Now who can say no to pies? Definitely not to these insanely delicious savory veggie hand pies with a mildly spiced filling of carrots, cauliflower, peas, potatoes, onions, jalapenos and tomatoes. What’s more – this recipe serves just two! No more leftovers and no more halving or quartering a large recipe. These hand pies are quite filling, so consider these a quick, easy and delicious meal for two!

Taste verdict – Looks like a pie, tastes like a samosa!

To make this pie vegan, substitute the butter in the crust with unrefined coconut oil or your regular vegan butter substitute and you are all set!

You start off by making the pie crust dough by putting flour, cold, cold butter and salt in a food processor. If you don’t have one, try a blender jar, but a relevantly flat based one. You can also do it by hand by rubbing the flour against the butter with just your finger tips. Pulse, don’t blend! After 3-4 quick pulses you’ll have something that resembles slightly wet sand.

Add a little ice cold water (that’s the secret to a flaky crust) and continue pulsing another 2-3 times until the dough comes together.

Turn over to a clean surface and knead a little to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.

In the mean time, prepare the filling.

Cook the vegetables – peas, cauliflower, carrots and potatoes. You can either microwave them individually, or on a  stove. If doing it on a stove, bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil and add the potatoes first. When they are halfway cooked, add in the cauliflower. Once that’s halfway cooked, add in the peas and carrots. Once they are cooked well, drain all the vegetables and save the water to use as stock in curries and gravies.

To season the filling, heat some oil and temper some cumin. Then sauté some chopped onions, jalapenos and grated ginger. The cumin and ginger is going to make sure that the potatoes and peas don’t mess with your digestive system. Then season with red chilli powder and salt. The salt will help wilt the onions faster. Then in go the tomatoes and when fully cooked and soft, stir in the vegetables. Finally, a sprinkle of garam masala, coriander leaves and a squirt of lemon juice and you are done!

Note: You can make the filling more mashed and soft. I wanted it to be chunky so that I can get a good healthy bite of vegetables. For a softer filling, add a little water and cook the vegetables a little bit more until they can be smashed down to a thick pulp. Let all the water evaporate before filling. 

Let the filling cool completely. A hot filling makes for a soggy pastry.

Meanwhile, roll out the pastry. Unwrap the pastry from the cling film and divide the dough in two. Refrigerate one half while you roll out the other into a rough 9″ circle. Don’t worry about getting it perfect. Refrigerate the rolled out pastry covered in cling film while you roll out the other half.

If the filling isn’t cool yet, you can refrigerate the rolled out pastry sheets separated by cling film until ready to fill.

Divide the filling into the center of each rolled out sheet of pastry. Fold over to close the pie. Don’t worry if the edges don’t line up.

Fold the edge over itself and press down with your fingers.

Now comes the fun part – shaping the pie!

Place your index and middle finger of one hand against the edge and place the thumb of your other hand between them. Press down the index and middle fingers as you push in the thumb firmly to create a crimp. Repeat across the edge to create a continues crimped pattern.

Make vent holes on the top to let the steam escape.

Brush with egg or milk. It’s what helps put that beautiful color on the crust as it bakes!

Bake at 400°F/200°C for 30-40 minutes until browned and crisp. Cool for atleast 10 minutes to prevent serious scalding! Enjoy!

See how flaky the crust is??

And the filling is DELICIOUS!