Happy Pi Day

Yesterday was Pi Day!  I like to think it's Pie Day, so in honor, I made a vegan seitan pot pie last night for Adam.

One of our favorites, this is a recipe I adapted from Veganomicon and add my own flair to.  I keep the original crust the same because it is wonderful, but add extra veggies depending on what is local and available!

I like to double the crust recipe and put a layer of crust on the bottom underneath all the veggies since the crust is Adam's favorite.  The crust is a simple mix of whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour, cornmeal, a little sugar and salt, baking powder, and vegan shortening.  I used Earth Balance buttery sticks, and cut in the 'butter' first until the dough was crumbly, then added a cup of cold water with a few teaspoons of apple cider vinegar slowly (in thirds) until the dough formed.  A pastry cutter works perfectly for cutting in the 'butter' but toward the end when you've added most of the water, I find that my hands work faster.  I always have to add a little bit more water to this recipe to get the dough to form a ball, too.  I divided the dough into two balls and rolled them out, wrapped them in parchment paper, and put them in the fridge to make the filling.

The filling is fun to get creative with but I keep the basics the same because the recipe is so good.  First I saute two boxes of chopped up Westsoy seitan (the brand to the left is my favorite) in a couple tablespoons of sesame oil with liberally sprinkled soy sauce in a large soup pot.  I stir and saute the seitan until it smells amazing and the edges are browned, and then just put it aside.  In the same pan I make a roux with a few more tablespoons of sesame oil and 1/4 cup of chickpea flour.  It turns a delightfully rich mustard color, and then I dump in an entire diced onion.  The onion gets coated in the roux and after a few minutes I start to dump in the other vegetables.  This is where I start to deviate from the recipe.



I find that the vegetables cook better together and simmer nicely if I add a little bit of vegetable broth in early on.  It's not an exact science for me but if I just let the onion/roux and vegetables mix in for several minutes with no liquid, the bottoms of all the vegetable start to brown and none of it is very juicy.  I like to start the gravy earlier on than the recipe indicates, so to speak.  I cubed 6 or 7 Yukon gold potatoes and tossed them in, sliced up about half of my bulk bag of baby carrots and tossed those in too (the rest I eat with hummus!), and let that simmer with a few splashes of vegetable broth.  Then I tossed in one of my new favorite veggies: broccoli rabe.  I love to saute any interesting greens I find in the produce aisle with some protein for lunch, and while kale is always my favorite, I grabbed these greens pictured to the right this week and they were so good that I thought I'd toss them right into the pie!

Next I dumped in about half a container of sliced baby Bella mushrooms (the best), half a bag of frozen yellow corn, and finally the spices.  Simplicity I think is why this recipe is so dynamite: a teaspoon of mustard powder, a teaspoon of thyme, and about half that much sage with liberal salt and fresh ground pepper are really all it needs.  I mixed in the spices, the sauteed seitan I had set aside, and some more vegetable broth and let the whole pot simmer for a few more minutes.

Then I just got out my favorite casserole dish, took out my chilled and flat slabs of dough, and pressed one slab into the dish, making sure it hugged the inside of the dish to maximize space for the mountain of filling.  I dumped in the filling slowly, ladling it out first because the pot was so heavy, and eventually scraping all of it into a pile.  My filling tends to heap up much higher than any dish I have but you may have bigger dishes.  I like the look of a heaping pie, so I just carefully lay the other slab of dough on top and fold it down over the sides of the filling mountain and then tuck the dough carefully into the sides of the dish to prevent spillage.

Voila!  A beautiful pie, after about 45 minutes of bake time somewhere between 350F and 375F (my oven is small and not an exact science).  


I actually had leftover potatoes so I boiled them and made garlic mashed potatoes with a little bit of earth balance and almond milk as well, so that huge fans of potatoes (Adam) would have something else to munch on for the next few days. Adam's favorite meal is Shepherd's Pie, and he likes the potatoes on top to equal in volume the ground 'meat' and veggies below.  I made a Shepherd's pie last week in honor of the cold weather (it's such a hearty meal). 

Adam called the pie a Fort Knox of veggies: success.  It was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

Coming up next: I've got my juicer back in my possession, so fresh juice is on the menu next week!  I can't wait to try out new recipes as the weather gets warmer.  I remember in my first year of vegan living, my blender was my best friend (see Beat the Heat) and I drank a smoothie a day for months into the spring and summer.

Juicing eliminates the fiber from the fruits and veggies you're consuming, but also leaves out a lot of sugary fillers like yogurt and bananas that make smoothie consistencies so good-- it's very refreshing.  Stay tuned for juice news.  Happy Pi Day to you!