a perfect winter vegan pot pie.

you will need the following:

oven. preheated to 350.

a dutch oven for cooking. i use a 6 quart mario batalli dutch oven. most lines of cook wear from celebrity chefs are garbage but his is actually pretty good and i use my dutch oven quite often. it is my favorite piece of cook wear. this piece didn't cost as much as le creuset but it's getting the same job done.

one yellow or white onion chopped

one parsnip or any other root vegetables that make you happy. turnips would be nice!

carrots. about four large ones or small ones equalling about four large ones. we used a bunch of rainbow carrots that we got at whole foods (getting them from a farmer is cheaper.. whole foods is so expensive yikes) and supplemented with a few big basic carrots that were in my fridge. chop these into small pieces.

a carton or four cups of vegetable broth.

three medium sized russet potatoes. peel two potatoes and cut them into 1-2 inch pieces for boiling. you will use this to make a mashed potato type of thing. wash your third potato and cut it into thin slices to go into your pot pie with your other veggies.

peas. i used a half a bag of frozen ones. if you can get fresh peas i envy you.

one carton or approximately two cups of white mushrooms.







(OPTIONAL) Gardein chicken. we used one bag of the scallopini gardein "chicken" in our pot pie. this is completely optional and i really don't feel like it added that much to the pie. it's up to you if you want a chicken pot pie or a vegetable pot pie. this pie is very flavorful, hearty and filling without the inclusion of fake meat but of course Gardein is delicious in everything. we cut ours (while it was frozen) into small cubes and added it in at the very last minute before the pie went into the oven.

soy milk. i used the unsweetened kind. the regular one would be fine also.

two table spoons of earth balance or whatever kind of vegan margarine you like.

a little olive oil.

all purpose flour

cold water. when i came home from the store i put a big cup of water into the freezer so that it could get cold while i was working on putting groceries away and getting my ducks in a line.

vegetable shortening

spices. we used tumeric, poultry seasoning (don't worry this doesn't have any poultry in it), onion powder, and thyme. plus salt and pepper of course. feel free to use whatever you like but i think that the poultry seasoning is pretty crucial. salt and pepper are also important, of course. from there you can use any flavors that appeal to you!

 more after the jump

where for art thou, vegans?

hi guys!

can you tell me how you are finding this blog? i want even more people to find it! i have two posts coming up.. one is for a vegan vegetable and "chicken" pot pie that is absolutely delicious and healthy and amazing-- the other is for vegan collard greens and fried chicken which i am cooking as i type this.

anyway! say hi and let me know how you found me.

xoxo
annaliese

someone made my vegan sweet potato burger!

tezzie who follows me on twitter sent me a message earlier after she made my burger recipe!

and she took a pretty picture of it too! totally a way prettier picture than the ones that i posted. buttt someone ordered me a point and shoot camera from my amazon wishlist and when it comes it will greatly improve the quality of pictures in my blog postings. if you make something from one of my recipes please let me know what you thought and send a picture if you can!

a friend from another site told me that they made this recipe and the burgers fell apart. i didn't have any trouble at all keeping them together in patty form but adding about 1/2 cup of cooked rice to the recipe would probably make them more fool proof.

i am very pleased that people are enjoying this blog and enjoying the recipes. soon i will be posting a vegan pot pie recipe that i came up with a couple of days ago. it was delicious. =)

i noticed that tezzie has some other food pictures in her twitpic. you can follow her @bigdreamsinc on twitter

xoxo

a delicious sweet potato, tofu burger!

i still owe you guys a vegan macaroni and cheese/vegan soul food post but that entry is going to be soooo intense so for now i must placate you with this burger that i made in the days following the vegan soulfood extravaganza. i had a giant (the biggest i've ever seen) sweet potato sitting around because i had planned to make a sweet potato casserole with our vegan soulfood but it never happened. the result was this.



to make 2-3 burgers you will need:

one reasonably sized sweet potato. don't get a huge one like me unless you want to be eating sweet potato for a week straight. sliced into 1-2 inch cubes

1/3 container of firm tofu, press the water out with some paper towels and then crumble with your hands

one carrot. grated using a cheese grater thing or minced with a knife.

1-2 stalks of celery. chopped into small pieces. i cut mine in half long ways and then chop it into smaller pieces if its a big one.

1 medium onion. chopped.

a handful of cashews. i dropped them into a blender and so they were all crushed and chopped up into a rough kind of powder.

your choice of herbs and spices. i used salt, pepper, a little sage, a little curry powder, and nutritional yeast. is that a spice? i don't really know wtf it is but i like the way it tastes and vegans are into it.

a little fresh parsley. finely chopped.

buns or bread of your choice.

cheese of some kind if you wanna. condiments are fun. use whatever kind you want. we put mustard, vegenaise and pickles on ours. they were delightful.

BEHOLD! THE WORLD'S LARGEST SWEET POTATO!

i'm not foolin' around guys. that's a ten inch chef knife sitting adjacent to that beast of a sweet potato. it was huge. i used about 1/4 - 1/3 of it.

chopped it up like thissss

when you are finished chopping you want to drop those guys into a pot of rapidly boiling, salted water.

while those are cooking you are going to want to start cooking your mirepoix. this is the part of the blog where i teach you a fancy word.

see this picture..


carrot, onion, and celery-- often referred to as "aromatics" are the flavor base for tons of different stuff.. soups, stews, stocks and other things. in this case they are going to flavor your burger and create nice textures as well. put them into a saute pan while your sweet potato is cooking in the boiling water and cook them until they are softened.



in my case i am cooking them in a crappy non-stick wok--- probably because i was too lazy to wash my saute pan. that's ok though.

when your potatoes are fork soft and your mirepoix (remember that the onion, celery, carrot mixture) is cooked down combine those items in a large mixing bowl with your tofu and cashews and mash everything together with a wooden spoon or a manual potato masher.


season with your choice of herbs and spices + parsley which tastes good and makes everything pretty. everyone should have fresh parsley on hand. you can toss it on top of anything and make it look like you did a really good job of cooking.

taste the mixture as you go to see what kind of flavor you are coming up with. tasting while you cook is really important.


give everything a good stir with a fork to make sure that your ingredients are distributed evenly and form into patties using your hands. i like to make a big ball and then squish it down to achieve a nice even patty.

i cooked my burgers in the same pan that i used to cook my mirepoix. add a little oil to the pan, put the heat on medium-high and let them cook for a couple of minutes on each side until they are golden.


remove from pan and serve them however you like. ours went like this. potato buns, pickles, vegenaise, mustard and a sprinkle of daiya cheese.


these are really inexpensive to make and more delicious and healthy than a gardenburger. ta-da!

if you decide to make this meal take some pictures and show me! let me know what you think. =D

and if you love me and you want to buy me something for my kitchen visit mywish list! my chef knife is dull. need sharpeners!