Our Easy Veggie Pot Pie is cozy and healthy, brimming with garden-fresh ingredients and enveloped in a flaky, homemade vegan pie crust. Whether you’re making it for the first time or are a seasoned pro at plant-based cooking, this recipe is designed to impress. It offers a creamy, savory filling that epitomizes the essence of home-cooked comfort.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Creamy Filling: The heart of this pot pie is its rich, creamy sauce, teeming with vegetables like green beans and carrots, creating a texture and flavor depth that’s truly comforting.
- Ultimate Comfort Food: From its flaky coconut oil crust to the savory, hearty filling, every bite offers a taste of nostalgia and warmth.
- Versatile and Family-Friendly: Adaptable to include ingredients like white beans or green peas, this dish is sure to become a favorite for the whole family, pleasing even those on medically restrictive diets.
- Nutrient-Rich: Every ingredient, from the vibrant veggies to the nutritional yeast, contributes to a dish that’s as nourishing as it is delicious, supporting both body and mind.
Nutrition For Mental Health
This veggie pot pie is packed with healthy plant-based ingredients. One of the primary ingredients is great northern beans.
Great northern beans are an excellent source of fiber, protein, phosphorus, and iron. They are also a good source of complex carbohydrates and potassium.
Carrots are another star ingredient in this recipe. Carrots contain carbohydrates, potassium, fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin B6. A cross-sectional study found that increased intake of raw fruits and vegetables (including carrots) resulted in reduced depressive symptoms and a more positive mood, including life satisfaction.
Ingredients
These hearty vegetable pot pies are packed with veggies and flavor!
- Coconut Oil Pie Crust: This homemade pie crust serves as the foundation and top of the pie crust, providing a flaky texture and rich flavor to the vegan pot pie recipe, using only basic ingredients for an authentic, crafted touch.
- Avocado Oil: A heart-healthy oil that’s used in the filling, avocado oil enhances the flavors of cooked veggies and aids in creating a luscious texture within the pie.
- Onion: Essential for depth and sweetness, onions are sautéed until tender, contributing a foundational layer of flavor to this great recipe for vegetable pot pie.
- Garlic: Adding a punch of aroma and taste, garlic is a key component that elevates the savory notes of the delicious veggies inside the pot pie.
- Herbs: Black pepper, basil, thyme, and rosemary infuse this vegetable pot pie recipe with the perfect flavor.
- Water
- Vegetable Bouillon: Concentrated flavor in a cube or powder, vegetable bouillon enriches the filling with depth, transforming water into a rich broth for the cooked veggies.
- Potatoes: Providing substance and texture, potatoes absorb the flavors of the broth and herbs, becoming tender morsels within the pie.
- Carrots: Adding a hint of sweetness and vibrant color, carrots are a nutritious inclusion that pairs well with peas and celery for a wholesome bite.
- Peas: These little green gems offer a pop of sweetness and color, enhancing the overall appeal and nutritional profile of the pie.
- Celery: With its crisp texture and mild taste, celery is a classic aromatic that contributes to the mélange of flavors in the filling.
- Great Northern Beans: These beans add creaminess and protein, making the filling hearty and satisfying, perfect for a large pot pie or individual pot pies.
- Almond Milk: As a plant-based milk, unsweetened almond milk brings a creamy consistency to the filling without dairy, ideal for vegan pie crusts and fillings.
- Flour: Unbleached all-purpose flour is used to thicken the filling, ensuring it’s not too runny and holds up well within the crust, contributing to the pie’s structure.
- Salt
When combined, these ingredients create an amazing recipe for a vegan pot pie with a flaky crust and a savory, vegetable-rich filling. It is perfect for baking in a traditional pie dish or an oven-safe skillet.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Heat oil in a Dutch oven (or medium pot) over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes, until onion softens and becomes translucent. Add garlic, black pepper, basil, thyme, and rosemary, and continue to sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in water, veggie bouillon, potato, carrots, peas, and celery. Cover and let cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- While the mixture thickens, prepare pie crust, grease your 9″ pie pan, and par-bake bottom crust.
