Everyone in my family loves when I make my Veggie Pot Pie.  Last time I made it, my mom complained that it wasn’t filling enough, and she was still hungry after dinner.  When I made it yesterday, I thought about what she said.  She thought it needed meat, but I disagreed.

While making it last night, I added 4 cups of frozen vegetables.  The original meat-filled version only called for 2-3 cups.  I made the regular sauce, and to the sauce, I cooked up 1/2 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein) with 1/2  cup water, and then added it to the sauce.  I thought it looked kinda weak, so I added more vegetables (getting up to 5 cups!).  I mixed in all the TVP, the vegetables and the sauce, and added it to the pie.

As we were eating (where I also had sweet potatoes, a salad, AND I set the table and cleaned the pots I had used), I asked my parents what they thought of the pie.  “It’s really good.  A lot better than last time.  Did you add more vegetables?  It seems more filling.”    I told her that yes, I did add more vegetables, but then I added “Do you know what eeeeeeeeeelse I added?”   My mom slowly looked over at me, and she said “Did you add that weird stuff?”

Yeeeeeeeees, I did!  The TVP was great, and everyone liked it.  It definitely made it more filling, and a lot less watery which was good.  I thought about the “rules” for TVP, “Add it to anything in which you would normally add meat.”  There’s meat in a chicken pot pie, so why not TVP in a veggie pot pie?

Why not, indeed!  It was fabulous!  I’ll be adding it to every pie I make in the future.