Hap-pie Pie Week

Creative ways to use leftovers reduce food waste and enjoy Pie Week

Annika Collins 

March 10, 2016

 

Turn your leftovers into a tasty pie

A whole week of the year dedicated to pies, what’s not to like? Pies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: thick pastry, thin pastry, puff pastry, mash topped, meat fillings, vegetable fillings or both. Handmade or processed there’s a pie to suit pretty much anyone! My favourite type of pie is a handmade pie – unique and ready to satisfy my taste buds, plus I love to experiment.

Use your creativity and create your own pie, a simple way to reduce food waste and saves money, by clearing your fridge of leftover meat and vegetables. You can also try out some carving techniques and add decorative pastry shapes. Images are playing in the back of my mind where a once clean kitchen is engulfed by a haze of flour! Feeling inspired to bake? Remember it’s not how it looks it’s all about the taste and it will taste so much better when it hasn’t cost much to make.

Pie

Pie recipe

Follow my recipe for a quick and easy vegetable pie, great for using up roast dinner leftovers and easily adaptable:

Ingredients:

  • 1 pack of ready rolled puff pastry (to make life a little easier)
  • Cooked vegetables such as broccoli, leeks, cauliflower, potato
  • Your choice of sauce (cheese, tomato or gravy…)
  • 1 egg

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees.
  2. Slice the cooked vegetable(s) of choice into bite sized chunks and set them aside in a bowl. Mix with the sauce and season to taste
  3. Turn your pie dish upside down and press lightly onto the roll out pastry sheet. Using a sharp knife carefully cut out the lid of your pie and brush with a little beaten egg
  4. Transfer the vegetable sauce mixture to your pie dish and carefully place the pastry lid on top. Remember to make a couple of holes in the pastry so the steam can escape

Place the pie in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Top Tip

Why not experiment with the sauce and / or vegetable choice? You could even sprinkle a bit of cheese on top of your pastry. YUM!

Using leftovers like this helps reduce food waste and saves money. For more information about food waste and how to reduce it, visit the Love Food Hate Waste website: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, Annika Collins, and do not necessarily reflect the views of recycle-more, Valpak Limited, or any other organisation.