How To...

So how do you change your favorite fattening meals into healthy ones you can truly indulge in? Substitutions are the key to success in the lives of comfort food stress eaters like you and I. You won't always be able to make a meal "healthy" this way, but you can make it a bit better for you than it normally would be without sacrificing the kind of food you really love.

Gluten-free, vegan pot pie.

I made this pot pie a while back. Who doesn't love pot pie? Go ahead name something this side of Thanksgiving that's as comforting as pot pie, I dare you. 

Pot pie also happens to be extremely high in calories and fat.  My goal was to make a gluten-free, vegan, healthier pot pie. Now, I'm just a vegan wannabe, I can't get myself to make the change even though I know how great it would be for me.  I try to cook and eat vegan as much as possible, I find it a fascinating and admirable life-style. 

I sincerely apologize, but the actual recipe for this was lost. Fortunately, it's easy enough to make on your own.

So let's talk substitutions. 

The crust was a typical 3-2-1 ratio pie dough.  3-2-1 refers to the ratio (by weight, not volume) of flour (3), fat (2), and water (1).  The flour for this dough is made with white rice flour, gluten-free flour blend, flax seed meal, and shredded zucchini.  It's kind of a strange combination, but that's what I happened to have on hand at the time. Using shredded zucchini in baked goods like pie crust, bread, and muffins is a great way to boost the nutrients in an ingredient.  Because of the zucchini I reduced the water a bit. And If I can digress for a moment I'd love to speak about my love affair with flax seed meal. In this application it's only be used for fiber and added protein, but flax seed meal makes an amazing egg replacer (1tbsp flax seed meal to 3 tbsp water per egg).  Eggs freak me the heck out. Which is ridiculous statement for someone going to school for baking and pastry, but if there were ever a driving force pushing me into veganism it's my hatred for eggs.  Not only does the texture of eggs freak me out, but the amount of illnesses attached to them and their cooking, and the amount of cholesterol and fat in one egg starts to make me a feel a bit nauseated. 

The fat I used to cut into the flour was Earth Balance vegan vegetable spread.  It's made with non-hydrogenated oils, it's gluten-free, vegan, lactose-free, and casein-free. 

The filling is made with sauteed onions, blanched carrots, peas, potatoes, and vegetable stock rather than chicken stock.  It's thickened using rice flour to make a roux with the oil from the sauteed onions. 

I lined ramekins with the pie dough, filled them up and put a layer of pie dough on top and baked in a 350 degree oven until the dough crisped up. 

It was delicious, warm, creamy, and wonderful.  I highly suggest you try to make some smart substitutions in your own cooking. As I continue this blog I will talk a lot more about how to make substitutions.