With only a few days left of 2015 it’s time to start preparing the food for Hogmanay and more importantly – New Year’s Day. We traditionally eat steak pie in this house so you’ll not be surprised to hear that I’ve got a vegan version of this.
It’s simple and a variation of it appears in my Scotchless pie recipe. When we had the coffee house it was a popular menu item, especially at this time of year. The inspiration for this came from a vegan chilli I found – this addition of chocolate in a savoury dish gives it the ‘sweetness’ that’s just right.
The ‘steakless steak’ in itself is naturally free from gluten and can be served with a gluten free vegan pastry. If you are vegetarian – Genius makes a puff pastry, which my Mum says is really nice – it contains egg but no dairy.
Ingredients
- 1 packet of vegan puff pastry (or a gluten free alternative)
- 200g puy/green or brown lentils
- 1 tsp vecon (a concentrated veg stock)
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 100g chestnuts, finely chopped (optional)
- 200g chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp onion granules
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons of maple syrup or agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon of vegan Worcester sauce
- 1/4 tsp of liquid smoke
- 2 tablespoons of cocoa
As with all my recipes, experiment with adding additional seasonings or textures. For example the chestnuts won’t be missed if you don’t have them but you will notice the sweetness of them being added. And if this is for a celebratory dinner, then they add some richness to the dish too.
Method
- In a pot sauté the onions until soft, add the lentils, mushrooms, vecon and chestnuts, covering with boiling water
- Bring the lentils to the boil then simmer until the lentils are soft
- In a small bowl mix the rest of the ingredients together, and once the lentils are softened add the mixture to the lentils
- Continue to heat until the mixture thickens – depending on how you intend serving, you’ll ideally want some ‘gravy’ so add extra water if the mixture is too dry, if it’s too wet you can add a little corn flour to thicken it
- Preheat your oven and roll out the puff pastry until it’s 4-5mm in depth, cut into desired shapes – I like to use my cookie cutters for fun shapes and cook until golden brown
To serve, top the lentil steakless steak with some pastry and adorn the plate with vegetables of your choice. Roast potatoes are very popular as is a sweet potato mash (which would be my preference as it’s not as heavy).
So a celebratory dinner we will have this year and so can you now I’ve shared my recipe.
The Baking Biker Chic 