Cara Dafforn, founder of U-Relish Farms in Indianapolis, has created a delicious line of local preservative-free products that are easy to adapt for gluten-free diets. Seeing a need for quick meals using healthy, whole ingredients, she focused on dishes that could be prepared using a crock-pot. More and more busy people are turning to slow-cooker recipes, especially during the winter months, because nothing feels more comforting than coming home to a complete meal after being gone all day.
Cara graciously shared one of her most popular recipes with us. Her Pea Pot Pie uses hardy and readily available vegetables and herbs, like tarragon and thyme, and offers that fresh, home-cooked taste we all long for. Serve this crust-less pot pie on its own or with biscuits. If you really want a traditional feel, you can bake the finished product in a pie tin with a simple pot-pie-style pastry top. To incorporate more protein into the dish and 2 cups of diced cooked chicken or turkey to the pot before cooking. We recommend adding cooked meat verses raw meat to avoid salmonella.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup potato, diced
- ¼ cup onion, diced
- ¼ cup carrot, chopped
- ¼ cup frozen or fresh peas
- 1½ cup dried white navy or northern beans (not canned)
- 2 teaspoons fresh chopped celery leaf from the top of fresh celery stalks
- 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup cornstarch (for gluten-free diets) or flour
- 4½ cups water (or chicken broth)
- 4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, sliced
Instructions
Stir everything except the cornstarch (or flour), water (or broth) and butter into a 1.5-quart (or larger) slow cooker. Place cornstarch (or flour) in a bowl and slowly whisk in the water (or broth), stirring to prevent lumps. Pour over the vegetable mix. Add the butter, then cover slow cooker and cook for 6 hours on high.
U-Relish products are available at the Indianapolis City Market, Pogues Run Grocer and Good Earth. For more information about U-Relish visit u- relish.com.
