A really autumnal creamy veggie pie

You know me, I flipping love a pie. I always feel a bit bad for the vegetarians in our household, though, as they miss out on gorgeous, creamy chicken pies and comforting beef pies, and I’ve been toying with different vegetable based pie recipes for a while. One that was quite successful recently was a kind of weird stuffing pie using the same recipe from my vegan Christmas stuffing as a pie filling. But then, I was making a creamy pasta thing the other day with leeks, mushrooms and other stuff, and we were saying how delicious and autumnal it was, and then we realised that it would make an amazing pie filling, and so, the autumnal creamy veggie pie was born (terrible name - I’ll have to work on that). Here’s what I did:

Not the prettiest pie, by any means, but a super delicious autumnal pie (see what I mean about needing colour?)

A really autumnal creamy veggie pie

You will need:

3 leeks
1 punnet mushrooms
1 block of halloumi
A couple of sage leaves
2 tbs crème fraîche
200ml stock (2 veggie stock cubes are fine)
1 bag roasted chestnuts (I use these and I always grab them when I see them because I use them a lot)
Seasoning

For the pastry
200g salted butter
400g plain flour
1 large free range egg

So really, the trick to this is to cook the leeks really low and slow until they’re super soft and silky (this is especially important when you’re making this to stir through pasta but I think the same applies here). I hate gritty leeks so I always split them lengthwise and rinse them before slicing them into about 1 cm pieces. I also chop the mushrooms quite finely, but you can leave them in bigger chunks if you prefer the texture. Heat some oil in a heavy based pan, then throw in the leeks and mushrooms, season generously and cook them gently without colouring (the salt helps here) until they’re really soft and kind of mushy, then turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180/gas 4, cut the halloumi into cubes, drizzle it in oil and scatter over the chopped sage. Roast for about 15-20 minutes, turning them over occasionally, until they’re lovely and golden.

Now, stir two very generous big tablespoonfuls of crème fraîche into the mixture, as well as the crumbled chestnuts and the roasted halloumi (get all the sage in as well), and then enough stock to make it good pie filling consistency. Again, if you’re making this for pasta, you can make it a bit more runny. I find about 200ml is perfect for pie. Leave that to cool while you make the pastry.

The pasta sauce version

SIDE NOTE: I don’t bother resting my pastry and I make sure it’s quite squidgy in consistency too because there’s nothing worse than letting it rest, then it gets too cold, then it’s annoying trying to roll out crumbly pastry dough. It always comes out okay so ignore the purists. Shop bought is obviously fine too.

Where was I? Oh right, cut the cold butter into cubes, add it to the flour and season well. Gently rub in the butter using just your fingertips (or the KitchenAid) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and then dribble in enough cold water to bring it together so it’s like play dough. Flour a board, split it roughly 1/3 to 2/3 and roll out the bigger bit for the pie base.

Then just flump in your pie filling, roll out the top bit, press down the edges and give it a quick brush with egg or milk.

Play dough pastry - it’s the future

Spoon in the pie filling (as you can see, my pie filling could have done with a teeny bit more stock)

Add the lid et voila

Bake your pie at 180/gas 4 for around 30 - 40 minutes. All the filling is cooked, so you just want the pastry to be nice and golden basically. I served ours with roast potatoes, roasted carrots (drizzle with honey, oil and more sage) and just some steamed broccoli and oh my word it was lush. All the carnivores were well happy too. I just used gravy granules (Bisto is actually vegetarian), but you could make a creamy sauce if you wanted.

Vegetarian Sunday lunch

I think as a cook, I need to move away from the belief that you have to have some sort of meat substitute in a pie. I loved the roasted halloumi in this one but honestly, it didn’t need it - and actually it needed a bit more colour, so next time I’m going to substitute some roasted sweet potato or butternut squash (always and forever called squatternut bosh by Charlie), and just go with what’s tasty. I’ll keep you up to date with my veggie pie adventures. Do let me know if you give it a go xx