The mushrooms’ earthiness collaborates with the toasted flour and brown butter to deliver a deeply flavored bourguigon without the beef. This recipe requires a few steps, especially if you’re making your own crust… But consider making big batches of the filling and freezing it using the method for freezing soup. When ready, thaw the filling, assemble, and bake!
ingredients
2 9" Pie Crusts, homemade or store bought
2 TB White Flour
1/2 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon Vegetable or Canola oil
7 oz Firm or Extra Firm Tofu
4 Tablespoons Butter, divided
12 oz Mushrooms of choice, sliced
2 oz (about 1) Carrot
4 oz (about 1 small) Onion, chopped
2/3 Cup Dry Red Wine
2 Cups Vegetable Stock
9 oz (2 medium) Potato, diced
1 Teaspoon Fresh Thyme Leaves, minced
1/8 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 - 2 Teaspoons Salt, if needed, to taste
Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
deviations & tips
For a vegan dish, swap olive oil for the brown butter and use vegetable shortening in your crust.
Instead of thyme, try fresh parsley, sage, or tarragon.
the method
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Press pie crust into a 9" pie pan. Refrigerate pie pan and top crust until ready to use.
In a small or medium skillet, toast the flour over medium heat. Stir often to make sure the flour does not burn. When the flour is brown, remove from heat and whisk with water. Set aside.
Toast flour.
Whisk flour into stock.
Use paper towels to press out any excess moisture from tofu and cut into approximately 1” cubes.
Heat oil in a frying pan or skillet over high heat until smoking. Add tofu and stir fry for about 8 minutes or until it starts to get golden. Reduce heat to medium and use a flexible spatula to press the cubes into a looser, ground meat-like consistency. Don’t worry about getting a perfectly uniform texture. Add salt to taste; the tofu should taste properly seasoned on its own. Remove from heat and set aside.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. After butter melts, continue heating, swirling often, until brown. Be careful not to burn it.
Brown butter.
Add mushrooms, increase heat to high, and saute for about 5 minutes or until browned. Add mushrooms to tofu mixture. Set aside.
Over medium heat, melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and again swirl until aromatic and browned. Add onion and carrot and cook for about 3 minutes or until onions are golden. Add wine to deglaze pan. Turn up heat to high and reduce wine to about 1/2; this should take 3-4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in stock, potatoes, tofu, and mushrooms. Cook for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add thyme, nutmeg, and fresh ground pepper. Stir in flour and water mixture and cook for about 5 minutes or until thick. Season with salt to taste.
Pour vegetables and gravy into prepared pie crust. Top with second crust, pinch together the edges, and make cuts into the top to allow the heat to escape.
Bake for 45 minutes. Put foil over crust and bake for an additional 15 minutes. The filling should be about 165F. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Mushroom Bourguignon Pot Pie