It's officially fall and as the leaves have started to turn and fall I've started to crave comfort foods. Especially now that I can use an oven without turning my kitchen into a sauna. While fall food cravings aren't new to me, I'm prioritizing making being active and losing weight this fall so a big part of my search for hearty fall meals has meant being on the look out for dishes that are relatively healthy and portion controlled. Bonus points if they're easy to freeze so I can make them during the week.

These pot pies come through on all counts! They're packed with veggies, freeze well and are only ~500 calories per pie. In my books that makes it a perfect fall recipe. The trick is they only have pastry on the top, so you have a great flaky crust without all the calories and they use an ingenius bean, rosemary, and vegetable stock puree instead of a gravy. Bonus points for a recipe that makes you feel incredibly clever in your kitchen! This could win over the pickiest eaters.

Healthy & Hearty Vegetarian Pot Pies

adapted from Green Lemonade

Grab…

1 can (15 ounce) white beans, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped
2 tablespoons organic butter (or earth balance, if you're vegan)
1/4 cup vegetable stock + extra
1/4 yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, washed, trimmed, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 medium yam, washed, trimmed, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 medium white potato, washed, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1/2 red pepper, washed, cored, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1/2 broccoli floret, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cauliflower floret, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 pastry sheet, room temperature and brushed lightly with butter (or make your own)
sea salt and pepper

Ok!

1. Pre-heat oven to 425F degrees.
2. Combine white beans and rosemary in a food processor with vegetable stock. Purée until smooth and creamy. Add vegetable stock until it reaches your desired “gravy” thickness. This is your finished gravy. Set aside. If you don't have a food processor: Add the 1/4 C of vegetable stock first, and pulse to combine. Add more stock immediately if your blender isn't making much progress, it needs liquid to do its thing :)
3. Heat butter in a large saucepan. Cook onion and carrots in butter for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add potato, yam, cauliflower and broccoli. Sauté until vegetables are just slightly cooked and the edges are slightly brown. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Divide the roasted vegetables between two small bowls. Pour white bean and rosemary gravy evenly between the two bowls.
5. Take the pastry sheet and lay half of the sheet across the veggie bowls. Tuck the edges over the bowl, or press down and lightly push against the edge of the bowl to finish.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the crust is brown.

Prep & Freezing Tips

+ I bake these in small Pyrex glass bowls, and make a bowl bumper out of folded tea clothes. They fit perfectly inside a dinner bowl with the tea towels & made the hot glass easy to handle (see below)

+ You can mix and match as many vegetable combinations as you like! Just try to keep the volume of veggies about the same to make sure you have enough gravy. I estimate there are about 5 cups of veggies total, but you can always double the gravy or make an extra bowl if you go overboard.

+ To make ahead, prep and cook the veggies, then allow them to cool to room temperature. Divide 1 cup portions into zip storage bags, and freeze. Make the “gravy”, then pour and freeze in ice-cube trays. You can also pre-cut the pastry sheets into rounds, wrap individually in plastic and foil, and freeze.  On the day you'd like to enjoy them, defrost in your fridge and allow the pastry rounds to start returning to room temperature while your oven pre-heats.