Chickpea-crusted Spring Pie Recipe

Serves

6–8

Ingredients

For the filling

600g tofu
200ml plant milk (coconut milk)
2tbsp flaxseed (whole or ground)
1-2tbsp curry powder
2tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

For the vegetables

Use anything in season, but for spring, I suggest:

a handful of asparagus
a handful of kale
a handful of tenderstem broccoli or purple-sprouting broccoli
1 pak choi (bok choi)
a few chicory (endive) leaves
fresh ramps (wild garlic)

To serve

½ fresh red chilli, chopped (optional)
large leafy green salad

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Grease a 24cm rectangular pie dish or a 1cm circular dish.

Start by making the pastry dough for the pie. Add all the flours, the oil, water and salt to a bowl and start mixing everything together to form a dough. Start kneading out all the bumps – you should have a lovely, firm dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes (not in the fridge).

To make the filling, crumble the tofu into a food processor or blender, then add the remainder of the ingredients. Blitz until smooth and set aside.

Once the dough has rested, place it on a clean floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin. If necessary, add extra sprinkles of flour to keep the rolling pin from sticking. Once you have rolled the dough out to the desired size, slowly loosen it up from the work surface ready to transfer to your pie dish.

Gently lay the rolled dough in the dish and start shaping it against the sides. If there are any gaps, use any leftover bits of dough that you might have in other areas. Press the edges of the dough down gently with a fork and puncture the base so the pastry cooks evenly. Put the pie crust in the oven for 10 minutes to pre-cook before filling it.

While the pie crust is cooking, prepare the spring vegetables by washing thoroughly and patting dry with paper towel. Remove the hard bits from the bottom of the broccoli, asparagus and the pak choi and de-stem the kale.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan (skillet) and lightly fry all the vegetables on one side. Be careful not to let them get too brown and then gently turn to the other side. Once cooked, set aside until assembly.

Once the pie crust is light brown, it is ready to be filled with the tofu filling and vegetables. Pour the filling in first, evening it out and giving an extra seasoning of salt and pepper.

Add the half-cooked vegetables, arranging them beautifully and pushing them down slightly into the filling.

Once everything is in the pie casing, bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the filling is firm and the vegetables are golden brown.

Sprinkle with some extra chopped chilli, if you wish, and serve with a big salad.

Recipe taken from Celebrate: Plant-Based Recipes for Every Occasion by Bettina Campolucci Bordi (Hardie Grant, £20) Photography: Louise Hagger

Read the Food articles archive...