It is British pie week this week! Why not try and make a mid-week pie to celebrate? Pies are so useful to use up vegetables and you can try lots of different ingredients. The recipe below is for potato and leek pie but you can also try mushroom and leek or carrot and potato or use any of your leftover vegetables. The recipe below is for a lighter sauce but you can also add vegan gravy granules and swap white for red wine to make a richer sauce for your vegetables. You can also make this ahead of time and just pop in the oven when you are ready. I use ready rolled puff pastry which is accidentally vegan. You can also make your own pastry but the ready rolled tastes great.

Ingredients

1 Onion

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 stick of celery

A handful of peas

3-4 medium potatoes

2 carrots

2 leeks

1 glass of white wine ( plus another for the chef!!)

1 tablespoon mixed herbs

1 teaspoon French mustard

Salt

Pepper

1 packet of ready rolled puff pastry

Method

Peel and cut your potatoes and carrots into small pieces and cook in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and keep for later.

Meanwhile finely chop your onion and celery and fry in a tablespoon of olive oil for 6 minutes until softened. Chop the leeks and add to the frying pan and cook for a further 6 minutes.

Mix in the parboiled potatoes, peas and carrots, add your mixed herbs and season well with salt and pepper.

Add a glass of wine and a teaspoon of mustard and stir until the wine has evaporated. Add 300ml hot water and simmer all of the flavours for 10 minutes on a low heat. Do not let the liquid boil dry and add more liquid if needed.

Put the pie filling in an oven proof dish and add the pastry on top. Trim the edges and you can add some pastry decorations if you have time. I sometimes cut out letters or hearts in the spare pastry and add to the top of the pie. I also cut a hole for the steam to evaporate.

Finally gently brush your pastry with some almond or soya milk.

Cook in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes until the pastry is cooked.

I serve this with baked beans and some home made chutney!

Delicious! Happy cooking!

Adapt

Try using sliced potatoes or mash as a pie topping instead of pastry. Sweet potato mash also makes a great pie topping but try other vegetables for a tasty filling than double potatoes!

As above, you can also make a richer gravy using vegan granules and red wine. This is especially good with an earthy mushroom pie.

Plus why not make extra gravy to pour over the top of your pie!