Veggie Pot Pie

Adapted from "Vegetable Pot Pie", Vegetarian Times Issue: March 1, 1998 p. 44
and "Veggie Pot Pie", Allrecipes.com by Pattecake

Note: the cayenne pepper gives it a kick. Good to know ahead of time. My family would prefer I keep it out next time. Admittedly, they are a "mild salsa" kind of crowd. My older daughter enjoyed it when she mixed in sour cream. I enjoyed it as is. It seems flavorful enough without it, so it depends on whether you want a kick.

Ingredients
1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine or vegetable stock (I used 1/2 cup white wine)
1 cup chopped onion
5 ounces mushrooms (I used baby bella)
1 clove garlic
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
8-10 red potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cups fresh green beans, trimmed and snapped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/3 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups vegetable broth
1 cup milk or soy milk (I used 1% milk)
1 tsp salt or soy sauce (I used soy sauce)
2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp sage (original called for dried, I used ground)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup cornstarch

Pie Crust - I used two 9" Pillsbury's refrigerated pie crusts. Merged the two into one and rolled out for 11x17.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray 11x7 inch baking dish with vegetable cooking spray.

2. In heavy saucepan, heat wine or stock over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic - cook, stirring often, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, celery, potatoes, carrots, green beans and peas. If mixture begins to dry out, add 1/4 cup more wine or vegetable stock. Cook, stirring often, 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Sprinkle flour over vegetable mixture. Cook until vegetables are barely tender, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. In glass measuring cup, combine milk or soy milk and 2 cups vegetable stock, and cornstarch until cornstarch is dissolved. Slowly add to vegetable mixture while whisking constantly. Sauce will start to thicken. Add parsley, salt or soy sauce, thyme, sage, pepper and cayenne. Cook, stirring constantly, until filling is thickened. Remove from heat, transfer mixture to prepared casserole and set aside.

4. Pour the filling into the 11x17 dish. Roll out dough, arrange over the filling.

Note, if you are going to freeze this dish, I found it much easier to freeze at this point overnight before putting the crust on. Then put crust on and put back in freezer. It didn't sink in or get messy that way. Then wrap with foil and then plastic wrap, and put in freezer.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the crust is brown. NOTE: If heating from frozen, I kept covered with foil & baked mine at 375 degrees F for 1 hour (removing foil after 30 minutes) then increased temperature to 400 degrees and baked 15 more minutes to get the crust more brown.