Need a great way to get the kids to eat their veggies? Let them help with meal prep!! Plus, add a creamy sauce and flaky topping to all these veggies, and who isn’t going to want to dig right in?! This pot pie is a great way to add any veggie you like to your dinner and still keep it simple. It’s a one-dish meal that comes together by using a combo of fresh and frozen veggies, a simple homemade sauce and a flaky pre-made crust. To me that’s what balance in creating wholesome meals is all about.
Yes, this is really what happens in our house. The sous chef/recipe critic climbs right up and declares her intent to help me “make recipes!”. I love it when she helps! But, I do have to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t add an extra 1/4 cup of salt to anything while I’m working on something else! She just wants to be helpful, you know. 😉
You are essentially going to want about 6 or 7 cups of veggies plus some onion, garlic and herbs. You can see above what we used for our pot pie. Do as much or as little chopping as you want by using more or less frozen or prepared veggies.
Get these all loaded up into your slow cooker! You will need one that is at least 4 quarts. This would be an easy recipe to double by using a 7 quart slow cooker instead!
Use flour, broth, fresh thyme, cornstarch and a little cream to create the perfect homemade sauce. Once everything has cooked up all day and the veggies are nice and tender we will transfer to a baking dish and top with a puff pastry sheet. It takes only a few minutes to be golden brown and a delicious homemade pot pie/comfort food dish is done!
- 7 cups veggies chopped into bite sized pieces as needed I used: brussels sprouts, frozen corn kernels, frozen peas, diced potatoes, baby carrots, and pre-sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 5-6 sprigs fresh thyme leaves removed
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 frozen puff pastry sheet thawed
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Clean and chop veggies as needed and add to slow cooker along with onion and garlic
- Toss with flour to coat well
- Slowly stir in broth until well blended with flour
- Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8
- Whisk cornstarch with 1/4 cup water until smooth then stir into the veggie mixure
- Stir in cream, cover, and return slow cooker to high heat for about 15 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly
- Transfer to a 9x13 baking dish and top with thawed puff pastry sheet (cut to fit if necessary)
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and brush over top of pastry
- Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until pastry is golden and fluffy
I cooked the veggies in my 4 quart slow cooker for about 4 hours on high
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Um, YUM! I LOOOOVE chicken pot pie of any kind, but I’m obsessing over the ease of this slow cooker version. I can’t wait to try this out!
Thanks Karly!
How would you prepare this in the oven?
Hi Greg! I don’t have a good conversion to offer as I have not tested the recipe this way. However, my suggestion would be to use the stovetop for the slow cooker part and continue cooking in the oven for the last step as per the original recipe. Let me know if you give it a try!
I Just got my first slow-cooker the other day and I am very happy to say this was my first ever slow-cooked recipe… such a good decision! I ended up being able to use all the miscellaneous veggies in my freezer and fridge and it turned out great! The veggies I used were mushrooms, potato, frozen broccoli/corn/peas/mixed veggies and carrots, …. thanks again, we will definitely be making this more often.
That’s awesome Kelsey! Congrats on the new slow cooker and I hope you find lots of recipes here that you will love! Feel free to reach out if you ever have questions!!!
Hi!
I am prepping this right now. Can’t wait! I’m planning to let this cook on low all day. Should I add potatoes in the last few hours, not having them in there the entire time? I know potatoes can turn to mush.
Thank you!
Hi Tish!! What kind of potatoes are you using? I do find that the russet potatoes (baking type potatoes) tend to break down and get mushy whereas Yukon gold or red type potatoes don’t. If using russets you could add them a little later in the cooking process if you don’t want them as soft or you could also just cut them into larger chunks so they don’t cook as fast. If using the others, I’d just add them in now! Let me know if that helps!
Do you just put pastry on the bottom or on the top too? Thanks.
Hi Beth! Just on the top.
I made this today with a few modifications to make it vegan. We loved it! Thank you so much for sharing!
That’s great to hear! Thanks for letting me know!
