Vegetable Pot Pie

This recipe has been somewhat modified from The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook. The mushrooms were doubled, swiss chard was replaced with kale (which I find less bitter, and which we have in abundance), and the turnip -- difficult to find here -- was replaced with a rutabaga. The latter required some adjustment to the cooking time, since it turns out that rutabagas cook much more slowly than turnips do; we ended up having to disassemble the first pie, remove the rutabaga chunks for more cooking, and then return them and reassemble it.

The original recipe calls for a deep-dish pie plate, and is not kidding about it. If you don't have one (as we don't), buy or make two top-crusts and bake two shallow pies. If you only have one pie plate, you can keep half the pie filling in the fridge for a day or two while you eat the first pie.

Ingredients

• 1 pie top crust
• 60mL unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 500g cremini mushrooms, quartered (or halved if small)
• salt and pepper
• 350g sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
• 250g rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3mL grated lemon zest
• 15mL lemon juice
• 250g black kale, stemmed and sliced into 2cm pieces
• 30mL all-purpose flour
• 500mL vegetable broth
• 125mL freshly grated parmesan
• 30mL fresh parsley, grated
• 1 large egg (or two small ones)
• water

Procedure

1. Melt 30mL butter in a dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Add onions, mushrooms, and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms release their liquid, ~5 minutes.
3. Add sweet potato and rutabaga. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until fork tender, 1-2 hours. (The original recipe calls for cooking "until potato and turnips begin to soften around the edges", but if you do this with rutabaga it will still be "soft around the edges" and rock hard in the middle when it comes out of the oven. Doing it this way runs the risk of slightly overcooking the rutabaga and sweet potato, but both are highly tolerant of overcooking and completely unforgiving of undercooking.)
4. Meanwhile, roll out the crust and cut four vent slits in it. As the filling approaches tenderness, preheat the oven to 400°F.
5. Once the sweet potato and rutabaga are fork tender, stir in the garlic and lemon zest and cook until fragrant, ~30 seconds.
6. Stir in kale and cook until wilted, ~2 minutes; remove and buffer in a bowl.
7. Melt remaining 30mL butter in the now-empty pot over medium-high heat.
8. Stir in flour and cook for one minute to  make a roux.
9. Gradually whisk in broth, deglaze, and simmer until it thickens slightly, 1-2 minutes.
10. Remove from heat and whisk in parmesan, parsley, and lemon juice.
11. Stir in cooked vegetables and any accumulated juices, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
12. Pour filling into a deep dish 9" pie plate, top with crust, and bake for 30 minutes, until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling.