Potato Leek Pie

I'd promised to make potato-leek soup here in Japan for our daughter & son-in-law; brand new grandaughter not up to anything other than mother's milk right now. And on a trip we discovered beautiful leeks at a roadside market. But it's been very warm in Misawa, so hot soup didn't seem the greatest idea in the world. I decided tp put together a pie instead, using the same ingredients and drawing on a bunch of sources (listed below) for inspiration. This was the result:



Leek/Potato/Carrot Pie

6 fist sized white potatoes, scrubbed, roughly cut up, boiled
1 large carrot, diced
3 large leeks, scrubbed and chopped, both white and green
4 large cloves of garlic, diced
2 blocks tofu, cut up
1/2 cup olives, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
soy milk
oregano
salt
pepper
thyme
rosemary
pine nuts, toasted

sautee leeks and garlic in olive oil.
preheat oven to 425 degrees F
mash together potatoes and tofu, adding a little soy milk as needed (I leave potato skins in the mash, but that's optional)

Combine potato/tofu mash with leeks and garlic
add carrots, olives and seasonings (to taste)
spoon mixture into polenta crust. Top with toasted pine nuts.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F.
Bake until browned, another 35-40 minutes or so.

I used commercially prepared polenta, softed with a bit of water and spread over a large pie pan. It was ok. A good Polenta Pie recipe is at Mollie Katzen's website, from the Moosewood Cookbook; http://www.molliekatzen.com. Her Leek and Potato soup from the same book is our standard. Next time I'll use her recipe for the pie crust as well.



on the table

The recipe was adapted from various sources, including:

"Tofu, Leek and Potato Pie" by Derek & Rhian Jones, Wales,
and
"Carrot, Leek and Olive Stew" from the Vegetarian REsource Center of Boston, Mass., both from from the International Vegetarian Union, http://www.ivu.org/recipes/