I spent years as a vegetarian without enjoying pot pie. Nearly every recipe or every restaurant featured chicken. I’ve tried tofu (gummy), seitan (chewy), and omitted a protein all together (starving afterwards). However, I think I cracked the case with this recipe. It’s hearty, it’s very flavorful, and it uses up all of those frozen vegetables we stocked back in March when we all thought we were going to run out of food.
The key to this recipe is to find comfort in improvising. I estimated how much of the vegetables I needed; the pan was looking rather light when I added the broth so I added more peas and corn to bulk it up. If you bulk it up too much, just add a little more stock. Just remember that it will thicken as it cooks.
If you are intimidated by making your own biscuits, fear not. They truly are the easiest baked good to make and made easier by using a food processor. The food processor chops the butter into small pieces without warming it up too much. Using plastic wrap while rolling reduces any heat transfer from your hands and makes it less messy to do. Giving it a couple of folds will make those layers sing when they bake in the oven.
Be confident! You can make biscuits! Or, if you really can’t, use the store-bought stuff. No one’s judging.
Vegetarian Pot Pie with Biscuits, Caramelized Onion, White Beans and Thyme
Ingredients
Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
6 tbsp butter, salted or unsalted, cubed
3/4 cup whole milk
Filling
1 small/medium onion, peeled and diced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 cups carrots, diced
1.5 cups celery, diced
1-2 cups green beans, 1” trimmed
1/2 cup green peas
1/2 cup corn
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups vegetable stock
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp thyme, fresh or dried
1 14-oz can of small white beans or cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp cream cheese
Salt and pepper to taste (more pepper the better!)
Instructions
Prepare the biscuits
- In a food processor, pulse the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt a couple of times. Add the butter and pulse 20-30 times. Check the mixture- there should be small to medium lumps of butter in the flour. Slowly add the milk and pulse until combined.
- On a clean surface, turn the dough out. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the dough and roll it out to about 1/2” thick. Fold over and roll again so that it’s about 1/2” to 1” thick. You can fold and roll again if you like, but it is not necessary.
- With a 2” biscuit cutter, cut out 8 biscuits, using the scraps, rolling them out, and getting more biscuits out of them.
- Put the plastic wrap on a small tray and place the biscuits on the plastic. Let it sit in the fridge while you make your pot pie.
Prepare the filling
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- In a large, deep frying pan, over medium-low heat, caramelized the onions until lightly browned and softened.
- Add the garlic, carrots, celery, green beans, green peas, and corn and cook for 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and mix well.
- Add the vegetable stock, lemon zest, thyme, and beans and simmer for about 5 minutes until thickened.
- Add the cream cheese and mix well. Taste and season accordingly.
- Remove the biscuits from the fridge and place gently on the pot pie filling. Bake for 15-20 minutes on the middle rack until golden brown and cooked through.
Notes:
– For the vegetables, it is best to eyeball the ratio. I provided a best guess but ultimately I tweaked the amount of corn and peas to bulk up the mixture.
– You can use frozen vegetables for everything. I keep diced carrots and celery in my freezer for quick soups and stews.
– Brush the biscuits with melted butter before baking for a shiny golden brown.
– Don’t be afraid to add pepper. Seriously. Pot pie should always have lots of fresh pepper.
– Top with puff pastry instead of biscuits. Reference this great post by The Kitchn on how to avoid a soggy bottom.