I love a good pie, sometimes I make completely from scratch, so make the pastry, which is the best way. However, I do cheat every now and then to save time, so buy ready made pastry, which now most shop bought pastries are vegan, so you don’t need to worry about the dairy. You can also have a pie with mash potato, or mashed vegetables, it does not always have to be loaded with calories, although you know I do love the comfort of a pie!!
Lattice Capsicum and Caramalised Onion
Sweet and a little bit tangy, this tasty, pretty pie, was great for dinner, or even with a nice salad at lunchtime. They can be frozen too, so make a big batch! For this I just made four pies.
- Mixed coloured capsicum x3
- 1 onion
- 2 tbsp gooseberry chutney (or any tomato or onion chutney)
- One packet Short crust Pastry
- Milk or egg for glaze
1. Cut capsicums into four and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes on 180c/160c fan. It is up to you whether you peel off the skin once cooked, I removed them. Just peel off, which is pretty easy to do once cooked. Then cut into slices.
2. Use a round cutter for the pastry bases. As I only had small cutters, I used a small bowl and cut around it. Then cut some straight pieces of pastry for the lattice top.
3. Chop and fry off the onion in a little oil. Add a dash of margarine and cook off until the have some colour, about 5 minutes.
4. Use a pie tray and grease. So it will be bigger than a muffin tray. Layer the pastry bottoms into each.
5. Now layer the pie base with strips of capsicum, a bit of onion and a dollop of chutney. Do this for each one.
6. Then layer the lattice slices on top, weaving each piece. Use a pastry brush to add milk to the top of the pie.
7. Cook on 180c/160c fan for approximately 25 minutes. Serve
Plum and Kirsch Cherry pies
I used up some pastry I had left over for these delicious mini pies. The plum and cherry work really well together. These were also fruits that I needed to use up, and so I used the last of the kirsch cherries, together with some frozen cherries and it worked well.
- 50g Kirsch cherries
- 200g Frozen cherries
- 3 Plums, peeled and de-stoned
- 100g sugar
- 2 Tsp lemon juice
- Packet short crust pastry
1. Grease a muffin tray with margarine.
2. Use a larger cutter for the bases and cut out 12 bottoms and 12 tops. So a smaller cutter for the top.
3. Lay the bases into the muffin tray.
4. Next chop and peel plums and cut up cherries, add to a saucepan and heat through, add the sugar and lemon juice and cook down into a jam, about 10-15 minutes. Add the kirsch cherries at the end and stir through, including the liquid. I cooked for a couple of minutes more to combine.
5. Add a spoonful of the mixture to the bases, ensure you do not overfill, but share the jam into each pie.
6. Then use your finger and add a little bit of milk to each base top of the pastry case and add the pastry top. This helps the base and the top stick together when cooking. You can use a fork around the edges to ensure the bottom and top are connected.
7. Use a pastry brush and add a little milk to the top of each pie.
8. Cook in a pre heated oven 180C/160c Fan for about 25-30 minutes
Vegetable Pie
This is a simple pie, but you do need to make all the components. Do not be put off, this is a great pie when you want comfort food, but has lots of vegetables to make it semi healthy. It has a cheese sauce and mashed potato. Great for an alternative Sunday lunch. Serves 2
- 8 medium potatoes
- Half cauliflower
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Leek
- 100g lactose free cheese (or any alternative)
- Dessert spoon GF flour (or plain)
- 300ml lactose free milk (or alternative like oat)
- Knob of lactose free margarine
- Half tsp English mustard
- Tsp chilli
1. Fry off chopped leek in a little oil, once cooked, transfer to an oven dish. Add the chilli to the leeks.
2. Add water to a pan, dice all of the vegetables and cook the potatoes, cauliflower and carrots. Cauliflower will take about 10 minutes, whereas potatoes and carrots about 20.
3. Now make the cheese sauce, so add a knob of margarine to a saucepan and melt. Add the flour to make a roux. Slowly add the milk, a little at a time, stirring continuously, until it gets thicker.
4. Add grated cheese and a half tsp mustard.
5. Add the cauliflower and carrots to the leeks. Add the cheese sauce.
6. Mash the potatoes with a little milk and a knob of butter. Add mash to the vegetables.
7. Cover with foil and cook in a pre heated oven 180c/160c fan for about 30-35 minutes
Green Lentil and pumpkin & carrot mash
Oh hello, well this is a delicious sneaks cheat into a healthy pie, still tastes like mash, still has the comfort of a tasty warming pie, but yet it is pumpkin and carrot. Get those nutritious vitamins and minerals in you!
Great pie to batch cook, so you can eat it again later in the week. Use up all the colourful vegetables in your fridge, like capsicum, peas and tomatoes. Ok the peas came from the freezer, but this is how easy it is to be healthy!
Try using different pumpkins, for a different variation in the flavour.
- 1 large carrot
- 1/2 pumpkin
- 1 Tin Brown lentils
- Tin tomato
- dollop puree (2 dessert spoons)
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- Mixed herbs
- cup peas
- 1 capsicum (I used up several bits of different coloured capsicum
- Pint vegan stock
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- tsp garlic powder
- dessert spoon vegan butter
- dash lactose free milk
- OVEN 200c /180c fan
- Chop the garlic and onion and fry in a little oil.
- In a separate saucepan, cook the carrot and pumpkin in boiling water, for about 15 minutes. For better flavour, you can roast the pumpkin, which is what I actually did.
- Chop and add the capsicum to the onion, together with the tomatoes, tomato puree, paprika, stock, drained lentils, peas and herbs. Let cook down for about 25 minutes and season.
- Transfer to a casserole dish.
- Drain the cooked carrot and pumpkin and mash together, with a little vegan butter, lactose free milk and a little garlic powder.
- Add the mash to the top of the lentil mix and level out across the pie. Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with a little grated cheese if you fancy!
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