Vegetable Cobbler

Autumn, Main Courses, Meatless / Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Do you ever get vegetable amnesia?

You look into the fridge or pantry and can’t for the life of you remember what you were planning to do with that one sweet potato or those chives or that ridiculous fennel bulb?

Yeah? Me, too!

But I’ve finally found a treatment: Vegetable Cobbler.

Basically, you round up your wayward vegetables, sauté and simmer them into a thick vegetable stew, pour the stew into a baking dish, and top it with mounds of herbed biscuit dough. When the cobbler comes out of the oven, that biscuit topping is golden and crusty on top, but underneath, it’s drinking in all of that vegetable gravy.

Fill up your bowl for a one-dish meatless meal, or serve it as a side with roast chicken or turkey.

It’ll give you that warm “pot pie feeling” without all of the butter and cream. Or the stent.

Vegetable Cobbler

Adapted from “Moosewood Restaurant New Classics”

Feel free to substitute the vegetables in the recipe for your favorites – sliced celery, cut-up asparagus spears, diced red bell pepper, diced butternut squash, cut-up green beans, etc.

Serves 6

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or butter)
  • 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped onions
  • 1 fennel bulb, core removed, thinly sliced (optional)
  • 2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 4 to 5 cups sliced mushrooms
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 cups peeled and chopped sweet potatoes (or butternut squash)
  • 2 cups chopped potatoes
  • 2 cups peeled and chopped carrots (or parsnips)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 3 cups water or vegetable stock
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup cold water
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Dash of hot sauce (optional)
    Biscuit Topping:

  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 6 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill (or any herb you have on hand)
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
  2. Warm the oil in a Dutch oven or soup pot. Add the onions, fennel and garlic, cover, and cook on medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. Add the salt, thyme, crushed red pepper flakes, mushrooms and mustard. Cook until the mushrooms start to release their juices, about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the sweet potato, white potato, carrot, black pepper and water or stock, and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the vegetables are just tender.
  5. Stir the dissolved cornstarch mixture into the simmering vegetables, stirring constantly. When the liquid starts to thicken, mix in the peas, corn, soy sauce and salt. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed. (You can also add a dash of hot sauce.)
  6. Pour the vegetables into the prepared baking dish, and set aside.
  7. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix together the melted butter and buttermilk or yogurt. Combine the wet and dry ingredients with as few strokes as possible to make a soft dough.
  8. Drop the biscuit batter over the vegetables in the dish in six equal mounds. Sprinkle the dill over the dough.
  9. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of a biscuit comes out clean. Serve immediately.

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28 thoughts on “Vegetable Cobbler”

  2. Good luck…Ezra has gone to BlogHer convention in San Francisco. She's going to speak on story telling. We are all so proud. Hope she brings back recipes and new stories to share. Henry the Wonderdog is rooming at his Grandparents. YEAH, Ezra!

    Your daddy would eat the meatless pot pie IF a bologna sandwich was nearby:)

  3. I've always been slightly nervous about pot pie – it's a little too close to baking for my tastes. And I was never really sure the final product justified all the work I imagine it to take. THIS looks like the perfect antidote to that! Can't wait to give this a try (and hopefully it'll help me get over my pot pie issues! :))

  5. I'm sorry, but what's so ridiculous about a fennel bulb? I fear you've crossed the line and I am now forced into not speaking to you for the duration of BlogHer Food.

  7. I found your blog when I was looking for "owl cupcakes" for my son's birthday. I made those (thanks!) and then was thrilled to see your meatless Monday posts. I am so excited to try this one tonight (I even have the fennel, which I bought with no purpose!)

  9. I love your blog – just found it while looking for a recipe for maple scones to bake on a cool morning. You layout is great – contemporary and fun, your photographs are beautiful and your your food, well – fantastic! Looking forward to following you AND making your scones!

  10. thank you. I wanted a recipe to use up fennel without being too fennel-y and this was so perfect. glad i found your blog thru gawker. i’ll be sure to stalk the blog now on =) cheers.

  11. What a great way to use vegetables. Yes i always get those days when i cant think for the life of me why i have bought something….. But always find a solution soon enough….This looks yumm!

  13. I have never made a vegetable cobbler before. This looks yummy and I will be trying it this weekend. Beautiful photo too. :)

  14. Wow, this sounds great! I love Moosewood recipes, and this one is just calling my name! I can't wait to try it out, it's a perfect fall dish.

  16. Lol, I do the same thing and then end up with all sorts of odds and ends of veggies. This looks a great recipe and perfect for this time of year. Thanks for sharing

  19. This looks great!! I love the idea of chicken pot pie, but can't really find a good Kosher version. I think this will satisfy my craving AND help to get rid of all those wayward veggies I've got rolling around the crisper drawer.

  20. Wow, I literally always have a fridge filled with veggies. This is an awesome idea and since I live alone, the leftovers are perfect. Thanks! (Glad thekitchn.com linked me to you!)

  21. This sounds delicious but I'm just wondering if it's possible to cook it all in one pot? I'd like to cook and present it in my Creuset pot.

  22. HI, i wanted to thank you for sharing your caramel popcorn recipe. it was a hit with my family! And this vegetable cobbler looks pretty amazing too!

  23. Thanks for the recipe to clean out all the veggies in my fridge. This has been a great lunch every day this week. Ah, the joys of living alone! I left out the soy sauce, and I think next time I'll try making a sauce without the need for cornstarch.

  24. Okay, this looks absolutely divine. And I have pretty much all of the ingredients on hand! Filed. Perhaps for Tgiving…

  26. I made this, and it turned out delicious. Used vegetable stock instead of water to boil the veggies, and this made for a very rich base. Also, the biscuit toppings were wonderful (though they didn't, unsurprisingly, re-heat so well in the microwave). Will be making this again for a Thanksgiving get-together with friends.

  27. I just made a half recipe of this tonight. I used vegetable stock as well – so I think eliminating the salt would have helped. I would also suggest increasing the cornstarch because it wasn't thick enough for my liking. Next time I will experiment with different spices – maybe poultry seasoning instead of thyme? who knows. Loved the biscuit topping!

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