My, Oh My, My Vegetable Pie

This Harvest Root Pie recipe from The Front Burner was way too easy to be so good. I saved a lot of time cooking in the evening because I peeled my veggies while the preschool kids were sleeping. And my biggest cheat of all:

I bought a pre-made pie crust from Whole Paycheck.

The middle layer (start this prep first):

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a baking dish, add 5 cups of cubed vegetables (I used ½ of a butternut squash, 4 small beets, 3 medium carrots). Coat lightly in olive oil and roast for 30-40 minutes, stirring once halfway through.

The first layer (start this layer while the middle layer roasts and the top layer steams):

In a small bit of olive oil, sautee 1-2 shallots and 2-4 cloves of garlic. When they are slightly browned, add 4 cups of sliced crimini mushrooms. Cook through until they are nice and dark and shiny, then add ½ cup veggie broth. Cook until the liquid is almost gone.

The top layer (start chopping and steaming once the veggies are roasting):

Steam two large sweet potatoes. When they are very tender (10-15 minutes), mix them with ½ almond milk and a tablespoon of vegan margarine. (This can probably be omitted). Mix on medium-high until fluffy.

Add mushroom layer, and then veggie layer, and then spread sweet potato layer on top, and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Halfway through, take out the pie and add almonds and sprinkles of cinnamon on top. If pie cooks sooner, then broil to brown the top slightly. (Here's my pie with my favorite kitchen gadget...the nut chopper/grinder).

Done!

I used the quantities from the recipe, but that produced more than my pie crust could hold. I ended up using only about 2/3 of each of the ingredients. So I made another pie…a pizza pie! The only thing I added was apple slices and thyme sprinkled on top. Everything else was a mere re-construction of the pie ingredients.

My, Oh My, a Pizza Pie!

I was stuffed full of vegetable pie, but I had a slice of this anyway (I baked it for tomorrow's lunch). Yum! The gluten-free crust actually was quite delicious.