Last week I told you my Vegetarian Story and promised that this week I would be sharing a brand new vegetarian Sunday Lunch Recipe to celebrate National Vegetarian Week. Today is my eldest’s 20th Birthday so, yesterday, we all headed to Cardiff to scoop him up and whisk him off to the beach for a big family picnic taking these newly created Vegan Picnic Pies with us!
My three older ones are all up to their ears in revision for important exams so it was utterly fabulous to have an excuse to all bunk off together and go to the beach. Clearly the sun thought they needed a break too because it was the hottest and sunniest day of the year so far!
My First Born is a total foodie (where did he get that from I wonder?!), he’s been vegetarian all his life and vegan since September of last year. I really wanted to create a new Sunday lunch dish bursting with flavour to celebrate his birthday, mine and Mr TS’s Veggie journey and the Vegetarian Society’s annual event!
These individual Hand Raised Vegan Picnic Pies would be just as good at home with all the traditional Sunday lunch trimmings (excellent with gravy) as in a picnic hamper with a selection of salads. It could also be made into one large pie as a celebration centre piece or just for a regular Sunday repast.
I loaded up the hamper with a peppery potato salad, crisp green leaves, fresh tomatoes, an edamame bean salad, bread, hummus, fruit and a large vegan fruit cake as well as ginger beer and lemonade – I come over a bit Famous Five when I’m planning a picnic!
My boy seemed pretty impressed with the look of the pies – that’s him holding his lunch and trying not to eat it while I faff about taking pictures, as usual!
When I did allow everyone to tuck in there were a lot of happy sounds – my Vegan Picnic Pies, were declared a triumph! I filled them with leeks, dried porcini and fresh chestnut mushrooms, brazil nuts and ground almonds all held together with mashed sweet potato and flavoured with thyme and chilli, they will definitely be making further appearances on our Sunday lunch menu!
Hot Water Crust Pies are the sort of Sunday lunch cooking which looks impressive, tastes amazing and is much easier than you would think. This recipe is enough to make 10 individual hot water crust vegan picnic pies, the Nutritional Yeast gives it a slightly cheesy flavour and is well worth adding, it is available in whole food stores but if you can’t get it it’s not the end of the world, add a bit more tamari and adjust the seasoning so you get a good big flavour hit!
Vegan Picnic Pies
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 leek , diced
- 6 dried porcini mushrooms , soaked in boiling water for 20 minutes then drained (keep the soaking water) and finely chopped
- 1 medium sweet potato , peeled and chopped
- 200 g chestnut mushrooms , diced
- 2 large cloves of garlic , finely chopped
- 1/2 tbsp tamari
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 50 g ground almonds
- 50 g brazil nuts , finely chopped
- 3 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Pastry
- 350 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 g vegetable fat (I use Trex)
- 175 ml water
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp English mustard powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
Instructions
Make the filling first - the pastry needs working quickly once you've made it!
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the leeks, dried and fresh mushrooms and fry gently until the mushrooms release their juices and until the liquid evaporates.
- Add the garlic and fry gently for a further minute.
- Leave to cool.
- Boil the sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes or until fork tender, drain and mash and leave to cool.
- Mix all the filling ingredients together, taste and adjust seasoning.
Make the pastry
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180 Fan/ Gas Mark 6.
- Lightly grease a 12 hole muffin tin
- Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, mustard and cayenne together in a bowl.
- Put the vegetable fat and water together in a small saucepan and bring to a rapid boil, pour into the flour mixture and mix together quickly to form a soft dough.
- As soon as you can handle the dough cut off one quarter and leave to one side.
- Divide the remaining mixture into ten pieces and roll each into a ball.
- Put one ball into each of ten holes in your muffin tin and, working quickly, mould each one with your fingers across the bottom and up the sides of each muffin hole to make your pie cups.
- Roll out the remaining dough and cut 10 lids using a 7 cm pastry cutter.