I pinned this recipe awhile ago on Pinterest. Just getting around to making it now. It’s amazing! Thanks for the recipe. I have 2 younger children and they both loved it. I liked being able to cook with fresh veggies. I used vegetable broth for a vegetarian dish, turned out perfect. I will definitely make it again.
So glad you and your family loved it!
I made this because I had a bunch of leftover veggies in small individual quantities – a few stalks of celery and carrots sitting in the crisper, a quarter bag each of frozen peas and corn kicking around the freezer, an onion. I picked up a small pack of mushrooms because I figured they’d go well.
I made it as directed with one a few tweaks: I sauteed the onions in garlic in advance, and deglazed the pan with a little of the sherry I use for cooking, I used veggie broth because that was what I had on hand, and also threw in a bay leaf, a few sprigs of parsley left from another recipe, and a little dry poultry seasoning in addition to the thyme. I only had two garlic cloves in the house, so I threw in some garlic powder instead.
I thought it came out really well. This is a nice, easy, flexible recipe that lets you use up stuff on hand. With the veggie broth in place of chicken, it can be made vegetarian. I made it on a rainy day, and it was a nice comfort dish.
Thanks much – I really appreciate these kinds of “real life” no-fuss, use-up-what-you-have recipes.
I’m so glad you liked it!! It’s totally the perfect recipe for using up leftovers 🙂
How did this recipe end up in a “10 Slow Cooker recipes Vegetarian Will love” article? This is NOT a vegetarian recipe and if any of my friends tried to pass it off as such, I would never trust them again!
Hi Fred! I’m not sure which round-up you found that sent you to my recipe but most of the time I don’t have any control over others linking to my site. I certainly don’t claim it to be vegetarian (simply a veggie pot pie) but my best guess would be that the person who wrote the article made the assumption that anyone who did need for it to be vegetarian would make the swap from chicken to veggie broth. That should take care of your concerns! Hope that helps!!
Did you actually make it and rate it one star, or just rate it one star because of this perceived slight?
You may want to edit recipe to state when to add thyme. I had it on hand but forgot to add it! Thank you for recipe!
The carrots and potatoes weren’t fully cooked afrer 8 hours in the slow cooker. Maybe suggest a sautee beforehand? Also its not super flavorful. Just sort of bland, and I doubled the thyme + added salt. Next time I’ll sauteed in butter ahead of time.
This recipe says it’s vegetarian and it has chicken broth. Seriously?
Hi Erin! Where are you seeing this recipe referenced as vegetarian? If it’s on Pinterest or another site, unfortunately, that’s something they do and give me no control over :(. I’m sorry you are feeling frustrated with hoping for a vegetarian recipe and not finding it with this one, but thankfully, a simple fix if you do need to make it vegetarian for your diet! You can just simply swap out the chicken broth for some vegetable broth!! It will change the flavor of the recipe a bit, but I think you will still enjoy it! Let me know how it turns out for you 🙂
Just a heads up. This recipe is in your Vegetarian section at https://slowcookergourmet.net/category/recipes/slow-cooker-recipes/vegetarian-recipes/.
Thank you!!
Hi, have you tried making this recipe in an instant pot/pressure cooker? I want to try it today but am unsure on the cook time. Thanks!
I haven’t tried it! I’m not totally sure how well it would work, but for the filling at least it may be worth a try!
I’m trying this recipe right now and I can’t wait to taste it! 🙂 I do have one question though- I’ve added all of the veggies, flour, and broth, but the broth is only covering a little less than half of the veggies. I definitely could have been off on my measuring. Or is this normal??
Thank you!
Yes, the veggies should cook down into the sauce as they go! Let me know how it turns out!
Pretty flavorless. Quick and easy but I threw the entire thing away.
Chicken broth? So veggie here doesn’t meant vegetarian. #disappointed
Hi Nico! Sounds like you are looking for specifically vegetarian recipes. You are probably already aware, but you can simply swap out the broth if needed to convert a recipe like this.
Even though I never intended nor advertised this as a vegetarian recipe, I think people have grabbed this for vegetarian round ups and it would be impossible to track them all down and correct them.
Thankfully, this is a simple enough recipe that most people are able to easily understand and make the switch 😉
Happy cooking!