happy unturkeyday!

having been vegetarian for about 12 years now, every thanksgiving i try to make myself a main course that is just as satisfying to me as the big ol' turkey is to the rest of my family. i've had some good years...and some bad years. i had a good few year run with the quorn brand turkey roast, which while it doesn't look too fantastic, tasted great all seasoned up and roasted. it made for great leftover sandwiches too. a few years back i tried the tofurkey brand turkey and i wasn't pleased at all! i found it super salty and mushy and not for me. i've sort of steered away from those ever since and instead make something like stuffed roasted acorn squash. but this year takes the cake!

liz and i decided to make very homemade vegetable pot pie. i add the very because we did every possible step, all of which were completely painless. pot pie is one of those ultimate fall foods. it's warming, packed vegetables and just so damn good...





we started off by making our tuscan inspired vegetable stock.

while that was going we chopped our veggies. for our pie you'll need the following,

3 cups of vegetable stock
one white onion, diced
3 cloves or garlic chopped fine
1 bag of fingerling potatoes(or any you have on hand), cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 large carrots, peeled and slice into rounds
2 heads of broccoli
1 cup or so each of frozen peas and corn, defrosted
half stick of butter
1/2 cup of flour
salt and pepper
herbs, fresh and dried

heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan. add onions, salt and pepper and cook until onions are translucent. add garlic and heat for a few minutes. toss in
potatoes and carrots,salt and pepper, cook stirring occasionally until veggies start to get tender. while these are cooking melt half a stick of butter in a sauce pan, add 1/2 cup of flour to the melted butter. stir constantly until a thick paste forms, this is your rue, thickening agent for the filling.

add half of the rue to the pan of carrots and potato, stir well to combine. if the mix isn't thick at this point, add rue tablespoons at a time until it looks like a really thick pie filling (you'll be adding stock to this, dont worry if it's too thick).



add the broccoli, peas, and corn, more salt and pepper. now start adding the vegetable stock one cup at a time. stir everything until all veggies at coated and creamy and delicious!





liz put her pie filling in a glass baking dish and topped it with puff pastry, and i made mine into a two crust pie. easy, and yummy.

enjoy