Print Recipe

Kids' Vegan Creamy and Herby Pie

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: British
Keyword: Bechamel, Kids' School Meals, Pie, Roux, vegan, White Sauce
Servings: 4 people

Equipment

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

A bechamel sauce and a white sauce are both the same thing. A roux is just the flour and butter (or margarine) mixture. A roux + milk = a white sauce/bechamel.
To make any white sauce ever, here is our simple ratio: Margarine: Flour: Liquid
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!