I’ve never been a big fan of chicken-pot-pie, so I wasn’t expecting to like a veggie alternative very much. This recipe, adapted from Minimalist Baker, is not the fastest recipe to make – you have to prepare the filling then prepare the dough – but it’s still easy and doesn’t require that many ingredients. You can replace the biscuits I use with whatever biscuit recipe you prefer, but I like this one because it has a good bready-biscuit consistency that I think works well with the veggie filling.

Ingredients:

Servings: roughly 4-5 ramekins or one large casserole pan (enough for 5-6ish adults, or more if you’re including other sides)

Notes: To make enough for an entire casserole pan (as seen in my pictures) you need to triple the filling and double the biscuits. You can also use your own biscuit or crust recipe – the recipe below is to make the ones from the original site. I like them because they’re easy.

For the filling:

• ¾ cup chopped yellow onion (~½ medium onion)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced (or about ¾ tsp. pre-minced garlic from a jar)
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (like Pacific Foods broth, which I find at Kroger)
• about 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables (corn, green beans, carrots)
• ¼ cup unsweetened unflavored almond milk (or other plant-based milk)
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 bay leaves
• sea salt and black pepper (to taste)
  
• Optional: diced celery, diced potato

For the biscuits:

• ½ to 1 cup unsweetened unflavored almond milk (or other plant-based milk)
• 1 tbs. lemon juice
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tbs. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ¾ tsp. sea salt
• 4 tbs. unsweetened applesauce (you could also experiment with an egg-replacer, like EnerG or The NeatEgg)

Directions:

You can preheat your oven to 425°F now, but I’d recommend waiting to start your oven until you’re ready to start working on the biscuits. Otherwise you’ll have your oven running for 20 minutes before you’re ready to use it. 

Saute the onion and garlic over medium heat until the onion is soft – approx. 7 minutes. Add several shakes of salt and pepper.

Sift the whole wheat flour over the onion and whisk it together with the onion, then slowly whisk in the broth.

Add the almond milk and bay leaves. Stir and simmer until it’s thickened, about 10 minutes. If it’s still too thin add 1-2 tbs. more of the whole wheat flour (I’ve never needed to, but add it if you want the broth much thicker).

While the sauce thickens prepare your biscuits. If you have not yet done so, preheat your oven to 425°F. It’ll be good to go by the time you’re ready to put the pot pie in.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients. Add the applesauce and combine until mostly mixed. Pour in the almond milk ¼ cup at a time, stirring until just slightly combined. The dough will be very sticky. Set aside.

Once the sauce is thickened do a taste-test and see if you want to add more sea salt or black pepper. I usually put a fair amount of pepper in mine!

Add the frozen vegetables and cook another 5 minutes, then discard the bay leaves.

If you’re using ramekins, divide the mixture evenly between them. If you’re using a casserole dish, carefully scoop or pour the veggie broth into the pan. 

The biscuit dough is very sticky so it’s difficult to get “pretty” biscuit-shaped biscuits. I recommend dusting your hands with flour, grabbing a biscuit-sized glob of dough from the bowl, and roughly forming it into a ball the best you can. Plop the dough ball on top of the veggie broth. Repeat for each ramekin.

If you’re using a casserole dish or other larger pan, you can choose to make “biscuit-balls” and spread them over the top of the filling, or just put blobs of dough everywhere, roughly covering the top. I really didn’t care if my pot pie turned out pretty so I threw on globs of dough.

For ramekins: Place them on a baking sheet before putting them in the oven – this will prevent a mess from spilling or boiling over. Bake them for about 17-20 minutes, until the biscuits are a golden brown and the filling is bubbling. It’s better to err on the side of having them overdone than undercooked or else you’ll have uncooked biscuit dough goop.

For a baking dish: Cook for about 23-25 minutes. As I said above, it’s better to err on the side of having the pot pie be overdone than undercooked. Keep it in longer if you don’t think the biscuits are browned up enough, or don’t seem to be completely cooked. You can use a spoon to scoop up a corner of the dough to see if there’s still a lot of uncooked dough hiding under the surface.

Allow the pot pie to cool for about 5 minutes before serving. This scoops out very easily – the bread doesn’t bake together as a crunchy or thick layer. It refrigerates well and is great as leftovers!