From VEGGIE QUEST: Recipes, research, and tips to make eating a whole food, plant based diet easy and fun!

Prep time: 40 min hands-on; 30-35 min in the oven          Serves: 4 hungry people

Ingredients
Topping
1 Tbsp ground flax seed
3 Tbsp water
½ c corn meal
¼ c brown rice flour
¼ c amaranth flour (see Notes)
1½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 packet powdered stevia or 6 drops liquid stevia (see Notes)
¼ c apple sauce
½ c unsweetened nondairy milk (almond milk or low-fat coconut milk work well)

Filling
5 c frozen mixed vegetables + ¼ c water
1½ c frozen mixed mushrooms OR washed and sliced fresh button mushrooms
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp salt (omit if sodium-sensitive)
⅛ tsp ground pepper
2 Tbsp corn starch + 2 Tbsp cold water
Cooking liquid from frozen vegetables
~¾ c unsweetened nondairy milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F

Start microwaving
In a small microwaveable bowl, mix together 1 Tbsp ground flax seed and 3 Tbsp water. Microwave for 30-45 seconds, or until gooey when stirred. Set aside.

Place the frozen vegetables and mushrooms (fresh or frozen) in a microwaveable, deep-dish pie pan. Add ¼ c water, invert a dinner plate over the top, and microwave on high for 10 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes. Reserve the cooking liquid.

Start making the topping (while vegetables are cooking)
Prepare dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the corn meal, brown rice flour, amaranth flour, baking powder, salt, and powdered stevia (if using).

Prepare wet ingredients: In a separate small bowl, add the apple sauce, ½ c nondairy milk, liquid stevia (if using) and flax seed goo. Mix well with a fork.

Set topping ingredients aside.

Make the sauce
Once veggies are done cooking, carefully drain the cooking liquid into a measuring cup. Add nondairy milk to the cooking liquid until you have 1 c liquid total. Pour into a small pot. Add nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper to the pot, and whisk to combine.

Bring to a boil.

Measure 2 Tbsp of cornstarch and 2 Tbsp cold water into the measuring cup and mix thoroughly with a fork. Whisking constantly, add the cornstarch slurry to the boiling liquid. The liquid should thicken immediately; remove from heat after 5-10 seconds.

Put it all together
Add thickened sauce to vegetables in pie dish and stir gently to combine.

Pour the wet topping ingredients into the dry topping ingredients and stir until just combined. (Should be a thick batter.)

Pour batter over top of vegetables in pie dish and smooth to the edges with a spatula.

Bake at 400F for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cornbread comes out clean.

Notes:
Amaranth flour works nicely as a gluten-free “binding” flour. I buy mine at Whole Foods (Bob’s Red Mill brand). If you can’t get amaranth flour, try grinding gluten-free quick oats into a flour and substituting ¼ c oat flour for the amaranth flour. (I haven’t tried this, but I’ve seen oat flour used in another gluten-free cornbread recipe.)

If using powdered stevia, add to the dry ingredients. If using liquid stevia, add to the wet ingredients.

Sauce may bubble up around the edges as the pot pie bakes; it will still taste fantastic!

Visit Veggie Quest for nutrition information.

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