Spring Veg Hot Pot – Virtual Vegan Potluck

A great centre piece main course for any potluck!

Welcome to Veghotpot and hello old friends! I am once again taking part in the ever growing “Virtual Vegan Potluck Party” where 168 Food Bloggers are sharing Vegan dishes including starters, sides, mains,puddings, soups, salads and drinks. If you’ve stumbled across this post and want to start at the beginning then please click here to visit Vegan Bloggers Unite. The idea is that everyone has linked to the person before and after them in the party list so you should be able to do a full circle of deliciousness! To visit the person before and after me in the main course category then please click the buttons below!

“Click Me to see Rachel in Veganland”

“Click Me to see My Plant Based Family”

So for my main course offering to this exciting party I have made a Creamy Bean and Spring Vegetable Hot Pot! My blog isn’t called Veghotpot because I’m an obsessed fanatic of this dish (although we have eaten it continuously over the last 3 weeks because I wanted it to be perfect), but I do love a good veghotpot! In fact this is the first veg hot pot to appear on Veghotpot……confused yet? 🙂

Leave on a table with a large spoon…it will disappear!

I love cooking big one pot dishes, they are usually more suited to the winter months when the slow cooker is dusted off and root vegetables and hearty beans are slowly stewed in dark ale and served with big comforting mountains of mashed potato. A traditional hot pot recipe includes red meat cooked in a dark meaty sauce and topped with thinly sliced potatoes (a dish I used to love but is now completely alien to me). Vegetarian varieties are mostly root veg based and often include some alcohol to add depth to the traditionally rich sauce.

We are now fully into spring (if you can believe it) so I wanted to take the concept of a hotpot but really lighten it up, make it more seasonal and much more colourful! I have used a medley of spring vegetables including leeks, asparagus, garden peas and carrots mixed with creamy vegan tofutti garlic and herb cream cheese.

Arrange the potato slices so it looks pretty! Each portion will have an even amount of potato

This is my first taste of tofutti garlic and herb cream cheese and I’m not sure what I think about it on its own but mixed with all of these lovely vegetables it is absolutely delicious! I couldn’t find vegan cream cheese anywhere in the supermarket so i ventured down to my local Holland and Barrett as I knew they would have it. It wasnt too expensive either so I was pleasantly surprised. I found this dish very moreish, every time I have made it I have ended up having second helpings and even when I was photographing it I couldn’t resist sticking a spoon in. Oh dear if you read my blog often you will have realised by now that if I have a spoon in my hand nothing is safe! I’m a picker!

Serves 6

Vegan, Gluten and Wheat Free, Dairy Free

2 Carrots
1 Large Onion
2 Leeks
Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic
10 Spears of Asparagus
1 Can White Beans such as Canellini or Butter/Lima beans
1 Cup Frozen Green Peas
1 tblspn Gluten Free Flour – I used rice flour
100g Dairy Free Garlic and Herb Cream Cheese (I used Tofutti)
400ml Gluten Free Veg Stock
1 Large Potato

Preheat your oven to 180c.

Peel/ Wash/ Trim your carrots, onion and leeks then fry in a small drizzle of olive oil for 10 mins on a medium heat in a large deep based oven proof frying pan or casserole dish.

Crush the garlic into the pan, season with a good pinch of salt and pepper and add your roughly chopped asparagus, white beans and frozen peas and cook for a further 5 mins. Once the vegetables are softened (and the peas are defrosted) stir in the flour, cream cheese and vegetable stock.

Bring to the boil then simmer covered for 15 mins. Add a splash of water if the sauce is thickening too quickly.

Top the filling with a layer of thin slices of unpeeled potato, you can do this randomly or in a nice swirl like I did. Cover with foil or put the lid on and bake in the oven for 20 mins. Then uncover for 10-15 mins to crisp up potatoes.

It is done when the potato slices are browned around the edges and the filling is bubbling away underneath. Serve hot with any side you like. If you are serving this at a party then make a couple of big pan fuls, place a large spoon in each pan and watch it disappear!

I can’t wait to see all of the recipes fellow bloggers are bringing to the potluck! Enjoy the party and thank you for checking out veg hot pot at Veghotpot 🙂