Cheesy Veggie Pie

I had this great plan this morning where I was going to make homemade poptarts today.  Then I slept in until 11:30 am.  I also had a ton of other household chores to do, so the pastry plan got shelved for this weekend.
However, since I had some frozen, pre-made pie crusts in the freezer, I decided to make a vegetable pie for dinner.  Thank you Tenderflake, for making vegetable shortening pie crusts for lazy vegetarians like me.

Here's how you can make your own cheesy vegetable pie:

Preheat the oven to about 350F and take out your prepared pie crust.  Then, start laying your vegetables in the pie.  I tend to throw in whatever I have available in the house. 

Here you can see corn, carrot slices, cauliflower, wax beans, and diced red pepper.  You could also add broccoli, diced potato, green beans, leeks, etc.  If you have any fresh herbs, I would throw them in now as well.  I happened to have some basil in the house, so I threw in some of that.  Oregano, sage or thyme would also be nice.

Once your pie is mostly filled with your veg, it's time to start making your cheese sauce.  Throw a big blob of butter or margarine in a sauce pan, and then add some diced onion once the fat has melted.

Once the onions have softened, add a clove of diced garlic and cook a few moments more until the garlic has softened.  Then add a spoonful of flour and stir to combine (you want to make a roux at this point).  Once the flour & fat have combined, pour in about a cup of milk and stir.  It should look something like this:

While the milk is heating, grate a huge bunch of cheese.  I used marbled cheddar because that's what I had in the house, but you can use whatever flavour of cheese you like.  I think I ended up with about a cup of grated cheese.

Once your milk has warmed, add your cheese to the mixture, and stir until it melts and turns into  a smooth, cheesy sauce.

Once your sauce is lovely and smooth, pour it over the vegetables in your pie.  You don't want the liquid level to be too high, or it might boil over the edges.

Now it's time to make the crumb topping.  Take 2 tablespoons of cold butter or margarine and put it in a bowl.  Add about an equal amount of flour, and any herbs or spices you like (I added pepper and oregano).

Then use a fork to combine & mash it all together until you get a crumbly mixture.

Spread your crumb mixture evenly over the top of your pie, and then sprinkle a layer of grated parmesan over that.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through, and the top is browned and crisp.

Let it cool before you cut it, or the cheese sauce will ooze out of the pie and turn into a runny mess.  If you do let it cool though, you get nice neat slices of pie to enjoy.  I served my pie with a nice side salad, and it made a great dinner.