Almost Vegan Homemade Vegetable Pot Pie

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This (almost vegan) veggie pot pie is a favorite dinner recipe of mine and is not difficult at all to make. The recipe can also easily be altered to be a chicken pot pie. It’s a great dinner recipe if you have vegetables laying around that need to be used up.

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The weather has been very warm lately especially considering our area which has been great! Over the past few days however, we’ve had gloomy overcast skies, thunder storms and rain. I don’t know about you guys but whenever it gets gloomy like this I immediately go into lazy day mode and crave comfort food.

Nothing says comfort food like a made from scratch homemade pot pie!

Note: This is a veggie pot pie recipe but you could easily add chicken or any meat of choice if you wanted no problem.

How to Follow this Pot Pie Recipe

Since this will be my first food recipe post so it’s not going to be as structured as you’d probably find at food blogs but you’ll still be able to easily follow along to make your own vegetable pot pie.

If you’re looking for more vegan and vegetarian meal ideas I have a dedicated Pinterest board you can find HERE.

When it comes to cooking I tend to deviate from recipes and view them generally as a loose guide. Taking this approach allows me to substitute things like switching out one vegetable for another that I have on hand and adding herbs that I love that weren’t originally included.

Which makes this homemade veggie pot pie recipe a great option if you have vegetables laying around that need to get used up but you’re not quite sure what to do with them.

I encourage you guys to do the same and improvise a bit with this vegetable pot pie recipe. If you don’t have broccoli on hand use canned corn, or green beans instead.

Making Pie Dough from Scratch

The one exception I have to this loose cooking style method is baking.

Since I’m not an expert baker I pretty much follow the measurements and instructions down to the last detail. Baking is a lot like chemistry in my opinion and can easily go wrong with the slightest deviation. 

Since this is a made from scratch pot pie recipe you’ll be making your own crust as well. I recommend following that pretty closely. However, if you don’t want to go to the trouble of making your own crust you can just use store-bought, and that works fine too.

I’ve made this vegetable pot pie multiple times now and this crust recipe is delicious. It comes out flaky and buttery, the perfect pot pie crust. And it’s not complicated to make. 

Note: I use vegan butter in this recipe but I have used regular butter in the past and that works great too.

I used to avoid any recipe that involved making dough because it always looked like a complicated and long process. 

However, I’ve found myself cooking more food recently that requires making dough and I can tell you the process is pretty simple.

The worst part is the chilling time that often requires at least a couple of hours. I’m also not a fan of the mixing and kneading because I don’t have an electric mixer so I have to do it all by hand but if you’re like most people and have one that’s not even a concern of yours. 

If you don’t have an electric mixer like me you can always ask someone with some muscle power to lend a hand like I do 😉

Making Mini Pot Pies

The last thing I’ll say is that you might end up with a little extra filling and dough leftover, but not quite enough to make a whole second one depending on the size of the dish you used.

The first time I made this I had enough to make 2 whole vegetable pot pies, but for whatever reason this last time around I had just a little extra.

If this is your case too, you can do what I did and make mini vegetable pot pies in some cupcake tins to use it all up. I even added some decorative leaves on top and they turned out sooo adorable. I wish I would have done this for my large pie.

Alright let’s get down to it!

Detailed Pie Dough Crust Instructions

First preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Like I mentioned a lot of dough has to chill for a while and this dough is no exception so we’ll get that started first. 

Use a food processor if you have one to combine ingredients. This is the recommended method.

If you don’t have one don’t worry.

You can still make this crust dough consistency will look slightly different. If you’re using a food processor the dough will look dry and more chunky, but if you mix by hand the dough will look significantly more wet and will require a bit more flour. This is a result of the butter.

The butter gets melted if you mix by hand giving the dough a wet and sticky consistency but ideally when using a food processor the butter stays cold and leaves sporadic small butter chunks in the dough.

Either way the crust will turn out great.

