Friday 6 January 2012

How to: make a vegetable pie

Learning to cook continues with dish number two, a massive puff pastry vegetable pie (this was dish number one). Craig is vegetarian (luckily a very relaxed one that doesn't mind me preparing & eating meat in the house!), so I want to learn how to make food that we can both eat (& he is learning how to cook veggie meals too!).


Here's the recipe (it's totally worth it!).

You'll need the following ingredients:
  • root vegetables (I used two carrots, one massive leek, loads of potatoes and one parsnip) - cut these into large bits
  • a packet of ready made puff pastry
  • some milk for brushing over the pie
For the sauce:
  • 175g grated cheddar cheese
  • one onion, finely chopped
  • 40g butter
  • 40g plain flour
  • one pint of milk
  • one tablespoon of mustard


Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Start by boiling your vegetables to soften them up. I just shoved everything in the pot at once, but this was a bad idea as potatoes obviously take more time to cook than leeks! I got round this by spooning out the leeks, carrots & parsnip after 10 minutes, and left the potatoes for another 10 minutes until they were tender. Put all of your vegetables in a bowl and leave them to cool.


Make the sauce by melting the butter, adding the onion and leaving on a low heat for a couple of minutes while the onion softens. Then add in the flour, and give it a good stir to mix with the butter. 


Slowly add in the milk, little by little. Stir between each addition to keep the sauce smooth and stop any lumps forming! Once it's all in, keep stirring for a few minutes while the sauce thickens up. Add the mustard and cheese and mix it all together.


Mix the sauce with the vegetables, and then spoon the mixture into an oven dish.  


Cover the mixture with the puff pastry (I used pastry sheets which meant minimal faff!). Trim the excess mixture around the sides, and sort of smoosh the edge of the pastry to the side of the dish (you can use a fork or your fingers for this bit). 

Make two slots in the lid (for steam to escape) and decorate as you wish! I used the lovely mini heart cutters I got from Ingrid in the bloggers secret santa. Brush the pastry top with milk (this will make it turn a lovely shade of golden brown.

Pop in the oven for about 20 - 30 minutes, or until the pie is bubbling and puffed up! 


Mmmm. Hello! 


This is what it looks like on the plate. This recipe made two MASSIVE pies (two oven dishes worth) so we lived off large portions of this for days! It is really, really delicious. I definitely recommend giving it a go!

14 comments :

  1. Looks delicious! Well done!

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  2. looks great..Happy New Year! I might be in Edinburgh this week but I'm sick at the moment. xx

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  3. This looks incredible and has sent my tummy rumbling!

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  4. Thanks! It was lovely, I definitely recommend you all try it x

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  5. I have always wanted to have a go at making a pie, and yours looks truly delish! Will be bookmarking this page!

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    1. Thanks! Hope it goes well - I am surprised how easy it was x

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  6. jesus this looks amazing! your pie making skills are excellent, it looks so professional! bookmarked.

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  7. Hi Julia thanks for the recipe will be making this again x

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  8. Yummy I just posted a blog about how to make a zucchini pie, so I thought I would look around for some other good for you home cooked pies with vege's. I'm going to give this one a try this weekend some time, it looks delicious.

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    1. You can find my recipe for zucchini pie at http://samanthalaverdesblogs.blogspot.com/

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  9. i made this and it was the best pie ever as im a starter for this and im 15 so this turned out amazing but i didnt know what temp to set it but it turned out amazing

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Thank you so much for commenting, it is lovely and really makes my day!

If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them quickly, or you can also tweet me @eversojuliet

Ta!