Chickpea Potpie

Way back in the early days of my blog I posted this potpie recipe, which was good, but not great. I loved Marie Callender’s chicken potpies growing up and I really wanted to recreate that texture and flavour.

My father-in-law is allergic to nuts and soy (with the exception of soy oil, such as Crisco), so I wanted to not just make my potpie better, I wanted to make it better and be something he could eat.

Someone suggested an oat-milk-based bechamel sauce. So we’ll start this recipe with how I made the oat milk. Keep in mind the oats soak overnight, so this requires a little bit of planning ahead.

This makes a single 9″ potpie.

To make the oat milk:
Soak 1 c oats in 5 c water overnight.

Add 1/16 tsp salt in the morning.

Blend for a couple minutes and then strain.

I’m fresh out of cheesecloth, so I used a really classy nylon strainer. (Don’t worry, it’s a clean nylon. I think.)

In a saucepan stir together: 
6 T oil (I used half olive, half canola)
2 small carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1/2 c onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped

Sauté carrots, celery, onion, and garlic in the oil about 2 minutes.

Add:
6T unbleached flour
1 T mock chicken seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme

Sauté 2 more minutes and remove from heat.

Add 3 c oat milk very gradually, stirring thoroughly to prevent lumpage. Stir constantly over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat again. Add in:

3 c cooked garbanzo beans, thoroughly drained
3/4 c frozen peas
3/4 c frozen corn

Allow to sit while preparing the pie crust. Preheat oven to 425.

***

Pie Crust
(note: minus the thyme, this pastry can be used for fruit pies)
(note 2: you can really use any pastry recipe, just add the thyme! If you can’t have soy of any stripe, I highly recommend Isa’s olive oil crust from Vegan Pie in the Sky.)

2/3 cup + 2T shortening
1 1/2 c white flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
4-5 T cold water

Cut shortening into flour mixture until it resembles little peas. Add 1T water at a time, tossing with a fork, just until flour is moistened. Divide pastry evenly in two, shape each lump into a round and roll out on lightly floured board until circle is 2″ larger than pie pan. Press lower crust into pan. Add filling to pie and repeat rolling process with second lump of pastry to cover the pie. Or you can cut out shapes.

I made wedges out of my top crust.

Cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake another 20 minutes. It should be golden and bubbling.

This potpie was amazing. Today we had it with mashed potatoes, but it would also be amazing with rice (which is how I grew up eating potpie). And it was so good. I finally nailed the taste and texture I wanted. I definitely want to make this more often now.

Part of today’s Thanksgiving repast. We also had cranberry sauce, roasted vegetable stuffing, gravy, and two kinds of apple pie.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Stay tuned, because in the next week or so I have a holiday giveaway coming up.