Homemade Veggie Pot Pie

Awhile ago I was visiting a young friend during lunch time and she was eating an Amy's pot pie.   She told me she loved that kind because of the cheesy sauce in with the veggies and so, of course, I had to try making something similar - it really did look delicious.  Pot pies are, to me, an ultimate in comfort food.  So here was my first attempt and it worked well enough that we all decided we wanted it to be a regular part of our meal planning.

I sauteed an onion in grapeseed oil in my cast iron pan then added some cut up veggies (I only had potatoes and the carrots from E's garden that time but next time I would likely add sweet potato too).  I sauteed the veg for a few minutes and then added some broth and covered it with a lid so the veggies would cook a bit.  Once they were cooked a bit I used a slotted spoon to scoop them into a casserole dish and sprinkled on some of my dried thyme. 

Then with the leftover broth in my pan I made a gravy.  I usually just mix a bit of butter a flour to make a roux and then blend it in with the broth and add our favourite spices.  This time I did that but then after it looked sufficiently gravyish I also added some grated sharp cheddar cheese - it was delicious.  But, since I am also trying to use up things in our freezers to make room for holiday baking  I also dug out some raw cashews and made some cashew cream in my blender (just blend raw cashew bits and water until it looks like cream) and then added this to the gravy/sauce for even more creaminess.  So delicious. 

I got chickpeas, green beans (from our garden) and peas out of the freezer and added those to the casserole dish with the other veggies (for my sons' sake I refrained from adding zucchini) and then poured the sauce over all of it.  I had already made a pastry dough using this recipe from my tomato pie recipe.  I rolled it out and put it on top of the casserole dish and the baked it at (I think ) 375 or 400 for probably 30-40 minutes.  Guess what's on our menu for tonight?