Creamy vegetable pies

With vegan puff pastry... anything is possible!
These were simple, yet tasty!
For 6 muffin sized pies, you will need:
3 sheets of frozen puff pastry

filling:
2 cups of soy milk
1 cup of diced frozen vegetables
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup of finely diced broccoli
1 clove of garlic
1 cup of fresh spinach leaves, finely chopped
4 tablespoons of vegan butter
4 tablespoons of plain flour
1 teaspoon of mustard
3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste (IMPORTANT)
teaspoon of dried mixed herbs

Preheat oven to 200C

To make sauce: melt butter in a pan over medium heat
whisk in flour to form a roux
whisk in soy milk, nutritional yeast, mustard, herbs, salt and pepper and set to the side.

In a pan, fry onion, garlic and broccoli until soft, combine spinach until wilted, add this along with the diced frozen vegetables to the sauce mixture - this will be your filling.
If you would prefer it runnier, add more soy milk.

Pastry shells:
Slice each sheet of thawed puff pastry into square quarters
Place 6 of these squares neatly into a muffin tray to create the bottom of your pie shell (make sure you have greased tray extremely well!) Gently push the center of the pastry into the muffin tray.
With the remaining 6 squares, find a circular object which will fit just inside the square to create the lid of your pie (should be about a cm wider than the muffin cavity) I found a large nesquik tin was PERFECT. Use this as a template to cut out 6 circular pieces of puff pastry.

Place cooled filling inside uncooked puff pastry shell and neatly place lid on top
use a fork to push the lid and base together firmly, and brush with soy milk - top with sesame seeds (optional)

Place in oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy

Shepherds pie

Lentil based 'mince' in homestyle gravy topped with creamy mashed potato and served in a crisp puff pastry shell.

These were a big hit at home, with both omnis, Mr. Monster and room mate Monster!

You will need (recipe makes 12 muffin-sized pies)

Mince:
2 carrots, diced finely
1 Large onion, diced
3 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 tin (1 cup) of lentils, drained
¾ cup of spinach, chopped
1 ½ cups of mushroom, diced (should still be slightly chunky)
3 tablespoons of Massels supreme gravy mix mixed with 1.5 cups of water.

Place everything but the gravy into a pan and cook until almost ready, add gravy and let thicken.


Mashed potato:
5 small/medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
tablespoon of nuttellex (or vegan butter)
¼ cup of soy milk

Boil potatoes until soft, drain
Add butter and soy milk and mash.

To make puff pastry casing, grease 2x12 muffin trays all over, make sure oven is preheated to 280C
gently push thawed pastry into muffin cases. Cook in oven for max 10 minutes. Depending on oven this will vary, so keep an eye on them! Once they’re golden take them out.

Add mince mixture, and top with mashed potato, cook for 20 minutes (at 180C) or until mashed potato is golden.

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!