Quick Tofu Pot Pie

To universal acclaim (all five family members liked it) last night's TOFU POT PIE made its way to the table in just about an hour, using only one skillet and one deep dish casserole in the process. That's a good thing, as I didn't get around to starting it until after seven. This streamlined version was based on the Farm Cookbook (a good compendium of family favorites, which, if you ignore and change their use of white flour and white sugar, is completely vegan-friendly), but combined several processes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mine takes about twenty minutes to preheat, which, if you are efficient, should be long enough to prepare the dish for the oven.
ingredients
1 block--cubed extra firm tofu

flour mixture to coat tofu
1/4 cup--whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 cup--nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tsp--garlic and/or onion powder
1/2 tsp--turmeric
sprinkles of--salt and black pepper

filling
1 Tbl--olive oil, plus more if you want
1--chopped onion
1--minced carrot
1/3 cup--whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup--nutritional yeast
1 Tbl--tamari soy sauce
1 each can or 1 each bag frozen--peas and green beans
1 sprinkle--celery seed
optional--cubed potato, celery, broccoli, mushroom, sweet peppers, corn, chopped greens--but not all at once
1/4 tsp--Smoky Serrano hot sauce
2 cups water

crust
1 cup--whole wheat pastry flour
sprinkle--salt
1/4 cup--olive oil
1/8 cup or so--water: enough to make it into soft pliable dough to roll or pat out

In the casserole mix about a quarter cup of whole wheat pastry flour with an eighth cup of nutritional yeast and half a teaspoon of garlic powder, and maybe some onion powder, but not necessarily, if you are adding onion later. 

A sprinkle of black pepper and a half teaspoon of turmeric (just because I like to use it every day) are stirred in, along with a sprinkle of salt, and then a block of extra firm tofu which has been cut into small cubes (cut once across through the middle, sideways, and then five times down in both directions from the top) can be stirred around in the flour mix, coating the cubes. 

In a deep skillet in a tablespoon of olive oil, saute the breaded tofu cubes.

Chop an onion and add it to the tofu.

Mince a carrot and add it to the tofu.

At this point you could have made a separate gravy, but I just combined everything in the one skillet, saving steps and figuring it was all going to end up in the same place anyway.

Add a third cup more of whole wheat pastry flour and a third cup of nutritional yeast along with a tablespoon of tamari soy sauce to the tofu mixture. If it is too dry looking, you could add another dash of olive oil. Mix it all around, browning the flour just a little.

Open a can of peas and a can of green beans (both found in organic versions in my supermarket), draining them, before adding them to the tofu mix.

Sprinkle a little celery seed into the mix.

These vegetables could be adapted to what you have on hand or what you like. This is just what I did last night. Cubed potatoes, celery, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, corn, chopped greens—any of these might be good another time, just not all at the same time.

I added about one quarter a teaspoon of smoky Serrano hot sauce to my mix, though this certainly wasn't necessary to a traditional pot pie. Still, I liked the flavor it brought to the meal.

Gradually add two cups of water, transforming the tofu mix into a mix of tofu and vegetables in a gravy. It will take a few minutes to thicken and start to look yummy.

Meanwhile, back in the casserole, without cleaning it I added a cup or so of whole wheat pastry flour and a sprinkle of salt, about a quarter cup of olive oil, mixing it together into small lumps, and then enough water to make a dough. My dough was quite soft and even a little sticky, because I was just going to flatten it out, like a tortilla, in my hands.

I took the dough lump out of the casserole, and, still not cleaning it out, added the entire tofu-vegetable -gravy mix to the casserole dish.

I flattened out the dough ball to approximately the size of the top of the dish and laid it on top of the mixture. I pricked it with a fork in a couple of places. You could go to the trouble of rolling out a real pastry crust, or even make a two crust pie, but none of that is necessary. It will still taste delicious and look like you slaved over it.

By now the oven was hot enough, so I popped the pot pie in and set the timer for about forty to forty-five minutes (depending on the depth of your casserole and the hotness of your oven). We were eating it by twenty past eight, which is an hour and ten minutes, but then, I hadn't preheated my oven in time, like I am advising you to do. This will definitely become a winter regular on our menu, now that I realize I can do it so quickly and with fewer steps.