When I was in Scotland in 2018, I visited the Queen’s castle there. At the grand and lovely Balmoral, I discovered this cookbook.
It has some fantastic recipes, including mini chicken and leek pie. So of course I adapted it to a vegan version.
It also makes a great lunch the next day, if there are any leftovers from dinner.
I decided to use this as my signature recipe for the first ever Great British Bakeoff Pastry Week. The assignment was to bake your favorite hearty British savory pie in 2 1/2 hours.
My daughter said she was melting as she ate it, and I thought it was very tasty too!
Hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Great British Bakeoff Vegan: Season 1, Episode 5, Signature Bake
Ingredients
Pastry
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp poppy seeds
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp vegan butter, chilled
- 1/2-3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
Filling
- 2 Tbsp vegan butter
- 1 large leek, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped, or 1/2 tsp dry
- 1 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped, or 1 tsp dry
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 medium potatoes, or 6 small ones, chopped
- 280 g plant-based chicken strips, chopped
- ¾ cup water
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup frozen peas
Directions
Make the pastry
Mix the flours, salt and seeds in a large bowl. Use a knife to cut the cold butter into the flour until the butter chunks are very small – you can use your fingers to break the butter up into the flour but don’t warm it up too much.
Once it looks like the texture of small crumbs, stir in the soy milk, starting with 1/2 cup, until it comes together into a nice ball of dough. Do not knead or overwork the dough, or it will lose its flakiness and become tough. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for about 1/2 hour while you make the filling.
Make the filling
In a large pan, heat the vegan butter over medium heat, then saute the chopped leeks for about 5 minutes until they start to soften and brown. Add the thyme, oregano, salt and pepper, and stirfry for 1-2 more minutes to wake up the spices.
Next, add the potatoes, and stir/cook for a few minutes to slightly soften and brown them. Then add the plant-based chicken and stir well.
Finally, add the water, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, and cornstarch, and mix it all in well. Remove from heat and stir in the peas. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Set aside to cool the mixture while you roll out the crust.
Assemble the pie
Remove the dough from the fridge, cut it into two pieces, and roll each one out on a floured board to a size big enough to cover the entire bottom and sides of a 9″ cake pan. Wrap the dough gently over the rolling pin and then unroll it over the pan. Gently press it down into the pan, making sure it gets into all the corners and comes up all the sides.
Scoop the filling into the bottom pie crust, spread it out evenly, then use the rolling pin transfer to lay the second crust on top of the pie. Trim off any excess crust that’s hanging off the edges and save this for decorating the top later. Go around the edge of the pie and pinch the edges together so the filling won’t seep out, then arrange any bits of leftover dough into a pattern on top.
Bake and enjoy
Brush a bit of soy milk over the whole pie. Bake at 400F for 40 minutes, then check to see if it’s getting too brown around the edges. If it is, cover it with aluminum foil. Bake for about 15 more minutes until it’s nice and golden brown and smells amazing.
Remove from the oven and rest the pie for about 10 minutes before cutting into it. Serve with your favorite salad on the side.
Leave a Reply