- Fill each pie cup to the brim with filling, pressing it in so that your pies are generous and full with no disappointing airy gaps!
- Moisten the top of the pastry with non dairy milk (or water) and press the lids into place.
- Glaze with a little almond milk and bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- Carefully remove your pies from the tin, pop them on a baking sheet and back into the oven for 15 minutes so that the sides have a chance to turn crisp and golden as well as the tops!
- Serve hot or cool on a wire rack and pop them into a picnic basket!
Notes
Nutrition
It wasn’t long before these two were off fossil hunting while the rest of us nattered, nibbled and threw stones at a rock to see who could hit it.
Next week’s National Vegetarian Week is almost upon us and I am aiming to post several family favourites next week to show you just how easy vegetarian cooking is, how varied and how delicious! The Vegetarian Society is an excellent resource whether you are new to vegetarianism, are a meat reducer looking for some new ideas or are a seasoned old veggie like me – do check out the website for recipe ideas and the #NVW2016 website for ways to get involved in National Vegetarian Week this year. It runs from 16th – 22nd May, celebrating vegetarian food, stories and traditions – these Vegan Picnic Pies are my latest offering and will soon become a tradition in this vegetarian family!
Disclosure: I am participating in a year long paid collaboration with Cranks food, they commissioned me to create this new Vegetarian Sunday Lunch Recipe for National Vegetarian Week.
Well, ‘vegan’ and ‘pie’ is always going to be a winner for me!
These pies sound very delicious! I love how you baked these in a muffin tin which makes these little pies perfect for a picnic! Happy birthday to your son 🙂
Can these pies be frozen ?
they sound delicious ?
Hi Terry, yes they can! Do freeze them as soon as they are cooled and wrap them really well. Pop them in a sealed freezer box to avoid freezer burn. They work best if you defrost them completely before reheating.
Yay, you all got out onto the beach and had a picnic. How wonderful. My mouth is truly watering now. You’re pies sound amazing. It’s quite shocking but I’ve still never made hot water crust pastry.
Wow, these look amazing! Something I’ve never seen before and would love to try. Adding it to my list.
These pies sound amazing! Not like anything we have in the states, but we should. Loved seeing your beautiful family enjoying the day too!
These little pies look really tasty – love the filling ingredients
Wow these look so delicious. I’ve never really done cool pies but I can see these would be great. I am a huge fan of hot water pastry but never thought to add spices to it – will have to try that.
Lovely recipe Chris, and I really enjoyed reading your vegetarian story just now. Lovely memories and photos
I love the look of those pies. I’m definitely going to try it.
Excellent! Do let me know how you get on!
Had to comment on this as they look so good! I’m not vegan.. or veggie for that matter but I do try to have a few days each week where we avoid meat and these sound fab. Love the photo of you and your son!
Thank you! I love that photo too – makes me grin! I like creating food for him, we’ve eaten vegan meals as part of our usual week (without saying ‘ooh, this is vegan’) but now that he is vegan (and I’m on the road to vegan) it’s pushing me to be more creative, I like it!
Thanks for linking up to Eating Al Fresco too xx
Thank you for hosting it! x
These look delicious! Any suggestions for substituting the English mustard powder? It’s not available where we are. Thanks!!
Hi Kaitlyn, it provides a bit of gentle heat so you could sub it with hot paprika or just leave it out! I hope that helps, Chris X
These little pies look amazing! I’m definitely going to try them. I’ve never been a successful pie-crust maker (usually use store bought crusts that contain no lard), but maybe i can master this recipe. Thank you!
My pleasure, I hope it goes well, good luck!
Oh wow wow wow ?
I love pie and the filling sounds absolutely fabulous!
One question please before I try them.
Can they be frozen?
Love and happiness
Terri x
Yes, they can! Make sure they are well wrapped and then sealed. Defrost them thoroughly before eating them and consume them within a day. I hope this helps. Chris.