The Vegan Mouse: The Quintessential Comfort Food.

Back in my pre-vegan days I used to make a quick chicken pot pie from a store bought chicken, frozen pie crust, frozen vegetables and a can of cream of potato soup. Not anymore. Today's pot pie was a realization of all the fresh vegetables that I had available. It was also a result of last night's french onion soup leftovers. You see, I was already thinking "gravy" while I supped on the rich and delicious soup. What better way to utilize gravy than in a vegetable pot pie recipe? No need for those condensed and canned soups. I was going for a gravy that was rich and creamy with the flavors and aroma of caramelized onions, miso and red wine (ingredients that were in the soup). Something that would give the vegetables intense flavor. I think I succeeded.

What I did was this. I strained the broth from the onion soup and made a roux with Earth Balance margarine and flour. Then I stirred in the broth and whisked and whisked until it thickened. Then I added plain soymilk little by little while I whisked and let it simmer. I chopped some of the caramelized soup onions and put them in there too. A dash of salt and pepper later and I had my gravy. The filling was all about chopping and dicing: potatoes, broccoli, spinach, green beans, carrots, mushrooms and (frozen) corn. I cooked them over heat with a little water to soften the potatoes and then combined the mixture with the gravy. Then I poured it into the pie crust and covered it with a very lazy top pie crust and baked it for 40 minutes. I say lazy because I used an oil based pie crust which I think lacks the butteryness and that something something that traditional pie crusts have. I could have made one with margarine or shortening to get that flavor/texture but like I said, I was too lazy. But no matter, the pie turned out beautiful. Don't you think? No not really. It's a very home made lookin' pie and for what it lacks in beauty, the taste makes up for it all the more.