Vegetable Pot Pie

For the main dish of my dinner with my old colleagues S and L, I decided to make a vegetable pot pie. I had leftover puff pastry in the freezer from making the Tarte Tatin I made before Christmas. I thought a pot pie would be a hearty main dish.



I followed the same recipe as the Curry Chicken Pot Pie, except for the filling. I roasted some vegetables instead for the filling. The recipe was easy as pie, pun intended!

Vegetable Pot Pie - Serves 4-6
Adapted from Alton Brown's Curry Chicken Pot Pie.
You can really use any combination of vegetables you like. I tried to go for a colourful combination. I had initially thought about cooking potatoes and squash first, then quickly stir frying them. At the last minute, I thought of roasting them. I am sure either way is fine but the vegetables should definitely be pre-cooked. I accidentally added quite a bit of chili but I really enjoyed the nice kick; alternately, you can add curry powder.

* 2 large potatoes, diced small
* ½ butternut squash, peeled and diced a bit larger than the potatoes - since I found they cook faster and soften very much
* 1 carrot, diced small
* olive oil
* salt, to taste
* pepper, to taste
* dried chili flakes, to taste
* dried/fresh herbs: oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary
* ½ bunch of asparagus, sliced in 1" sections
* 1 onion, finely diced
* 3 celery stalks, sliced
* 3 tbsp butter
* 3 tbsp flour
* 1-½ cup vegetable broth, homemade or store bought
* ½ cup milk - I used skim milk
* corn and peas, 3/4 cups each, thawed
* puff pastry

Toss the potatoes, carrot and squash with olive oil, salt, pepper, chili and herbs.
Roast until the potatoes are nearly cooked (about 30 minutes at 350F).
Add the asparagus and roast for another 5 minutes.
Set the vegetable mixture aside.

Diced vegetables to be roasted.

In a little pot, heat up the broth and milk.

Cook onion and celery in 1 tbsp of butter, in a separate large pot, until they have softened.

Add 2 tbsp of butter until melted.

Add the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Ladle the hot milk mixture while whisking.

Season the mixture with salt (1 tsp), pepper and some parsley.

Cook until the mixture has thickened.

Add the corn, peas and roasted vegetable mixture and mix.

Add asparagus at the end of roasting and stir fry some celery.

Pour into a 9x9" deep baking dish.

Top the dish with puff pastry - rolled down if required.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 400F until golden brown.

Tada!

Colourful vegetable mixture topped with puff pastry.

The filling was creamy with a small amount of milk and butter, no cream!