These soul warming vegetable pies are a beautiful way to entertain a casual weekend lunch with a couple of dear friends. The Indian style spices add a tasty, fragrant kick while the cheese sauce envelopes the vegetables, hugging them close.
It does look like a rather long list of ingredients, but please don't be intimidated - you may have most of these ingredients in your cupboards. Otherwise, please adapt the recipe to what you have. If you are missing one or two of the spices, just use a little more of what you have. If you have kumara and red onion, replace the pumpkin and leek. The idea is to have a mix of vegetable styles to help hold the pies together and give them structure. At a pinch, a starchy root vegetable, a brasscia and something from the allium family is the minimum of what you need. A sprinkle of sesame seeds or poppy seeds on the top of the pies lid provides a nice touch, but isn't necessary.
Serve with a big green salad on the side as well as a nice relish. Be sure to warn everyone before they tuck in, these pies are scorching hot in the middle; cheese sauce turns thermonuclear in these vegetable pies.
If they're not all eaten straight away, these little babies freeze well for a future easy meal.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 x leek, sliced
- 1 x brown onion, sliced
- 200gm pumpkin, chopped in 2cm cubes
- 2 x carrot, chopped into 2cm rounds
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 3 tbsp flour
- 200ml milk
- 1 cup green lentils, simmered for 30 minutes, drained
- 1 cup broccoli florets, blanched
- 1 cup cauliflower florets, blanched
- 1 cup grated cheese, I used Hutchinsons Club Cheddar
- 1 handful parsley, chopped
- 5 sheets puff pastry
- 1 egg, gently beaten
