new year!

Hey all!  I hope you all had enjoyed the holiday season!  Although it went by way too fast, mine was quite lovely. During of which, my mother shared with me a copy of the holiday edition of Canadian Living which did a feature of vegetarian entrees to serve at the holiday dinner table. This is something that I found very interesting as I’m almost always at a loss of what to prepare for my rather picky vegetarian sister and myself, something that would be welcomed by everyone’s palates. In this article, there was a recipe for a vegetarian tourtiere which is, although something that I have never tried before, sounded like it would a perfect addition to New Year’s Day dinner. Tourtiere is a traditional French-Canadian dish served around the holidays and usually isn’t very vegan at all. But the recipe Canadian Living provided was completely animal-free and sounded pretty good.

It turned out amazing and was not only approved by my skeptical sister but by my equally as skeptical non-vegetarian mother!  I wasn’t planning on taking a picture and sharing it with you all (I mean, it’s not very pretty…) but I decided to anyway just because it’s so tasty.  I mostly followed the original recipe, only subbing their TVP for tempeh and using the crust recipe from Veganomicon.  So maybe the holiday season is over and the number of guests at your dinner table is tapering off, this would make an excellent winter meal when you need something warm, hearty and comforting.

Vegan Tourtiere
Makes 8 servings

1 package of tempeh
2 tbsp olive oil
3 ribs of celery, diced
2 onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups cubed peeled potatoes
2 tsp tamari
1 1/2 tsp dried savory
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 bay leaves
2 cups vegetable broth

*You will also need a double-pie crust, I used my favourite from ‘Veganomicon’

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, add tempeh, lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain, set tempeh aside to cool.

2. In a large pot (or dutch oven if you have one), heat olive oil over medium-high heat; cook celery, onions and garlic, stirring every so often, until golden, for about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in potatoes, tamari, savory, salt, pepper, allspice, cloves and bay leaves. Crumble in tempeh (hopefully it’s cool enough so you don’t burn your fingers!). Cook, stirring often for about 5 minutes or so.

4. Stir in the vegetable broth and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, 30 to 40 minutes.

5. Smash most of the potatoes with the back of a spoon. Simmer, uncovered, until thickened slightly, 7 to 10 minutes. Let cool.

6. Roll out your pastry. Fit bottom crust into 9-inch pie plate. Spoon in filling. Roll out your top crust and place over filling. Brush the top with water, pierce pastry with fork or cut steam vents.

7. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour.