Yes, fall is coming. That means pumpkins will start to show their colours brightly, and it's worth embracing for sure! Sweet potato is an alternative if you can’t find or are not big on eating pumpkin, but the spice blend associated with the season lends itself to both and helps create some great depth of flavour and the warmth we love in autumn. I’m talking cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

One of my favourite's Camella’s Kitchen - a family-owned business that celebrates Caribbean flavours - just released a seasonal product that incorporates these flavours. The pumpkin spice pepper sauce is a fiery chilli sauce that includes the pumpkin spice flavour and subtle sweetness characteristic of anything pumpkin-related. This inspired me to make a pot pie, sans the chicken.

Sounds unconventional, but the addition of the pumpkin and shitake mushrooms along with the pepper sauce heat adds so much flavour. Not only does it compliment the buttery pie crust, but you still get that umami people associate with a hot, steaming pot pie perfect for the cooling weather.

This vegetarian pot pie puts others to shame. The flavours make it intensely rich and delicious.

Ingredients

2 cups pumpkin, cubed

1/4 cup Camellas’s Pumpkin Spice Pepper Sauce

2 tablespoons pumpkin spice

1 teaspoon cloves

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon dried parsely

1 tablespoon ground fenugreek

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

2 tablespoons cooking wine

2 tablespoons Worchester sauce

1/3 cup shitake mushrooms

2 tablespoons sweet corn

2 tablespoons peas, frozen

1/4 cup carrots, chopped

1/4 cup chopped leeks and green peppers

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

2 tablespoons fresh basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 pie crust, thawed to room temperature

1 egg + 1 tablespoon water (egg wash)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup plant milk

1/4 cup non-dairy heavy cream

1/4 cup water

2 broth bouillons, crushed

Instructions

Toss the pumpkin in the pepper sauce and the spices. Sauté in the olive oil for about 5 minutes.  

Add in the chopped leek and onion, cook for another 2 minutes. Follow this with the carrots, frozen vegetables, cooking wine and Worchester sauce, cook for another 3 minutes.

Mix in the mushroom, basil, thyme, milk and bouillon cubes, and water. Add the flour and butter, stir consistently until everything begins to thicken for another 5 minutes.

Top the skillet mixture with the pie crust, poke a few holes and make some slits in the middle to allow the crust to breathe as it makes. Brush with the egg wash.

Bake at 400F for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and crispy.

Serve hot with fresh thyme.