Root of it All: Fall Vegetable Pot Pie with Gouda Biscuit Crust

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Dairy Farmers of Canada.

Winter took its sweet time coming this year, but when it came, it came with a vengeance, complete with blustery winds and artic chill and snow flurries. Thank goodness those big oversized blanket scarves are still in fashion this year!

To compensate, I’m busting out the hardcore cold-weather comfort food, starting with these hearty vegetarian pot pies filled with toothsome chunks of roasted vegetables in a creamy sherry-spiked sauce.

And to make them extra-cozy, I’ve topped them off with the most deliciously cheesy biscuits you’ll ever have the privilege of putting in your mouth.

Meet Grizzly Gouda, This Month's Featured Canadian Cheese

This month’s featured Canadian cheese is an aged gouda from Alberta’s Sylvan Star Cheese that’s affectionately called Grizzly because of its bite. Its sharp flavour turns the biscuit topping into the star of the show.

I first discovered Grizzly at last month’s Food Bloggers of Canada conference, where it was one of the cheeses the Dairy Farmers of Canada were sampling as part of a very impressive cheese board.

I may or may not have eaten more than my fair share of this delicious gouda, which takes on a sharp, crumbly texture and a rich nutty flavour thanks to a 12-24 month long aging process.

How I used This Month's Featured Cheese

While Grizzly is perfectly delicious eaten just as it is, I couldn’t resist using it to give my favourite buttermilk biscuit recipe a cheesy makeover. The sharpness of the cheese is just the thing to play up the sweetness of the roasted vegetables.

Finely chopping the cheese into small pieces creates lovely pockets of cheesy deliciousness, as opposed to the more even distribution you’d get from grated cheese. (Plus it means one less thing to wash up when you’re done, which is never a bad thing.)

The end result is a simple vegetarian main dish that’s easily customized to use up whatever you’ve got kicking around in the fridge.

What Vegetables Go into Vegetarian Pot Pie?

The batch of pies I photographed for this post were made with a mix of carrots, parsnips, rutabaga and butternut squash. 

Other options that also work well include turnips, potatoes, yams, brussels sprouts, or any other sturdy seasonal vegetables. (Just avoid using beets, unless you want a hot pink pot pie filling!)

And since ‘tis the season, I should point out that this pie is also a great way to use up leftover roast vegetables. Simply skip the first two steps, and stir your leftover roasted veg into the sauce before assembling the pies. Easy peasy!

These hearty pot pies are basically a meal unto themselves, so you can easily serve them on their own and call it a day.

If you absolutely must have something on the side, though, I'd suggest a simple green salad, or perhaps a dish of green beans or some other vegetable that isn't already in the pie.

Okay, winter. I'm ready for you. Bring on the cold winds… between my big scarf and these pot pies, I’ve got plenty to keep me warm over here!

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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Canada. Thanks for supporting the brands that keep the Crumb Test Kitchen running! All opinions, as always, are entirely my own.

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