Creamy Vegan Pot Pie with Tahini Pastry (Vegan and Gluten-Free)
A comforting creamy pie to warm up these cold dark winter nights. With a divine tahini pastry, chunky vegetables and chewy baked tofu pieces coated in creamy Dijon and wholegrain mustard sauce, this pie will satisfy all your pie cravings! Amazingly, it is both gluten-free and vegan, but you’d never notice!
Start with the tofu. It needs to be pressed well for an hour or more. Use a tofu press or drain the tofu, put it on a plate lined with a few pieces of folded up kitchen towel, then put something heavy on top of it and set aside. Occasionally drain the liquid off the plate and change to fresh kitchen towel.
Next make the pastry. a) by hand: mix together the flours, coconut oil and tahini by rubbing with your fingertips until everything is like fine breadcrumbs and then slowly add the very cold water while mixing with a spoon until the mixture comes together into a dough-like consistency.b) by machine: put all the ingredients except the water into a food processor and pulse a few times until it looks like fine breadcrumbs then, with the food processor running, pour in the cold water slowly through the spout until the mixture comes together. (or if using a thermomix, put all in at once and set to 20 secs. / sp. 5)Once it pulls together into a clump, empty the dough onto a piece of clingfilm, wrap it up, push it together into a disc shape and pop it in the fridge to cool and harden up a bit.
Set the oven to pre-heat to 200°C.
After 10 minutes, take the pastry out of the fridge and roll between two sheets of baking paper. Roll out to the size of your dish, just over ½ cm thick. Then put back in the fridge until the pie is ready to top. (see notes for saving extra bits of pastry!)
After pressing the tofu, pour off the liquid and pat the tofu dry with some fresh kitchen towel. Then cut it up into small bite-size pieces and put into a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix together then either:a) oven: put it on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in the oven at 200°C for 30 minutes, mixing them about half way through to try to turn them all over, or b) air fryer: put in the air-fryer basket and air-fry at 180°C for 13-15 minutes, giving the basket a good shake half way through.
While the tofu is cooking, make the sauce. Pour the olive oil into a large pan and warm over the heat. Once hot, add the onion, leeks, mushrooms and garlic and fry on a medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until they are all nicely browned.
Add the carrots and the rest of the sauce ingredients except the peas and the cornflour mixture. Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 8 minutes while the carrots cook.
Add the cornflour mixture and stir constantly while simmering for a couple of minutes to thicken. Taste and adjust the seasoning as required. Then add the roasted tofu and frozen peas, mix well and pour into a pie dish.
Take the pastry out of the fridge and carefully peel off one side of the baking paper. Flip it over onto the filled pie dish and press down, then peel off the top side of the baking paper. Cut the edges off and press the pastry against the dish (you could decorate with the discarded pieces if you fancy). Make a couple of holes in the pastry by stabbing with a knife (to let out some of the steam) and brush with a little plant-based milk on top.
Bake in the oven @ 200°C for 45 minutes until the pastry is browned and cooked through.
Notes
You may not need all the water or you may need a little more – it depends on your flours and the temperature and humidity of your kitchen. Just add enough to make the fine breadcrumb texture change to larger clumps that you can easily pull together into a soft pliable dough (harder than bread dough but not too soft).
Depending on the size of your dish, you may have spare unused pastry. Just bring these little bits all together in a ball and flatten down to a disc and store in cling film or a ziplock bag in the freezer for when you next need pastry.
If you don't want to make the pastry, use shop bought pastry or mashed potato or mashed cauliflower instead.
If you're catering for fussy children who might not like chunky vegetables, you could whizz up the sauce mixture in a blender before adding the cornflour and peas. This will thicken the sauce somewhat so you may no longer need the cornflour mixture to thicken it.
Substitute the tofu for beans or lentils if you prefer.
See the blog post for advice on switching vegetables.