In your processor or large bowl mix together the dry ingredients; the flour, sugar, and salt. Next, divide the butter into several slices slightly smaller than tablespoon portions. 

Toss in about ⅓ of the divided butter sticks at a time pulsing the processor or mixing by hand as you go. Pulse or mix together until the butter is evenly combined with the dry ingredients. If using a food processor transfer your dough to a bowl. 

An Important Note on Pie Dough Preparation

Next add your water and knead dough into a ball. At this point if you’ve mixed the dough by hand you might notice the dough has more of a batter consistency and is very sticky.

If this is the case, start with ¼ cup of flour at a time and slowly add a bit of flour to the bowl, mix and add flour until the dough is able to be shaped into a ball.

You’ll have to be able to roll out your pie dough and form it in your baking dish so it needs to be workable not too sticky but some stickiness is fine.

If you’re using a food processor DO NOT add any more water. The dough will seem dry and flaky but leave it that way.

Wrap your pie dough ball in saran wrap, and stick it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.

Detailed Pot Pie Filling Instructions

While the dough is chilling, put a large pot of water on to boil. Once your water is boiling add your diced potatoes to the pot and boil for 20 or 30 seconds and then remove from heat, drain and set aside.

Warm a skillet with olive oil on medium high heat and first add your onion. Cook it until translucent. Next add in your carrot, and celery and cook until soft. I had some leftover gourmet mushrooms that needed to be used so I tossed those in too. 

Next mix in your remaining ¼ cup of flour, and vegetable stock. 

Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until the mixture starts to thicken, stirring frequently. The mixture should have a similar consistency of a thick soup such as split pea, or cream of mushroom.

During this time add your salt and pepper and any other spices you’d like. I like to use fresh thyme and sage and other herbs when I have them but this time I didn’t so I threw in about ¼ to a ½ tsp of dried thyme and sage. I also sprinkled in garlic powder, cumin, and some italian herbs.

This is where I tend to deviate a little from the recipe.

I love herbs and find a lot of recipes a bit bland so I normally always incorporate more. But play around with your mixture until it smells good to you. 

When filling has reached the right thickness remove from heat and add in your potatoes, broccoli, and peas.

Prepare Your Chilled Pie Dough

When your dough has chilled for 2 hours you can then remove it from the fridge. Dust your clean countertop with flour.

You’re now going to roll out your pie dough, divide your dough, and form into 2 separate balls one should be slightly larger than the other. 

Take your larger dough ball and start rolling it out into a flat even disk. As you roll the dough out the edges might start to crack. It is ok to have a couple of small cracks around the edges but you want the dough to be as crackless as possible. 

If there are too many cracks reform into a ball and start over. Your pie disk will be rolled out enough when it can lay in your dish so that the dough edges cover the edge of the baking dish. 

Make sure there are no holes when placing your bottom pie dough into your pie dish. After your dish is lined with dough you can now add in your filling.

Roll out your second dough ball repeating the earlier process. This time the dough only needs to be large enough to cover the pie filling. 

Seal Your Pie Properly

To seal your pie you can fold the bottom layer of dough over the top layer. Or you can lightly pinch your two dough layers together to seal your pie all the way around, and use a butter knife to trim off the excess dough around the edges.

The excess dough is what you can use to make your mini vegetable pot pies if you have leftover filling.

Whenever I trim off the edges of my pie dough my mind immediately jumps to the scene in the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when Snow White is in the cottage baking a pie for her dwarfs and singing to her forest friends haha 🙂 

Make an egg wash and very lightly brush the top of your pie crust with the egg wash. An egg wash sounds fancy but it’s really just whisked uncooked eggs used to keep the dough from burning. 

The egg wash is why I call it an ALMOST vegan pot pie recipe.

Last, cut a slit in the middle of your pie top about an inch or 2 to allow venting. 

