Easy Leftover Pot Pie

Gotta’ love the quick easy meals! Especially if they pack tons of savory, buttery flavor. Plus, I have a special fondness for meals which seem to be made out of nothing.

Having just completed a week of beautiful macrobiotic meals with diced and julienne carrots and celery slices, I was left with all kinds of vegetable scraps. The scraps are just as nutritious and delicious as the pretty cuts. Why waste them!

In my fridge also sat the remains of a gorgeous baked chicken my son had made the night before … still sitting in its broth, all full of herbs and well developed flavor. Yep, even during macrobiotic week, my son is not going sans chicken! In the freezer, we usually keep ready-made phyllo dough. There are a great many things that I make from scratch… phyllo dough is NOT one of them!

So… veggie scraps + chicken + phyllo dough = Pot Pie. Yum!

This is really more of a method than a recipe, as you can easily modify this for a variety of diets, and food intolerance. We left out fructans. (in onion, garlic, etc).

First, make a roux. Use any thickener you like to make a gravy. In a saucepan, whisk together equal parts spelt flour and butter. How much you use will depend on how much broth you have leftover. Just let it combine well and heat a little.

Approximate formula = 2 T flour, 2 T fat to one cup broth.

Next, that rich broth goes in the pan. Stir until thickened. Add a little more broth or water to loosen a gravy if it gets too thick.

Thickener tips:

Per your dietary preferences, you could replace spelt with another flour… garbanzo bean flour, gf flour, whatever you like. Substitute an oil for the butter too, if you prefer. You can even forget the roux and use ground flax seeds as a thickener if you like. If you do this, first heat the broth, then just throw in a little ground flax and let it work for you. Start with a small amount (you can add more if you need it) a little flax is wonderful! Too much flax is slimy.

Once you have a nice gravy, throw in anything else you have for a filling!

We had chicken… Just look at all that flavor! My son is a pretty darn great cook!

And veggie scraps…

I cut up and steamed leftover carrots and celery. Usually it is important to cut your veggies evenly so that they cook evenly, but not today! These cooked up just fine. Also, a diced and quickly steamed potato went in. And a little corn scraped off an abandoned cob rounded out this filling quite nicely. Add salt and pepper at this point, if you need it. mmm

I have even thrown in chopped steamed kale and my kids still loved it!

Next, the filling gets distributed into individual serving dishes. This may be sloppy, but it can still be special. 🙂

Next, no need for making pie crust and rolling dough. Simply cut phyllo dough down to size, and brush a little butter (or oil, if preferred) between each sheet, making a little stack as you go. This does not eliminate gluten – we will save that for another day – but it does reduce it. And you still get a delicate buttery crust.

Sorry, I can’t hold a camera and butter phyllo at the same time.

Now, throw the phyllo dough layers on top. You can make it pretty if you want too. Today, rustic works for me, just fine.

Bake at 350° until the crust is golden brown. Everything else is cooked.

The rest of my photos are very messy, as these pies disappeared very quickly.

And… its gone.