Joe Anderson We love pie, although vegetarians often don’t have much choice when it comes to pie, so try this one.
Our Lentil Veggie pies are quite easy to make and taste great. Even better, you can use any left over filling to make Lentil Pate.
Here’s how, but before you start pre-heat the oven to 180c.
Lentil Gratin Pie Recipe (makes around 2-3 depending on pie dish size)
Filling
- 1 Onion
- 250g Red Lentils
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- 1 Carrot
- 5 Mushrooms
- 1 Stick of Celery
- Vegetable Stock Cube.
Chop up the garlic, carrot (small cubes), celery, onion and mushrooms and place to one side.
Pastry
- 250g plain flour
- Large pinch of salt
- 175g butter, softened
Method
Making the shortcrust pastry is simple really. Just mix together the butter, flour and salt until a dough is formed. If the mixture is crumbly then simply add a little water. Once you have a dough roll it out onto a flat, floured surface until it is around 3cm thick and find a round cutter which is slightly larger than your pie dish.
Place the pastry into the dish and blind bake by placing some greaseproof paper in the middle of the pie followed by some baking beans. Bake for around 10 minutes, remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper, then bake for another 10 mins.
In the meantime, lightly fry the carrots, onion, mushrooms, garlic and celery until they start to soften and then pour the lentils into the pot and cover with boiling water. Add the vegetable stock cube and cook until the lentils are ready. If the mixture is watery then heat until some of the water has boiled off.
Place the mixture equally between the two pies and use the remaining pastry by rolling it out and covering the top of each pie. At this point you can grate a little cheese on the top if you wish, then place in the oven for a further 20 mins or until brown.
Serve with vegetables or cold with salad.
Lentil Pate
If you have any mixture left over, simply blend it up for Lentil Pate.
