Cheese and Onion Pasties – VeganMoFo Day 23

Today in VeganMoFo we’re challenged to show what seasonal food we make. It’s well and truly autumn/winter here, this week has been cold and rainy and really quite horrible. Seasonal vegetables – such as butternut squash, beetroot, swede – are all very well but sometimes you just want some cosy food.

Enter, pasties! Crisp pastry wrapped around a warm, melt in your mouth filling. What could be better?

Look, I even served it with vegetables (broad beans and peas) so it’s healthy! Perfect kinda meal, right?

This pasty has the best kind of filling: cheese and onion! This was my husband’s request, as he used to enjoy the cheese and onion pasties you could get before he was vegan. I thought I’d see if I could make it vegan and – I could, easily. I used Violife cheese, but use whatever you like, just make sure it is a cheese that actually melts!

The first step is to fry the onions and potatoes. The potatoes are diced very small, so they cook slightly in the pan and then can finish cooking completely in the pasties. If they’re cut too large, they won’t cook through.

Then, once cooled, the potato onion mixture goes in a bowl with the grated cheese and seasoning. I used a food processor attachment to grate my cheese because I find it annoying grating so much by hand, but it can be done by hand if you don’t have a food processor.

Next, the pastry gets rolled out and filled with the potato-onion-cheese mixture. Make this generous as the pastry will puff up and you don’t want an empty pasty!

Finally, the pasties are baked in the oven for thirty minutes until lovely and golden brown! You can serve them how you like – on their own, with vegetables, in your packed lunch…however. Hot or cold, they’re lovely comfort food.

Cheese and Onion Pasties

• Servings: 6 pasties
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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 325g potatoes, peeled and diced small (1cm cubes roughly)
• 150g vegan cheese (I used Violife), grated
• Salt & Pepper
• 450g puff pastry
• 2 tbsp vegan butter, melted (for brushing on top of the pasties)

Directions

1. Melt the tablespoon of vegan butter in a large pan.
2. Add the onion and fry for 5 minutes until the onion is translucent.
3. Add the potato cubes and a slosh of water and fry for a further 5 minutes, adding more water if it starts to stick to the bottom.
4. Remove from the heat, place in a large bowl, and leave to cool.
Preheat your oven to 180C/355F
5. Once cool, mix in the grated cheese and the seasonings.
6. Next, roll out your puff pastry. Cut it into small rectangles – about A5 size – place on a baking tray, and place a big scoop of the potato filling on top of half of your rectangles.
7. Top the pasties with the other half of the rolled out pastry. Seal the sides by brushing with a little water and squishing together with the tines of a fork. Push the fork into the top of the pastry to create a hole to allow steam to escape.
8. Brush the pasties with the melted butter – this gives them a lovely golden colour once cooked.
9. Bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.
10. Can be eaten hot or cold.

C.M.O.T. Dibbler’s Famous Pies! – Vegan MoFo Day 7

Anyone who knows me will know that I am a huge fan of the Discworld books, by Sir Terry Pratchett. I recently, and sadly, finished reading The Shepherd’s Crown, the final book written before Sir Terry passed away, and it’s an awful feeling to know we will never see that world again. If you’ve ever though about reading the books – don’t hesitate, go read! You will not regret it.

Food is often mentioned in the Discworld books, and one of the Disc’s most famous purveyor of food is C.M.O.T Dibbler, who’s sausages are “a once-in-a-lifetime experience” and who’s pies are “criminal”.

These pies are perhaps improved from Mr. Dibbler’s own – being quite edible and palatable (and you know where the filling comes from!) but they are my tribute to the Disc.

I made the filling from seitan and used a hot water pastry for the crust, meaning these are very durable pies so won’t fall apart if you take them on picnics or anything – perfect!

I baked these in ramekins – the recipe will make about 6 ramekin sized pies. You could make them smaller or bigger, just make the seitan mixture into smaller/bigger balls.

C.M.O.T. Dibbler's Famous Pies

• Servings: 6 pies
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Ingredients

for the filling
• 40g chickpea flour (substitute all purpose if you don’t have this)
• 220g Vital Wheat Gluten
• 15g nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Pinch nutmeg
• Pinch white pepper
• 1 tsp stock powder/1 stock cube
• 2 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 400ml water

for the crust

• 500g plain flour
• 150g vegan butter
• 250ml water
• pinch salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients for the pie filling. Pour in the wet, and mix until a dough is formed.
2. Knead the mix for two minutes, but not longer.
3. Form the dough into pieces slightly smaller than the ramekin you plan on baking the pies in. They will expand when steaming.
4. Wrap the pieces in foil (like a boiled sweet) and steam for 20 minutes (longer if you are making a big pie).
5. When steamed, allow to cool before making the pies.
6. Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. Grease and flour the ramekins to make sure the pastry won’t stick.
7. Make the pastry by melting together the butter and water in a saucepan, and bringing to the boil.
8. In a bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour over the butter/water mix.
9. Mix to form a dough, and (carefully, it’s hot!) knead for a minute with your hands.
10. Break off pieces of the pastry and press into the ramekins, lining them and forming an overlap at the rim of the ramekin.
11. Place the filling pieces in the pastry cases, trimming with a knife if necessary.
12. Once all the cases are filled, break off more pastry and press to cover the pies. Firmly pinch together the edges creating a tight seal.
13. Bake pies in a preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until the pastry is golden.
14. Either eat hot, or cold, it doesn’t matter!