The day I've been waiting for is finally here. We've got a vegan pot pie on the blog! Veganizing chicken pot pies has been on my to-do list since we went vegan more than 4 years ago. This isn't quite the rendition I had in mind (I still need to do individual pies with a double pastry crust - Ah! I can't wait!) but this version is less fussy, basically foolproof, and perfect for Thanksgiving.
We start with a rich and hearty vegan stew: lightly seasoned tofu cubes, tender Creamer potatoes (The Little Potato Company's Baby Boomers), cremini mushrooms, carrots, celery, onion and peas in a savoury gravy. Top this filling vegetable stew with fluffy biscuits for the ultimate comfort food. November, we are so ready for you.
The biscuit topping is my Savoury Herb Scones, cut into round biscuits instead of triangles. That recipe has proven itself time and time again to be reliable and delicious. For this particular recipe I used vegan butter instead of coconut oil. Coconut oil is a little harder to work with because it's so sensitive to temperature. Get it a little too warm and it's liquid, a little too cold and it's rock solid. Vegan butter is less temperamental and adds phenomenal flavour. Feel free to swap in coconut oil if you prefer!
This is a great make ahead meal. Once refrigerated it's extremely easy to portion out a big scoop and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it reheats in the microwave. The biscuits remain as soft and fluffy as ever!
This recipe wraps up day 4 of Vegan Mofo 2016. We're loosely sticking to a theme of comfort food for this first week (as per Vegan Mofo's suggested "Treat Yourself (and others!)" weekly theme)
Sticking with the theme, here are some of our other favourite comfort food recipes:
- Creamy Vegan Broccoli Soup (currently our most popular recipe)
- Roasted Vegan Thanksgiving Bowl (#2 most popular)
- Cheesy Vegan Potato Broccoli Casserole
- Tofu Noodle Soup
- Vegan Garlic Alfredo
- Easy 1 Hour Vegan Chili
- Healthy Veggie Lentil Shepherd's Pie
This post is sponsored by The Little Potato Company.
We love them for their commitment to simple, healthy whole foods like their delicious Creamer potatoes. Thanks for supporting the brands that support I Love Vegan!
Learn more about why we love Little Potatoes at www.littlepotatoes.com
Vegetable Pot Pie with Vegan Biscuits
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 9 servings 1x
- Category: Main, Entrée
- Cuisine: Vegan
Description
This hearty vegetable pot pie is loaded with seasoned tofu, potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, celery and onion. The foolproof biscuit topping makes this classic comfort food fuss-free!
Ingredients
Vegetable Stew:
- ¾ 350g package extra-firm tofu, pressed and cubed
- 2 ½ cups vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp vegan butter or olive oil, divided
- 1 strip of tempeh bacon, crumbled
- ½ 227g package (approx. 6) cremini mushrooms, quartered
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 small carrots, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 250g of The Little Potato Company's Baby Boomers (approx. 12 Creamer potatoes), cut into small pieces (smaller than quarters)
- pinch salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ tsp dried marjoram
- ¼ tsp dried savory
- ⅓ cup frozen peas
- ⅔ cup coconut cream
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Vegan Biscuits
- 1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup chilled vegan butter + 1-2 tablespoon melted vegan butter, for topping
- ¾ cup + 1 tbsp unsweetened soymilk
Instructions
Vegetable Stew
- Marinate cubed tofu in 2 ½ cups of vegetable broth and 2 tablespoon soy sauce for at least 1 hour. Reserve leftover marinade.
- In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon vegan butter over medium heat. Add crumbled tempeh bacon and cook, stirring often, until crisp and fragrant. Set tempeh bacon aside and leave any residual butter in the pan.
- Add an additional ½ tablespoon of vegan butter to pan and sauté mushrooms until golden-brown and tender. Set mushrooms aside and leave any residual butter/mushroom broth in the pan.
- Increase heat to medium-high, and add an additional ½ tablespoon butter to the same pan. Add cubed tofu and cook, stirring often, until cubes are golden-brown and crisp on nearly every side. Set tofu aside.
