chicken pies, vegan style

'chicken' and vegetables in a creamy homestyle gravy, topped with mashed potato and served in a crisp pie shell.

Filling:

2 cups of diced vegetables (cubes should be no larger than 1cm squared. I used
 - potato (small amount of this
 - carrot
 - broccoli
 - cauliflower
 - corn cut off the cob
 - ½ cup of mushroom ontop of this

1 medium sized onion
½ cup of risotto rice
Large tablespoon of garlic
1 tablespoon of massels chicken
2 tablespoons of cornflour (liquefied with ¼ cup of water)
1 cup of soy milk
Salt and pepper to taste
2 large tablespoons of wholegrain mustard (optional)
two fillets of fry’s chicken schnitzel (or chicken seitan of your choice)

Crust:

1 ½ cups of flour (regular does the trick)
½ cup of vegan butter
½ cup of oil
1 tablespoon of salt
1 teaspoon of raw sugar (heaped)
4 tablespoons of soy milk

If you do not wish to use the butter (I know it’s rather expensive) you can always alternatively use ½ cup extra of oil

Topping:

2 cups of mashed potato

Insructions:

Preheat oven to 180 C

Throw all cubed vegetables in water to boil (potato, carrot, corn, broccoli, cauliflower) and drain once finished.

While this is happening the rest of the mix needs to be made!
Throw the chopped onion and the garlic in a pan with a large scoop of butter (this is important as we’re throwing the risotto rice in) – fry this until soft
add risotto, chicken stock, soy milk, fry’s chicken schnitzels (diced) and water – keep mixing until risotto has softened and once this has cooked throw in mushroom and mustard. stir for a few minutes longer (you want the mushroom to stay juicy and not get overcooked)

Mix gravy mixture and boiled vegetables together to create your filling!

Now to make the crust

Throw flour, salt and sugar into a bowl – mix, then cut your butter into the mixture until it becomes sandy looking (skip this step if using all oil) then add oil and soy milk, mix and mould into your crust.

I made miniature pies, so I used a muffin tin, and moulded the crust into it, if you’re making one large pie the same rule applies.

Cook the crust on it’s own in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked, fill with your filling, and top with mashed potato – cook for a further 30 minutes.

Enjoy!