Peel, cube and then boil potatoes in salted water until mushy. Drain. Stir fry onions, carrots, peas and celery for a few minutes in olive oil to soften slightly. Add potatoes and mash everything together.

Pie Crust (two crusts):
1 tbs sugar
4 cups flour
2 cups shortening (butter flavored is preferable)
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup ice water
1 egg
1 tbs distilled white vinegar
Grease two pie plates (glass typically cooks more evenly but metal is fine). In a large bowl, mix flour, shortening, sugar and salt; add vinegar, egg, water. Knead until homogeneous, then roll out and line the pie plates. Reserve the rest for tops and decorations.

Pie Assembly:
Each pie should have two layers each of filling and gravy (filling then gravy then filling then gravy). Then cover with crust and make sure to cut some slits in the top. A good cosmetic tip is simply to go around the edge with two fingertips on the inside and one on the outside between them to seal the top and make pretty waves (like this). Optimally, you’ll brush the pies lightly with egg white; then bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until nice and golden — they’re veggie so the timing is fairly flexible as long as you’ve softened the veggies beforehand.