I find vegan pastry particularly hard to master without the use of vegetable shortening, vegan margarine and the like. I stay away from these ingredients, and an oil-based crust can be a tricky, messy beast. I skip the whole thing here and just slice sweet and regular potatoes into thin coins, fan them out on top of this vegetable and bean pot pie and roast them until crispy and crust-like. The result has all of the effect of a traditional pot pie with much less effort.
Ingredients
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 medium yellow onion, small dice
1 medium carrot, small dice
1 stalk celery, small dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp minced fresh rosemary (about 1 sprig)
1 tsp tomato paste
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans, like navy, cannellini or butter beans
2 Tbsp dry white wine
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 Tbsp whole spelt flour
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 medium sweet potato or 6 to 7 mini new potatoes, thinly sliced, or a mixture
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F. Place 5 ramekins or ovenproof dishes with 1 cup capacity on a baking sheet and set aside.
Heat half the olive oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onions, carrots and celery, and sauté until onions are slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary and tomato paste, and stir. Add zucchini and white beans to pot. Stir to combine. Pour in white wine, and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Season stew with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle spelt flour over vegetables and beans. Stir until flour is moistened and is starting to get slightly pasty. Pour in vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes.
Divide stew among the 5 ramekins. Arrange sweet potato slices on top of ramekins in a fan or layered pattern. This will form your top crust. Gently brush the sweet potato slices with remaining oil. Season crusts with salt and pepper.
Slide pot pies into the oven, and bake until the filling is bubbling and the sweet potato slices are tender and lightly browned on the edges, about 30 to 35 minutes.
Serve the pot pies hot.
