I am a vegetarian. My husband and son are not. I struggle to
find ONE meal to satisfy us all and not have to cook everything separately (I hate dishes.). Taco night, for example, is great because I
can prepare the toppings for everyone and quickly cook and season real and faux
ground beef. Recently, my husband has been requesting those little banquet pot
pies to have for lunch. Now that it is cold outside, I have been envious of
that dish – so warm and satisfying, with the steam rising up when you break
through the crust. And wholesome too – lots of good, filling veggies in there.
A recipe for a vegetarian pot pie came across my inbox and so I decided it was
time to make a pot pie of my own. Of course, I had to make one for my fellas,
too.
We had some leftover grilled chicken from recent restaurant meals, and it
was perfect for this. I have tried every fake meat on the market and for this
recipe recommend one of the following: one package of Quorn Naked Cutlets, one
bag of Kroger’s Simple Truth Meatless Griller Strips (or the Morningstar Farm
strips), or one package of Gardein Chicken Scallopini.
I cobbled together
several recipes to get the perfect one, and I wanted to post it here so I can
remember how to make it next time. Oh yes, there will be a next time. I added
soy sauce and nutritional yeast to the filling to give it an extra boost of
soul-warming umami. If you don’t have these on hand, no worries.
The recipe that follows is for a DOUBLE BATCH, one with real
chicken and one with vegetarian chicken. You can halve the recipe if you want just
one or the other, or keep it doubled but use all meat or non- meat and serve an
army of carnivores or dirty hippies (though I suppose dirty hippy vegetarians
wouldn't be in an army. A peaceful protest perhaps)
HIS AND HERS CHICKEN POT PIES
Ingredients:
4 large carrots, peeled and cubed
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used red potatoes)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, diced
16 ounces mushrooms, sliced (I used baby bellas)
¾ cup butter
¾ cup flour
1 ½ tsp sage
1 ½ tsp thyme
1 ½ tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed
AND
2 cups cooked vegetarian chick’n strips or cutlets, cubed
1 carton (32 oz.) of vegetarian chicken broth (I used the Imagine brand
Vegetrian No-Chicken Broth)
1 cup frozen peas
1 Package of frozen Puff Pastry (I used Pepperidge Farm’s, it comes
with 2 pieces)
Directions:
1. Cook your chicken and chick’n. My chicken was
pre-grilled and I used a large sauté pan to brown my chick’n (I used the same
pan later to make the roux). Cube and set aside
2. Boil the carrots and potatoes for about ten
minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water to halt the cooking
3. Bring your chicken broth to a boil in a large
saucepan. Meanwhile, in a large stock pot, cook the onions in the vegetable oil
for about three minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until they begin to shrink.
Add the sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Add in the cooked carrots and potatoes
and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
4. Divide the vegetable mixture (if you are doing a
split recipe, otherwise carry on in the stock pot). Add the chicken and peas.
5. Next up is the white sauce. Make a roux by melting
the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Slowly whisk in flour until
the mixture bubbles and browns. Whisk the roux into the boiling chicken broth.
Reduce to a simmer and whisk in the nutritional yeast and soy sauce. You should
have a nice creamy sauce that is recognizably a pot pie sauce. Add this to the
vegetable/chicken mixtures.
6. Put the filling into ramekins or casserole
dishes as you wish. It is enough to fill
to overflowing a 1 1 ½ qt. Corningware, so I recommend the 2 qt. sizes if you
are doing two big pies.
7. Top with the puff pastry. I trimmed off the corners so that it was just
to the edge of the dish and used the scraps to make sopapillas.
8. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until the
pastry is golden brown and puffy.
9.
Sopapilla recipe: toss puff pastry scraps in a cinnamon
sugar mixture and bake for 12 minutes at 400 degrees. Re-toss the warm pastries
in the cinnamon sugar and top with a drizzle of honey.
 |
| Sopapillas |
We were in Brookstone
recently and they had a display of that kinetic sand or moon sand that is out now. Tom wondered if you could fill a whole
sandbox with it. At Brookstone prices, it would cost as much as buying your own
beach. But I found a recipe on pinterest and we made our own, for
pennies. 
It was fun to make – the KLAW had
fun stirring the ingredients but was sad when I wouldn’t let him lick the
spoon.
We used cookie
cutters in it (ten cents on clearance at Dollar General! Score!), molded shaped with some cups and bowls, and transferred sand
from container to container (and to the floor!) with hands and spoons. It's not quite as good as the store-bought stuff, but for a toddler it is just as fun as a day at the beach!
INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
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