Veggie Pot Pie, #1

Pies were one of the first foods I really got excited about making on my own. When I was about 5 I got the recipe for a minty chocolatey "grasshopper pie" and made it with my mom's help. Then when I went on a sugar-free diet in high school I made a lot of no-sugar-added apple pies.

But I've never quite mastered the veggie pot pie. It seems like it would be so easy, but I seem to always mess up. Most of the recipes I find for veggie pot pie have either a ton of mushrooms or tofu, and I hate mushrooms and just don't really want to eat a tofu pot pie.

Recently I've been reading a book called Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York, which states such amazing facts as "an estimated 22 million pies were consumed in New York in 1895. ... The largest pie bakery, just north of Canal Street, baked up to twenty thousand pies a day..." And then one of my good friends has gotten really into pie-making recently because she's been reading a lot of M.F.K Fisher. And then I bought some pre-made pie crusts for a party a few weeks ago, but ended up with two crusts leftover. It seemed like a good time to try my hand at a veggie pot pie, and I ended up with one that was pretty good! I'm labeling this as Veggie Pot Pie #1, because I'm going to make some different styles of veggie pot pie throughout the upcoming fall and winter and try to post about them here.

It's mostly potato, which I always appreciate. Next time I would use one sweet potato instead of two, just because this made such a huge amount of food. And I would definitely add in a thin layer of grated cheddar right under the top pie crust. I meant to do that this time, but forgot, so we just melted some cheese slices on top of our pie slices.

Here it is:

And here's the recipe as I would recommend making it:
Ingredients:
1 large sweeet potato*
1 blue potato**
1 small bunch carrots
1/2 a small yellow onion
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4-1/2 cup sweet potato bisque or other creamy veggie soup
salt and pepper
1/4 cup grated cheese (we used Cotswold, but sharp cheddar would also be good)
2 store-bought pie crusts (10")

Steps:
1. Use the food processor to slice the potatoes into thin discs. Boil them until cooked through.

2. Slice carrots in the food processor. Finely chop onion and garlic.

3. Preheat oven to 425.

4. Stir all of the veggies together in a large bowl. Season well with salt and pepper.

5. Fill bottom pie crust with veggie mixture. Pour on enough soup to cover the top without overflowing. (You could also try stirring the soup into the veggie mixture before putting it into the crust. You want just enough to very lightly coat the veggies.)

6. Grate cheese and sprinkle over veggies.

7. Add top crust. Seal edges well with a fork or your fingers. Cut a few vents in the top crust.

8. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 15 minutes at 425. You might want to put a cookie sheet under your pie pan in case anything bubbles over, but that didn't happen to me. Reduce heat to 350 and bake about another hour, or until pie crust is golden brown.

9. Let cool for a few minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

It doesn't make neat slices, but I think that's typical of pot pies, right? Or is it really only a pot pie if I make individual serving sized pies? I have so much to learn.


*Or yam? We always called these sweet potatoes, but they were labeled "yams" in the store - maybe it's a regional thing. The ones I used had brownish skin and orange flesh.
**You could also use a white (Russet) baking potato, but the blue makes the finished product a little less orange.