Baking Your Veggie Pot Pie

Place in the oven, and set a timer for 25-30 minutes. Check the pie around the 25-minute mark and bake a few minutes more or take the pot pie out depending on the look of the crust. The crust should be a nice golden brown and look slightly crispy. 

If you notice the top is a bit doughy still leave it in longer checking frequently. You want the crust to be golden brown but not burnt or dark brown.

If you don’t eat it all right away, cover with foil and keep in the fridge. To re-heat, heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30 or so minutes with the foil still on then remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the crust becomes crisp again.

Homemade Vegetable Pot Pie

This homemade vegetable pot pie recipe should feed a healthy 6 to 8 servings with the possibility of a few mini pot pies depending on the amount of vegetables you choose to add to the filling.

Pie Dough Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour + flour for dusting counter (if mixing by hand additional ¼ cup or more may be needed )
• 3 tbls. Sugar
• 20 tbsp. vegan butter divided salted or unsalted (yes it’s a lot of butter, trust me it’s worth it! Try not to think about it.)
• 5 tbls of cold water (possibly less if mixing by hand)
• 1 or 2 eggs for egg wash

Pie Filling Ingredients

Dough Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix together dry ingredients for pie dough; flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor or large bowl.
3. Slowly and in intervals add cold divided butter to dry ingredients until evenly combined.
4. If you’re using a food processor, move dough to a large bowl.
5. Add cold water to dough and form dough into a ball. If you’ve been mixing by hand you may need to use less water.
6. Wrap in saran wrap or cover and let dough chill in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Pie Filling Instructions

1. While the dough is chilling, prepare pot pie filling.
2. In a large pot boil water.
3. Add diced potatoes to boiling water for 20 to 30 seconds, then drain and set aside.
4. Heat a large skillet to medium high heat with olive oil.
5. Add chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent.
6. Add in carrots and celery, and cook until soft.
7. Stir in ¼ cup of flour until combined, then add in vegetable stock.
8. Bring stock to a boil and allow filling mixture to thicken to a thick soup consistency.
9. Stir often while thickening. Add in desired spices at this point as well.
10. When the mixture has thickened, remove from heat.
11. Gently add in potatoes, and peas and/or other substituted vegetables.
12. Set pot pie filling aside for now.
13. After 2 hours remove pie dough from the fridge and divide dough into 2 separate dough balls. One dough ball should be slightly larger than the other.
14. Dust your cleach counter top with flour. Starting with the larger dough ball roll the dough into a flat circular disk. Try your best to have as few cracks on dough edges as possible.
15. If cracks form roll dough back into a ball and start over.
16. Gently take rolled dough and mold it around the inside of your baking dish leaving excess around the edges.
17. Add filling to your dough lined dish.
18. Repeat the process as earlier for the second dough ball. The dough needs to be able to cover the top of the filling, but there does not need to be excess.
19. Fold over the bottom layer of dough or trim off excess and gently press together layers to seal the edges all the way around.
20. Cut a slit 1-2 inches long on the top of the crust to allow venting.
21. Gently brush the top of the pie dough with your egg wash.
22. Place your pot pie in the oven and set a timer for 25-30 minutes.
23. Check your pie around the 25 minute mark. Your pie will be ready to come out of the oven when the top of the crust is a golden brown color.

I hope you guys enjoy this vegetarian pot pie recipe (almost vegan pot pie recipe). 

I love to make this on gloomy days, especially in the fall or around the holidays, it’s a great comfort food. 

If you try this recipe out I’d love to hear how your pot pies turned out in the comments below! You can also connect with me on Instagram, Facebook @heatherpaigeblog, Pinterest @Heather_Paige_Blog, or Twitter @Heather_P_Blog.

If you’re looking for more vegan or vegetarian meal recipes check out my vegetarian & vegan recipe inspiration board on Pinterest! 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I want to thank you for all your support even if this is your first visit, you can’t imagine what it means to me. 🙂