Broccoli Cheese Pot Pie

Know how I know I love my husband? Because he hates broccoli and I married him anyway. Seriously, this is a big deal to me. I love broccoli so much! And he won't eat it. Also Brussels sprouts, but as I understand it there are a lot of people who subscribe to that particular brand of crazy, and I don't love sprouts near as much as I love broccoli anyway.

Mr. Panda travels a lot for work, so I take advantage of the weeks when he's away by cooking the crap out of some broccoli. Which is why this week's recipe is for Broccoli Cheese Pot Pie!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of butter (butter substitute ok)

1 onion

2 medium yellow potatoes, peeled

2 packages frozen broccoli florets

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1/2 cup flour

2 cups half & half (non-fat ok)

4 to 8 cups shredded cheese, depending how cheesy you want. Any variety would be good, I think- cheddar, Swiss, you could even use pepper jack if you want some kick!

Chop the onion as fine as you like. If you cut it up really tiny you'll get the flavor but you'll probably lose the onion texture, so it's entirely up to you. 

Cube the potatoes, again as big or as small of chunks as you like depending on what kind of texture you want. Put them in a stew pot or Dutch oven with the onions and butter. Stir over med-high until the butter is melted and coats all the vegetables, then lower the heat and let the vegetables soften.

After a few minutes, add the stock and broccoli to the pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (longer if you left the vegetables very chunky). 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the half and half and flour. Add to the stock and vegetables after they've simmered. Stir in the cheese.

I don't bake, and I do consider making pie crusts baking, so I generally use store bought crusts. For these pot pies I actually used Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough, which was really good. I spooned the filling mixture into individual ramekins, then baked in the oven according to the dough instructions. It would be just as easy to make this in a large traditional pie dish, but it's a bit liquidy, so cutting pieces would not be ideal. Of course, if you want a drier pie, you could always adjust the amount of stock you use. 

 

Mr. Panda (and all you crazy broccoli haters out there) do not know what you are missing, cause these were awesome. The recipe made four individual pies and I am frankly excited to get to eat them all by myself (over the course of a week, not all in one day, of course). I think next time I make these I will omit one potato and substitute a shredded chicken breast instead.

Confession about the pictures: I had kind of a long and tiring week, and couldn't be bothered to get the pictures set up with lighting and nice background and blah blah blah. Sorry. But here is what they came out lookin like. Kind of.