Veggie Pasties

Evening all! Ah what lovely weather today!!!…So nice in fact that the kids ate these outside this evening! I served them with some big chunks of cucumber and that was it! Packed full of veggies this pasty went down way better than i was anticipating!! Maybe because they were al fresco!! Actually this was the perfect food to have outside…good for lunchboxes and picnics!!

So the recipe for this was inspired by this BBC Good Food recipe! I switched a few things around so here’s what I did in case you fancy trying this version at home too!

Start by dicing all your veg. Here i’ve got sweet potato, maris piper potato and carrot..You could also add some parsnip into these too!

 

Pop these into a pan of water and boil for around 10 mins or until they are just tender. They’ll cook longer in the oven so don’t over cook them!

Add some broccoli florets to the pan for the last 3 minutes..

Then drain, cut the broccoli into smaller pieces, the same size as the other veg and then leave aside.

Meanwhile in a frying pan gently fry a diced onion, 2 crushed cloves of garlic and some fresh thyme.

Once the onion has softened add your veg to the pan together with 1 tsp mustard and around 200 ml vegetable stock. Allow the liquid to reduce a little and then add 2 large handfuls of grated cheese and stir through until the cheese has melted.

 

It should look something like this! A thick cheesy sauce…

Now leave this to cool completely…If it’s not cool before you add this to your pastry you’ll melt the pastry making it impossible to work with! (Believe me i’ve tried!!!) The good thing is you can prep all this bit in advance though…and then when it comes to dinner all you need to do is place this into pastry, crimp and pop into the oven….so yes….

…..once this has cooled you need to grab your pastry. I used some ready made shortcrust pastry. Roll this out (it should be about the thickness of a £1 coin) and then make some circles. You can make these small using a pastry cutter at around 11cm diamater or a slightly larger one at 16cm. I tried both!  Then simply add a couple of spoonfuls of the mixture to the pastry.

Then fold in half and then it’s time to crimp the edges. There are various videos online on how to crimp a pasty which will no doubt be rather more professional than mine but you can either just use a fork or start from one edge and then tuck a bit of the pastry in, then repeat the process all the way around the edge…Not sure if the below helps?? You kind of twistl the bottom bit over to the top and press down, then repeat.

 

Here’s the forked ones!

Then once you’ve gone all the way around simply egg wash then pop into a preheated oven at 180C for around 35/40 minutes or until your pasty is a lovely golden brown!….

 

…a bit like this one!! YUM!

 

 

 

and that’s it!

 

So just to recap:

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 maris piper potato – diced
• 1 large carrot – diced
• 1 sweet potato – diced
• Handful of broccoli florets
• 1 onion – diced
• 2 garlic cloves – crushed
• Few sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 tsp dijon english mustard
• 200 ml Vegetable stock
• 2 large handfuls of grated cheese
• Shortcrust pastry – I used a ready made shortcrust pastry roll

and here’s what you need to do:

• Start by dicing your veggies (sweet potato, Maris piper, carrots) and then boil for around 5 mins until just starting to soften..add some broccoli for the last 3 minutes or so. Then drain and then dice your broccoli into small florets so same size as your potatoes.
• Meanwhile heat a frying pan and gently fry 1 diced onion, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, some fresh thyme…
• Once softened add the drained veg, 1 tsp mustard and some chicken stock (around 200ml)
• Once this has reduced a little add 2 large handfuls of grated cheese and stir through until melted.
• Now take this off the heat and leave the filling to cool completely.
• Once cooled take your pastry and cut some circles out. The big one here was 16 cm and the smaller ones were around 11 cm.
• Add your filling then carefully fold the pasty over and then crimp using a fork or just folding the edges in all the way around.
• Then egg wash and then bake on a baking tray for around 35/40mins at 180C or until golden brown

 

Pretty straight forward and actually I had a much better reaction from the kids than I was expecting!!! So maybe worth a try too at home? As always please let me know if you do try…or any variations you make! I LOVE hearing from you guys!!

See you soon! xx