- Add ½ tablespoon butter to the pan and cook onions, celery, and carrots until onion is tender and translucent. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add ¼ cup all-purpose flour and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes.
- Whisk in remaining vegetable broth + soy sauce from the tofu and lemon juice, stirring until gravy is smooth. Add potatoes, reserved tofu, dried marjoram, dried savory, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Bring the stew to a boil before turning down to a low simmer. Stir occasionally and cook for 20 minutes (or until potatoes are fork tender.)
- Discard bay leaf and stir in bacon, mushrooms, peas, coconut cream, and parsley. Bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Transfer to an 8"x8" baking dish.
Vegan Biscuits
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Combine all dry ingredients.
- Add the chilled vegan butter to the dry ingredients. Use your hands to cut the vegan butter into the ingredient mixture. Continue working the vegan butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- Add the soymilk and use a fork to stir the ingredients. Do NOT overmix. As soon as the mixture is just combined, turn it onto a floured kitchen counter. Knead about 8-12 times before rolling out to 1" thick. Cut out 9 2" diameter rounds.
- Top stew with biscuits (3x3). Brush with melted butter and top with a sprinkle of herbs, etc.
- To limit any possible mess, place baking dish on a baking or cookie sheet (in case the stew boils over in the oven.) Bake for 20-25 minutes. Biscuits should be golden brown on top and cooked all the way through.
Notes
For best results, make sure to measure your flour accurately! How to Measure Flour.Vegetable stew adapted from Canadian Living - The Ultimate Chicken and Dumplings.
Carrie
Has anyone made a Gluten Free version of these biscuits? I'm wanting to make this for Thanksgiving but my hubby is GF. I typically use a 1 to 1 flour like Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur. Any feedback from anyone who has done it would be great.
Meghan
WOWzers this turned out Wonderful! I added broccoli & loved it. A new staple dish in my household. I’ve made it for school functions also & had great responses. I’ve used sage instead of savory, & rosemary before as well. Amazing. Thank you. A blessed recipe.
★★★★★
Brittany
Adding broccoli is a great addition! I love broccoli in pot pies 🙂 Thanks for commenting and rating the recipe, I really really appreciate it!! I hope you have a lovely day 🙂 ♥
CChristine
Over 25 minutes and mine didn’t cook all the way through. Pretty disappointing! Not sure why that happened. The part that AAS cooked was quite good though!
★★★★
Brittany
Hmm... That's probably due to a difference in our oven temps. The cook time is a guideline but needs to be adjusted to suit your oven. I would just cook it longer and leave the foil on to not over brown the biscuits.
Heather
I decided I was going to make this for dinner the other night until I realized I needed to marinate the tofu so I held off until I had time. This dish was amazing. Comfort food at its best, so much my husband had several helpings. Followed the recipe to a
T with the exception I used extra firm tofu which worked fine. I doubled the biscuit recipe which I probably didn’t need to do but wanted to make sure I had enough for everyone. My husband declared this to be his favourite vegan dinner.
★★★★★
Brittany
Thank you so much Heather, I'm so glad you and your husband enjoyed the recipe!
Hope
Hi, my husband found this recipe a couple of weeks ago and we decided to make for a thanksgiving potluck tonight! We changed our minds about going out but had all the ingredients so I dove in and made it for us to share. The flavors are divine and would suggest to anyone to follow the exact recipe the first time and tweak it afterwards. It took me a little more prep time and of course the marinading of the tofu added extra time since I didn’t read through the instructions first. Other than that I think I did a great job! Biscuits were perfect and the herbs I topped them with were thyme, rosemary and chives! Thanks for for the recipe. I love tofu- I used super firm. I guess that’s pretty close the extra firm.
★★★★★
Brittany
Thank you for commenting Hope! I'm so glad you and your husband enjoyed the recipe!! It's one of my favourites 😀
Gina
Just got this in time for Thanksgiving 2018-YaY!
Regarding the coconut cream..do I refrigerate the can and scoop off the hard cream? What is the purpose of the coconut cream in the sauce and does it taste coconuty?
Thanks!!
Brittany
Yes Gina, that's exactly what you do. The coconut just adds a little more creaminess, and no, it won't taste coconuty. I always try to be mindful of that in savory recipes. If need be, you can omit it and use unsweetened non-dairy milk or even more vegetable broth!