- Stir in the beans, milk, flour, and salt, and simmer for another 5 minutes until the mixture thickens.
- Transfer the mixture to prepared pie pan. Add top pie crust, form the edges, and cut a design into the top.
- Bake pot pie on the middle rack for 20 minutes. If the crust edges are golden, add a pie shield. (Alternatively, you can use aluminum foil.) Bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the center of the crust is golden brown.
- Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Variations
This comfort food classic is delicious as is. However, depending on what ingredients you have on hand, here are some recipe variations to consider.
- Vegetable Broth: Swap the water and vegetable bouillon combo for the same quantity of vegetable broth to enhance the depth of flavor. It’s a simple change that can add different nuances depending on the broth brand or recipe used.
- Fresh Herbs: Incorporate fresh herbs like parsley, thyme, or rosemary instead of dried for a burst of vibrant flavor. Fresh herbs can transform the dish, giving it a more pronounced garden-fresh aroma and taste.
- Potatoes: Substitute the regular potatoes with sweet potatoes for a different flavor profile. The natural sweetness of sweet potatoes can add a delightful contrast to the savory filling. Alternatively, you can use russet potatoes or even purple potatoes instead of gold potatoes.
- Beans: While Great Northern beans offer a creamy texture and mild flavor, you can experiment with other beans for variety. Try using white beans, chickpeas, or even lentils for a different texture or nutritional profile.
- Non-Dairy Milk: I tend to use unsweetened almond milk for my savory recipes but I always recommend you use whatever you have on hand. Soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk, would all work well.
Servings Ideas
This vegan pot pie is the star of the show. Here are some ideas of what to pair it with.
- Veggies: For a side, try this easy Canned Corn Recipe, Microwaved Asparagus, Easy Canned Green Beans, Roasted Sweet Potato Fries, or Oven-Baked Fries.
- Cozy Squash Soup: This easy Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup, Pumpkin Ginger Soup, or Pumpkin Curry Soup.
- Veggie Soup: Pair this pot pie with Classic Potato Soup, Traditional Minestrone, or the Best Lentil Soup.
Storage Tips
To maintain the freshness and flavor of your veggie pot pie, store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. Glass containers help prevent flavor absorption and keep your pie as delicious as when it was first baked.
Remember to cool the pot pie completely before storing it to prevent condensation inside the container, which could make the crust soggy.
Properly stored, your veggie pot pie can last in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, ensuring that you can savor it again without compromising on taste or texture.
FAQ
Typically, a pot pie crust is made from a pastry dough, which can be a traditional pie dough, puff pastry, or even a vegan pie crust using ingredients like coconut oil or vegan butter.
Thickening a pot pie filling usually involves a combination of flour, starch, or a roux, integrated with the liquid ingredients to create a creamy consistency.
Vegan butter, coconut oil, and even olive oil can serve as excellent substitutes for butter in pie recipes, providing the necessary fat content for a flaky and delicious crust.
Recipe
Veggie Pot Pie
Ingredients
- Vegan Pie Crust
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 yellow onion, medium diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground
- 1 teaspoon basil, dried
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme, dried
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1 cup water + vegetable bouillon
- 1 cup gold potatoes, cubed
- 2 carrots, medium diced
- 1/2 cup peas, frozen
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 14 oz great northern beans, can rinsed + drained
- 1 cup almond milk, unsweetened
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
- 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Heat oil in a Dutch oven (or medium pot) over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes, until onion softens and becomes translucent. Add garlic, black pepper, basil, thyme, and rosemary, and continue to sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in water, veggie bouillon, potato, carrots, peas, and celery. Cover and let cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Prepare your pie crust while the mixture thickens. Grease your 9" pie pan, and par-bake bottom crust.
- Stir in the beans, milk, flour, and salt, and simmer for another 5 minutes until the mixture thickens.
- Transfer the mixture to prepared pie pan. Add top pie crust, form the edges, and cut a design into the top.
- Bake pot pie for 20 minutes on the middle rack. If the crust edges are golden, add a pie shield. (Alternatively, you can use aluminum foil.) Bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the center of the crust is golden brown.
- Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This is my favorite pot pie!