Mini vegetable pot pies

Chickpea pot pie with cashew filling in red dish on plate.

5 from 11 votes

Mini vegetable pot pies are a perfect main course for a cold winter day or holiday gathering. These mini vegan casseroles are packed with vegetables & chickpeas in a creamy cashew sauce.

Prep Time17

Cook Time1

Total Time1 17

Course: Entree

Cuisine: American, Vegan

Keyword: christmas, comfort food, holiday recipe

Servings: people

Calories: 522kcal

Author: Cadry Nelson

Ingredients

For pot pie crust

1 cup all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
6 Tablespoons non-dairy butter
2 Tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar or rice vinegar

For pot pie filling

¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons raw cashews
2 cups water divided
½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil or other neutral-flavored oil
1 cup chopped onion in medium pieces
2 cloves garlic minced
½ cup sliced celery
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon, no chicken base or vegetable bouillon cube
½ cup thinly sliced carrots cut into coins
1 medium Russet potato about 6 ounces, chopped in small to medium pieces
½ cup green peas fresh or frozen
¾ teaspoon salt
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas drained (Don't discard bean liquid; reserve it for later use in this recipe)

Instructions

To make pot pie crust

In a large mixing bowl, use a fork to combine all purpose flour with salt and dried rosemary.
Add non-dairy butter. Using your fingers, fully combine the flour with the non-dairy butter until it has the texture of small pebbles.
In a small separate bowl, combine ice water and white wine vinegar.
Add the water/vinegar mixture to the mixing bowl with flour. Use your hands to combine the wet and dry mixtures until one ball of dough has formed. It should be smooth and not sticky.
For easiest rolling, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
If you don't have time, it's okay to skip this step, but the dough won't roll quite as easily.

To make the pot pie filling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Put the raw cashews into a high-speed blender with ½ cup of water. Blend until it is a completely smooth, thick cashew cream. Set aside.
(Don't have a high-speed blender? See the notes section for workarounds.)
Bring a soup pot to a medium heat with extra virgin olive oil. Saute onion in oil for about 5 minutes, until it has softened slightly and is fragrant.
Add garlic, celery, dried rosemary, dried basil, and saute for a minute more.
Add remaining 1 ½ cups water, vegetable bouillon, carrots, potato, green peas, salt, and drained chickpeas. Bring to a simmer. Then lower heat, cover, and cook for 7 minutes, until the potato has softened slightly.
Add cashew cream from blender and cook for 5 minutes more over a low medium heat, so that the cashew cream can reduce slightly and flavors can combine. Stir occasionally.
Use a ladle to put even amounts of the pot pie filling into each 8-ounce cocotte or ramekin.
Using fingers or a pastry brush, spread a thin layer of the saved chickpea liquid onto the top edge of the cocottes.
Roll out the pot pie dough with a rolling pin. It should be thin enough that you can get 5 mini tops for each pot pie. (You may need to gather the scraps and roll out again for the fifth pot pie lid. That's fine.)
You can use a biscuit cutter to cut out the tops. Or use a knife and a cocotte lid or extra ramekin as a guide to trace. If you use the cocotte lids/ramekins as a guide, you may need to roll each one out a little bit further to fully cover the pot pie.
Put an individual crust onto each cocotte and pinch around the edges to seal.
Use a sharp knife to put a few vent holes into the top of each pot pie.
Use fingers or pastry brush again to lightly spread chickpea liquid across the top of each crust for better browning.
Put the cocottes/ramekins on a baking sheet, so that if the pot pie filling bubbles over, it will fall onto the baking sheet and not the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes. When they are ready, the tops will be a nutty brown color.
Remove from oven and allow the pot pies to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. (The filling will be quite hot.)

Notes

Filling variations

The chickpeas can be replaced with white beans or 8-ounces of chicken-style seitan.

Replace any of the veggies with an equal amount of corn, mushrooms, or green beans.

Standard blender instructions

If you don't have a high-speed blender, you'll need to use ONE of the following workarounds for perfect blending.

Grind dry raw cashews in a clean coffee grinder until they are the texture of flour. Then add it to your standard blender with water.
Put raw cashews in a bowl & soak them in water for several hours to soften. Then drain & continue with the recipe as written.
Boil raw cashews in water for about 10 minutes. Then drain & continue with the recipe as written.

Cool dough rolls easier

Pot pie dough rolls a bit better if it has chilled for at least an hour or overnight.

If you want to make the dough ahead of time, it also freezes beautifully in one ball. You’ll just need to move it to the refrigerator to thaw for at least 24 hours before you plan on making your pot pies.

Storage & reheating

Store any leftover pot pies in the refrigerator, lightly covered with cling wrap. They will keep for 3 or 4 days.

Reheat in the microwave until warm.

Nutrition