Joy
This looks amazing! I have a question - if I was to make ahead, would I be cooking the dish in it's entirety then refrigerating? Or would I refrigerate it before I baked it? Thanks in advance; I am SO looking forward to trying this one!
Maia
This looks fantastic! I had a few questions about making this ahead: I noticed that you said that that works well. I am interested in making this for a potluck at my school. However, I will be working that day with no time to stop at home. Luckily, my job has an oven in the break room, and I have a portable anchor hocking bakeware ensemble I can use to transport it and keep it warm. I was thinking I would just pop it in the oven in my last 30 minutes or so of my shift. I am worried about the biscuits getting soggy, though. Is this a concern? Also, what temperature would you recommend for reheating it? Is 30 minutes too long? Thanks!
Brittany
Hi Maia! It's probably not a concern, I didn't find that the biscuits were soggy when I reheated this dish. If you are concerned you could always prep and assemble the pot pie + biscuits and refrigerate it before baking it. Then just freshly bake it for 30 minutes or so at the school. If you do decide to precook and reheat I'd cook it at about 350F and for about 20-30 minutes (do you have a temperature probe? If so, reheat till the center is about 160F.)
Maia
Re-heating worked out well! The pot pie was almost all gone by the end of the potluck I took it to last night. I will definitely be making it again, but I think I'll leave out the coconut cream. Thanks for putting this together!
pdurgin01
We made this tonight as written, except :
- halved the amount of coconut cream... I was worried about an overly coconut-ty flavor, so cut it to 1/3 cup
- used Trader Joe's vegan "chicken" strips instead of the tofu
It turned out absolutely delicious, even with my mixed (1 vegan, 1 vegetarian, and 2 picky omnivores) family. Thank you for a great recipe!
★★★★★
Brittany
Thanks for commenting! I bet the TJ's chicken strips were a delicious sub 😀
Peggie
Is there a good GF biscuit recipe for this... it looks delish!!
Brittany
I'm not familiar with gluten free baking (yet!) but you could try this recipe with one a 1:1 GF baking flour.
Rhonda
This sounds delicious! But where do I find tempeh bacon?
Brittany
Many of our local grocery stores carry tempeh bacon. It's usually in the produce department or natural food aisle. You could try the store locators from Tofurky or Lightlife to see if either of those brands are available in your area. They both make delicious tempeh bacon! Do you know if you have tempeh in your area? You can always make your own tempeh bacon! We've got a recipe or you can search online. I hope that helps Rhonda!
Jared @ thehesitantchef.com
One of my all time favourite dishes growing up was my Mom's Chicken and Dumplings. This recipe reminds me of that dish, only vegan. It looks wonderful and makes me remember some good memories!
Brittany
That's wonderful Jared! I'm so glad this recipe could help bring back some good memories 😀
Dana
Oh boy, Brittany. This looks *so* comforting and filling and perfect. I've been meaning to try my hand at a vegetable pot pie, because I loved chicken pot pie growing up. This is definitely acting as huge inspo.
Brittany
Thank you so much Dana! I'd LOVE to see your version of a vegetable pot pie, I know it would be divine!
Colleen Milne
This looks like a delicious & comforting dish, Brittany. I love the gravy and the biscuits look melt in your mouth.
Brittany
Thank you very much Colleen! The biscuits are definitely of the "melt-in-your-mouth" variety.
Dr. Kimberley | Healthy Life Redesign
These look pretty darn tasty Brittany! Your gravy looks absolutely outstanding!
Brittany
Thank you so much!
Jenny
This looks perfect for autumn/winter, and so delicious! The biscuits/scones on top look just perfect. I might have to give this a try!
Brittany
Thank you so much Jenny! If you try it, I hope you love it 😀
Cheryl
Wow, this looks amazing. I can almost taste those savory flavours and variety of textures in that delicious looking sauce. This is going to become a new favourite--thank you ILV---you make life simply delicious!
★★★★★
Brittany
Thank you so much Cheryl! Comments like these make this work so rewarding 😀