Sunshine Pie or Pasties

The cool Winter weather always makes me think of warming soups, pies and casseroles. For some time I have been making more plant based dishes or giving some of my recipes a ‘vegan makeover’. This pie is called a sunshine pie because of the large quantity of orange/yellow/red vegetables in the filling. These vegetables are high in vitamin A which the body converts to Vitamin D when exposed to relatively low or small amounts of sunshine. Make a large family sized pie or six pasties. I like to serve with green vegetable salad and a good tomato relish.

Although not in the recipe I will often add cheese to the pasties, this is a vegan soy cheese.

Roll out pastry into a rough circle, add filling and then shape into pasties pierce the pastry to create small holes for the steam to escape.

Make sure that you have a good mix of colourful vegetables, sometimes I add a teaspoon of fennel seeds.

This is the Miso / soybean paste that I use. It adds a delicious ‘umami ‘or savoury flavour.

 Utritional yeast also adds a savoury flavour that is a bit cheesy and contains lots of B vitamins.

When making the pie makes sure to mound up the filling or use a deep pie dish.

Sunshine Pie or Pasties

Filling 3 onions 3 cloves of garlic 2 carrots 1 small sweet potato 1 small wedge pumpkin 1 large parsnip 2 red capsicum 1 2 Tablespoons of Miso paste 2 Tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper Olive oil

Pastry 1 cup SR flour 1/2 cup wholemeal flour 125 g Nuttelex or other non dairy spread pinch of salt 3 Tablespoon water, approximately To assemble/finish the pie A little non dairy milk for glazing Sesame/poppy/nigella seeds

Make Filling

Cut up / dice onions and cook over low heat in a little olive oil, stir often and allow to colour but not burn. Crush garlic and add to onions.

Cut up / dice all vegetables into small pieces. I partially cook them in the microwave for 5 -8 minutes until just starting to soften.

Combine onion, vegetables, Miso, nutritional yeast and pepper, mix well and cook for a few more minutes. Taste the mixture Add more pepper and Miso if you think it needs more seasoning.

Place in the fridge to cool.

Make Pastry

Mix flours and salt together.

Rub butter into flour or process on pulse in food processor.

Add sufficient chilled water to make a firm but pliable dough or continue to pulse in food processor.

Knead lightly.

Cover pastry with a bowl and allow it to relax on bench for 10 to 20 minutes

Assemble Pie

Divide pastry into 1/3 and 2/3 balls of dough.

Roll out the large ball of pastry to 3mm thickness. It needs to be about the same size as the pie dish. (diameter and depth of sides)

Place the pastry into the greased/oiled pie tin or dish, allow the pastry to hang over the edges. Moisten the edges with a little milk or water.

Fill with the cooled vegetable mixture, mound it up.

Roll out the remaining pastry circle to form the lid.

Place lid on pie, press edges together. Decorate edges as desired and create a hole in the middle to allow steam to escape.

Brush a little milk over the top of the pie and sprinkle with seeds.

Bake at 180 deg C for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 170 and continue cooking until pastry is golden brown.