Spiced Mushroom Pie

Vegan ✅

Healthy ✅

Serves 4-6 People ✅

Okay, so I've just had a great idea. I love tandoori spiced mushrooms and it's also autumn/winter. Why don't I put it into a pie? A perfectly spiced mushroom pie with flavours that can warm the soul complete with homemade pastry that's easier to make than any pastry you will make in your life. If you think this pie is on the strange side let's put it this way: I normally really dislike pie and even I ate this one. AND I enjoyed it...

Part 1: Your Pastry

When I tell you that this is easy, I mean that it is dead easy. Anyone can make this pastry and it's spiced and delicious and you can put whatever you like of your savoury vegetable selection of pie fillings inside.

Ingredients:

• 1x Tbsp Turmeric

• 1x Tbsp Ground Pepper

• 1x Handful Spinach

• 125g Margarine

• 250g Plain Flour

• 1x Tsp Olive Oil

How To:

1. Preheat your oven to 200/C and grease up a pastry dish you plan to use - you can do this with some olive oil or some margarine

2. Put all of the ingredients above into a mixing bowl and mix to form a dough

3. Put it in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes to chill

4. Once chilled, roll it out and line your pastry dish - line the top of your pastry with some greaseproof paper

5. If you don't have baking beads, you can use a small plate atop of the greaseproof paper (make sure it's oven proof!) to make sure your pastry doesn't rise

6. Blind bake your pastry for 10-12 minutes

7. Bring it out of the oven and give it some time to cool, removing your plate and/or beads plus your greaseproof paper from the pastry

8. Just leave it to one side whilst you make your filling - don't turn your oven off because you'll need it in a bit!

Part 2: Filling

Ingredients:

• 2x Tbsp Tandoori Spice Mixture

• 1x Tsp Turmeric

• 2x Tbsp Lemon Juice

• 1x Handful of Chopped Fresh Coriander

• 1/2x Tsp Salt

• 1/2x Tsp Ground Pepper

• 1x Tsp Cumin Seeds

• 1x Tbsp Tamarind Sauce

• 100g Soya Cream*

• 150g Chestnut Mushrooms

• 1x Red Pepper

• 1x Green Chilli

• 150g Vegan Cheese*

• 1x Tbsp Cornflour

How To:

1. Chop your mushrooms, pepper and chilli, place them into a bowl with all of the spices, cumin seeds, lemon juice, half of your coriander and all of your cream and mix it all together and set it to one side for 15-20 minutes for marination

2. Grate your cheese and chop your coriander and mix those together and set it to one side

3. Heat up some oil in a pan and pour in your mushroom and pepper mixture from the bowl after the time is up - mix on a medium heat for 10-12 minutes until everything is cooked

4. Sift in the cornflour to thicken up the mixture slightly - it should be a bit more difficult to move around the pan - turn the heat right down to keep it hot but not overcook it

5. Grab your pastry and pour your mushroom and pepper mixture into the pastry case, filling it up only a tiny bit from the top - level it out and then grab your grated cheese mixture

6. Sprinkle you grated cheese and coriander over the top

7. Place your prepared pie into the oven for 25-30 minutes at 200/C - if you want something a bit crispier then you want to leave it in for 35 minutes, but remember that this pastry has no binding agent and that could dry it out. I put mine on for 25 minutes if you're interested and it keeps the pastry nice and a little crumbly

8. Once out of the oven, leave it to cool for about 10 minutes before cutting into it. This allows the ingredients to set - remember you have cream in there and it's been in the oven and because there's no dairy in it, it needs that extra time to set or when you cut into it, it will go everywhere

9. When all of that is done, you can enjoy your pie!

*When using vegan products you can really use anything except for those made of coconut milk/cream/cheese as coconut milk/cream/cheese is a bit on the thin side.

I've enjoyed making this and though I don't like pie I did enjoy eating this one. A great spicy and healthy pie for the cold, it really does warm you up!