Vegan smoked tofu and vegetable pie

Ingredients

• 225g Tofoo smoke tofu, drained

• 2x350g ready rolled short-crust vegan pastry (most supermarkets)

• 3 chestnut (or other preferred) mushrooms

• 1 medium carrot, diced

• 1 medium potato, diced

• 1 medium onion

• 2 cloves garlic (this pie had 1 normal and 1 smoked garlic)

• 150g frozen spinach

• 50g petit pois peas

• Engervita yeast flakes (handful)

• Linseed (1 tsp)

• Soya or oak milk (to glaze top and seal)

Method

1. Remove pastry from fridge and allow 30mins for it to increase temperature slightly.

2. Drain and dice the smoked tofu (about 1.5cm cubes) and gently fry in vegetable oil (but don’t crisp them as you might for stir fry and so no need to deep fry etc)

3. Add the onion and cook until translucent, then add the mushrooms (after chopping them into cubes or sliced depending on preference); then add garlic and linseed and the yeast flakes and stir in well.

4. Boil the chopped potato and carrot until just cooked but not too soft) and add to the main mixture taking care not to break the potato if softer.

5. Add defrosted and drained spinach and petit pois. Stir well, but again taking care not to break the potatoes and leave to cool slightly.

6. Grease (soya spread) or otherwise line (I used spare baking paper) a 20cm (8”) round dish (I prefer to use a quiche/flan dish with a loose base so that it is easier to lift the pie out after cooking). Using this diameter, the pie will be relatively thin (3.5cm or a bit more high).

7. Roll out the first pastry and fit as a base and sides in one piece and trim.

8. Then add the main mixture ensuring the contents and particularly the stronger flavours (eg tofu) are evenly distributed and press down to ensure no gaps (tip: if this is not done, the pie contents may fall out when cut into smaller piece)

9. In preparation for addint the top, wet the sides that will come together with a thin layer of soya or oak milk and then press firmly to seal (this is a key stage or the pie will come apart).

10. Add the second layer of pastry and then glaze the top of the pie with more soya or oat milk.

11. Oven cook: conventional oven 200° for 20–25mins; fan oven 180° C for 15–20mins. Check at the minimum times and remove if the crust is the classic golden brown colour.