Hey Soupologistas! If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you treat yourself to the first recipe in our kids’ school meal week with Cornflake (Sunshine) Tart! Today, I thought we would stick with the pastry theme but go down a more savoury route. So, let’s journey back to childhood with this creamy and herby pie (100% vegan!).
One of our followers on Instagram said they remembered having some kind of creamy pie when they were at school. My school used to serve a creamy leek and sweetcorn pie that I LOVED! It was one of the best veggie dishes they made. So, I thought I would have a go at making my own version! For this recipe, I’ll be using onions as my sister, who is isolating with us, is allergic to leeks. As with all of our recipes, this pie is totally customisable and versatile. It is also well suited to any dietary requirements. As well as onions, I’ve used carrots, garlic, sweetcorn, and plant-based ‘chicken’ (completely optional), but so many other vegetables and ingredients can be included. In the past, I’ve successfully made this pie with differing combinations of green beans, parsnips, swede, potatoes and red peppers.
Let me know how you get on via social media – I love to see what you guys create!
What can I expect?
The creamy and herby pie is honestly so easy to make. Each step is simple by itself and doesn’t take too long to put together. If you want, you can take a look at our step-by-step video tutorial on our Instagram stories and bake alongside us!
I also break down the basics of creating a white sauce – sometimes called a roux (with milk) or a bechamel sauce. They’re all different names for the same thing – a sauce made from flour, butter and milk. As we’re keeping this plant-based, we’ll be using margarine and plant milk. If you’re gluten free you can sub the flour with rice or potato flour however, you might need a bit less flour as they are particularly starchy.
We love hearing all about your school food memories on social media so do keep the suggestions and nostalgia coming!
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Nothing beats cutting into a slice of homemade pie as you watch the creamy and herby filling spill out! Without further ado, let’s get started!
Kids' Vegan Creamy and Herby Pie
Equipment
- Large Saucepan x2
- Spatula
- 9" Fluted Pan, or any suitable pie dish
- Chopping Board
- Rolling Pin
- Knife
- Pastry Brush (optional)
- Whisk
- oven
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 2 Onions roughly chopped
- 3-4 Cloves Garlic finely chopped
- 2 Medium Carrots sliced
- 100 g Plant-Based Chicken or Minced Meat (both optional)
- 100 g Sweetcorn frozen or tinned
- 2 tsp Dried Herbs of your choice e.g. Parsley or Chives
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
For the Roux:
- 40 g Flour
- 40 g Margarine
- 250 ml Vegetable Stock
- 150ml Soy Milk
- 1 tsp Dried Parsley (optional)
- Pinch of Nutmeg (optional)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
For the Pie:
- 320 g Shortcrust Pastry
- Plain Flour to dust
- Plant-Based Milk to glaze
- Dried Herbs (optional)
- Pinch of Sea Salt
Instructions
For the Filling:
- To begin, pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Pour the vegetable oil into a large saucepan over a low heat.
- Add the onion and garlic to the saucepan and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- As the onion and garlic begin to soften, add the carrots, plant-based chicken, herbs, and seasoning, to taste. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Drop in the sweetcorn, cooking for a further minute, then remove from the heat and set aside while we make the white sauce.
For the White Sauce:
- Melt the margarine in a pan.
- Once the margarine has melted, add the flour and whisk together into a clump.
- Immediately pour in the 1/3 of the milk/vegetable stock mixture. Whisk into the roux until it becomes a mashed potato consistency. Whisk in the next 1/3 until the sauce is a bit thinner. Make sure to whisk out as many clumps of flour as possible for a smooth sauce.
- Pour in the remaining 1/3 of liquid and whisk until fully combined.
- Keep cooking for a further minute to help thicken up the sauce slightly.
- Now take the white sauce off the heat.
- Tip the cooked vegetables into the white sauce and stir together thoroughly.
- Set aside the filling to cool for about 20 minutes while we shape the pie dough.
For the Pie:
- Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour.
- Cut off 1/3 of the pastry and set it aside – this will be our topping. Place the remaining 2/3 pastry on your work surface.
- Sprinkle extra flour on the pastry to ensure it will not stick to the surface or rolling pin.
- Roll out the pastry slightly larger than your pie dish.
- Line the pie dish with the pastry. Press the pastry into the pie dish, ensuring you do this process with care to prevent any ripping or tearing. As pastry tends to shrink during the baking process, allow the excess pastry to overhang.
- Fill the pastry dish with the filling and set aside.
- Roll out the remaining 1/3 pastry, making it slightly larger than the pie dish.
- Lay the pastry over the top of the pie, allowing the excess to overhang.
- Now, lift the pastry dish with one hand and with a standard eating knife in the other hand, go around the edge of the pie dish, cutting of the excess. To do this perfectly, hold the knife at a 90° angle to the edge of the pie dish. The aim of this is to both cut off all the excess pastry while also merging together the top and bottom pastry. In doing so, the pastry should stick together once cooked. (Check out our video for a more detailed example of this.)
- To decorate, I like to lightly brush the top of the pie with some extra plant milk and sprinkle over dried herbs and a pinch of sea salt.
- Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
1: 1: 10
So, if we wanted to make a small white sauce for 2 people, we could use: 10g Margarine: 10g Flour: 100g/ml Liquid If we use this creamy pie sauce above as an example, we have used:
40g Margarine: 40g Flour: 400ml Liquid I say ‘liquid’ rather than milk because you can combine milk with vegetable stock, if you like. As you can see above, I’ve used 250ml ‘milk’ + 150ml vegetable stock to make up our 400ml liquid. Simply put, make the margarine and flour the same weight. Multiply that weight by 10 to know how much milk/vegetable stock to add. Easy, right? You can use a white sauce to be the creamy layer on top of a lasagna, to make the sauce for a mac n cheese, to top a moussaka or as part of a pie filling!
