Vegan Pot Pie

Pot Pie...oh pot pie. When you decide to cut out meat and dairy your brain immediacy jumps to all the things you can't have. "Are you serious?! No alfredo? No cheese fries? No cheesesteaks?"

And then a few weeks go by and a month or two and then you realize: Hey, I can still have those things if I really want them! And they still taste great. Want the proof? I took this pot pie over to Pang and Robin's (a pesca-vegetarian and a meat eater) and afterwards Pang said she had "meat pot pie stomach" and Robin took a bite and for a split second she thought I had "tricked" her into eating meat.

There you have it - meat eaters and veggies alike will love this.



Vegan Pot Pie

1 pack of 4 Fieldroast Apple and Sage Wheat sausages, sliced (so good!)
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup yellow onion, diced
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
1 can sweet corn, drained and rinced
3/4 tsp thyme, minced
3/4 tsp sage, minced
3/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp tamari soy sauce
2-4 tbsp canola oil
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup vegan margarine (Earth Balance)
1 puff pastry sheet rolled out to by 12x10 inches

1. In a small sautee pan brown the wheat sausages with 1 tablespoon canola oil. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the from pan and set them aside.
2. Next make a roux. To make a roux, melt the vegan margarine in a saute pan over low heat, add flour little by little and whisk constantly until light brown in color and thickened. Set aside to cool. Put the veg stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
3. In a 5.5 qt. stock pot, cook the onions in canola oil for 3 minutes then add the carrots, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add already boiling stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Whisk in nutritional yeast flakes.
Add the roux a bit at a time and continue to cook as sauce begins to thicken. Stir in sausages, tamari and corn. Pour the mixture into a large shallow pan to cool. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
4. Once the mixture is cool, pour into individual ramekins, glass pie pan or small casserole dish. Cover mixture with puff pastry (be sure to leave a small excess of pastry for folding and fluting of the edge) and seal edges. Cut small slits.
Bake for 35 min or until the top is nice and brown and the insides are bubbling though the slits in the crust.

White Bean and Tomato Gratin

Item # 2 in my "eating down the pantry" project. Dried White Beans. Did I already rant on here about how scarce the black bean supply is here in France? I believe I did. They just don't use them. No black bean burgers - no black bean quesadillas. Just not done. Tant Pis - I've got tons of white beans. Too much in fact.

So I set about eating them this week. Fun fact about white beans (more often referred to as cannellini beans at home) is that one serving of these magical little fruits has twice as much iron in it than a serving of beef. Eat that moo cow. Or rather...eat beans instead of moo cows!

White Bean Tomato Gratin
3/4 cup dried white beans
1/2 cup veggie stock
1 small yellow pepper, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded gruyere
1 to 2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chili powder (or I bet this would be excellent with several liberal squirts of Shriracha instead of chili powder!)
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano or dried.
black pepper

1. Soak the white beans overnight (12ish hours). Normally I skip the soaking step for bean dishes - mostly because I puree a lot of stuff so it doesn't matter - but this time it does matter unfortch. They are the star of the show.
2. In a large saucepan, in new cold water, bring the soaked beans to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes then reduce the heat and let them simmer for up to an hour or until they are tender.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 (150-170 C)
4. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the pepper and onion. Cook 4 to 5 minutes or until they soften and start to turn a nice golden color. Add the tomatoes, veggie stock, oregano and the chili powder or sauce. Bring the whole mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer, moving it around so nothing gets overly browned, for the next 10 to 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Add the beans, gruyere and black pepper to taste.
5. Put the whole mixture into a glass casserole or loaf dish. Top with the 1/4 cup of parmesan.
6. Let the gratin cook until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melty. Enjoy.



The next day when you have extra, spread a corn or wheat tortilla with a liberal amount of salsa, then several spoonfuls of leftover gratin, fold the tortilla in half and cook it 2-3 minutes on each side in a frying pan with a bit of pre-heated olive oil. Perfect quesadilla filling.

Cheesy Beany Casserole

So I am a little short on money these days...like I haven't gone to the grocery store in weeks because I just can't face that ever growing total at the checkout, so I have been getting a little crafty with my dinners. Here is a little something I concocted with what I had in my pantry and fridge at the time.




1/3 box wheat pasta
1 can sweet peas
1 can vegetarian baked beans ( I think the veggie ones taste way better than the "bacon" ones but I would eat either)
cheese ( I used gouda and cheddar mixed up in the casserole and then sprinkled parm on top)

Basically just cook the pasta according to the box then stick the drained noodles into a oven proof casserole. Top with baked bean and peas (or hey, use corn) and mix well, crumble the cheese over it and mix it in a little. Set the oven at 375 and let it bake for 30-40 min or until the cheese looks melted and everything is hot. Sprinkle with parm and eat.

Now, had I been grocery shopping I would have put a whole lot more cheese in this than I did. I only had little nubs left, so go crazy with the cheese if you have it.