Dinner Part I- In Which I Decide to Marry a Potpie

Dinner tonight was epic. For the main dish, I made Cauliflower and Mushroom Potpie with Black Olive Crust from the old standby, "Veganomicon". Full disclosure- from start to finish, between this guy and the side I made, I was in the kitchen for 3 hours. BUT! Wait! Don't run off crying. Bear in mind this includes washing and cleaning and cutting and peeling loads of veggies, and you make a sauce and a biscuit crust from scratch. The point is, it is worth it. Worthitworthitworthit. Just trust me, this recipe alone is worth checking out and or buying this cookbook. Let's see what went down...



First you make a sauce- a naughty sauce, with 3 TBSP of Earth Balance (or butter if you prefer). Flour is browned in the Earth Balance until it's sizzling, then a milk sub (I used no sugar added almond milk)and marjoram, thyme, tarragon, mustard powder, and salt are whisked in. This gets thick and creamy, and smelled and tasted divine. I could have stopped right there and just had that in a glass for dinner, but there were two more elements to make.


A made from scratch biscuit crust with chopped olives and thyme added. I don't own a rolling pin, so I just smooshed it out with my fingers and it worked just fine.


A bit out of order, but I made the biscuit crust while this portion was steaming- leeks, carrots, and mushrooms are sauteed in olive oil and garlic, and then you dump in a pile of cauliflower to steam. Then you run over to the other side of the kitchen and are grateful you mixed the dry ingredients of the biscuits first, because getting them together while the cauliflower steams is much easier this way.

Now it's time to combine these wonderful things into an exponentially wonderful thing. Dump the creamy sauce on top of the veggies and give it a good mix. Again, fight the urge to just stop right there and eat them straight from the pot.

Slice up the biscuits haphazardly, ignoring the advice to cut into diamonds- this is what I mean by "Veganomicon" being a bit fussy. I went for the rustic look, and it worked just fine :)

Dump the veggie/sauce mixture into a baking pan, and then lay the biscuit strips on top, covering the top. All of this goes into the oven. While it cooked, I made the side, which gets its own post because Blogger is hell bent on making me lose my mind with it's sadistic photo uploading methods. But, another topic for another time.

The potpie came out bubbling and crumbly. And it was glorious. Everything about it was great.

Creamy, hearty, complex spice profile, and really good biscuits holdin' it all down. Make this. Please. I can't come to your house and do it for you, so you just have to trust me.