With a simple rough puff pastry and a delicious filling, make your own gluten free vegetable pot pie at home with your favorite vegetarian protein.
Gluten Free Vegetable Pot Pie
Every time I try my hand at baking, I go in with the lowest expectations. But this gluten vegetable free pie pie turned out so much better than I was expecting! For the base of the pie, I used Claire Saffitz’s rough puff pasty recipe. To make her recipe gluten free I substituted in my favorite Cup4Cup flour along with 5g of xanthan gum to give the dough a bit more structure. The filling is pretty similar to this drop biscuit pot pie (which is much less labor intensive). For my protein and chicken substitute I used my beloved Quron meatless pieces. You can swap it out for tofu or you favorite chicken substitute. Let’s break down some of the techniques you’ll need to make this dish.
Making the Filling
The pot pie filling is pretty easy to make, and it tastes so good! Honestly, it would be really good on its own or served over mashed potatoes. Anyway, this begins simply by sautéing the vegetables to begin to soften them. I like to use frozen peas in this recipe because they are easy to measure out, they taste fresh once cooked, and they keep in the freezer for the next time you want to make this recipe.
For the vegetable broth, you can make your own, or you can look for the Better than Bouillon concentrates for even more umami flavor. The main flavor of the filling comes from Trader Joe’s Chicken-less seasoning which tastes like a chicken ramen seasoning packet. I love that it brings the flavor of chicken broth without the meat. I’ve got more information on substitutes in the drop biscuit pot pie post. Don’t forget to taste as you go and add more salt and pepper to your taste preferences.
The final step is is to give the filling some creaminess. If you are down with dairy, half and half really adds a nice creaminess. If you don’t have half and half you could easily sub in regular milk. Or, if you prefer things dairy-free, you can use your favorite plant milk. I have made this with my favorite Chobani oat milk, or I have loved the ripple milk as a heavy cream substitute in the past. If the mixture turns out too thin, you can always add a bit more flour to thicken it up.
Making Gluten Free Rough Puff
Like I mentioned in the beginning, I was looking into making a gluten free puff pastry dough when I saw Claire Saffitz post an easy rough puff pastry recipe. That was right up my alley because I wasn’t going to take the time to truly laminate dough. Check out her video for her instructions on making the dough! To adapt the recipe for gluten free, I knew I would probably need more liquid because often it takes more to hydrate GF dough. I used about a cup, but you flour may be different. Also I added in some xanthan gum which helps give GF dough more structure. It’s a gum that’s is supposed to help mimic the stretchy properties of gluten. It’s not crucial especially if your GF flour blend already contains some.
I cheated a bit and used a food processor instead of grating the butter because it made it easier for me. This is a similar technique to making biscuits. You can see in my dough that there are larger chucks of butter, but it works to speed up the process a bit. The dough does not look like it is going to come together, but just take your time and continue to pick up the crumbly bits and incorporate them into the dough. Then, you can take the cling wrap and make a cross with a vertical and horizontal piece and put all the dough in the middle. Once you wrap it up and start to shape the dough into a square, then some of those final pieces will squish into the dough. Then, you refrigerate it to let the melted butter solidify as well as let the water hydrate the flour.
Assembling the Pie
Assembling the gluten free vegetable pot pie is pretty easy because I was not going for pretty, beautiful pie art. If that’s your thing, more power to you! My goal was to roll out the dough enough to cover the base of the dish which worked pretty easily. I had excess dough which you could cut into rounds and bake off for a deconstructed pot pie dish if you wanted. When you have the top piece on, cut some slits for the steam to escape. You can get creative and make a design if you want. For sealing the crust, I used a fork, but you could use your fingers or the side of your pie pan if it has the wavy edges.
Finally, don’t do what I always do and forget the egg wash! Whisking an egg and brushing on the top of the pie will make sure that it gets crispy and golden brown in the oven If you want an egg free option, you can brush a bit bit of melted (plant) butter on top for a similar effect. Get all the ingredients and the full recipe below!
Gluten Free Vegetable Pot Pie
Ingredients
For the crust-
- 3 sticks unsalted butter frozen
- 455 g flour
- 20 g sugar
- 5 g salt
- 5 g xanthan gum
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 egg
For the filling-
- ½ cup diced celery
- ½ cup diced carrot
- ½ cup green peas
- 12 oz. Quorn meatless pieces or protein of choice
- 2½ cups vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ tbsp Chicken-less seasoning
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tbsp flour
- ½ cup half and half
Instructions
To make the crust-
- Freeze the butter so that it will not melt while you are working with it.
- To a food processor add the four, sugar, salt, and xanthan gum.
- Slice the butter into chunks and slowly add them to the food processor while pulsing the blade. The butter will not completely into the dough.
- Pour the crumbly mixture into a bowl and slowly add in the cold water. Mix the dough in the bowl until the water is absorbed and then turn the mixture out on to a floured surface. The dough will barely come together, but you want to kneed it until it holds it’s shape. Slowly add more water if the dough is too dry.
- Using cling wrap, fold the dough up and shape it into a rough square. Place in the fridge for 2 hours to let the dough fully hydrate.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out into a rough 8×8 square. Fold the dough into thirds and roll it out again. This does not have to be perfect, and if the dough cracks it is okay. Repeat the folding process again in the other direction.
- Wrap the dough in cling wrap again and refrigerate for about 20 minutes so that any butter that melted can re solidify.
To make the filling-
- To a pan with a drizzle of a neutral oil, add the diced celery and carrots. Saute over medium heat until the celery begins to become translucent.
- Add in either frozen or canned peas and continue to saute.
- Add the vegetable broth, bay leaves, chicken-less seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Add in the Quorn or other protein of choice and bring to a simmer.
- Cook for about 20 minutes or until the Quorn and carrots are soft. Sprinkle in the flour and mix to thicken the filling.
- Add the half and half or plant milk and remove from heat. Remove the bay leaves.
To assemble the pie-
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and cut the dough in half for the top and bottom layers.
- Roll out half the dough so that it will cover the bottom of the pie pan, and cut off any excess dough from the edges. Poke a few holes in with a fork in the bottom of the pie.
- Add in the filling mixture to the center of the pie.
- Roll out the other half of the dough large enough to cover the top of the pie. Again, cut off the excess dough.
- Use a fork to press down the tow layers of dough and seal the edges of the pie. Cut a few slits in the top for the steam to escape. You can make a design if you want.
- Crack an egg in a bowl and whisk it. Using a brush, cover the top of the pie with the egg wash for a crispy crust.
- Place the pie pan on a baking sheet to avoid a mess if some of the butter melts over the sides of the pie pan. Bake for about 35-40 minutes until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
