PLANT-BASED PIES

Pies are a piece of gastronomic brilliance: a filling with a case and lid you can eat is food genius. The first pies date back to Egyptian times and there is a recipe for chicken pie that was carved into stone more than 4000 years ago. For millennia, however, the pie casing was mostly used to cook the filling, but for around 500 years or more we have been eating the pie crust too.

In Australia and New Zealand, people eat an average of one meat pie a month or more, with the definition being that meat pies must contain 25 per cent meat flesh with the rest being pastry, gravy and whatever else. Of course, pies don't have to be "meat" pies - you can take control of what goes into your pie and make some delicious plant-based pies from our collection including: veggie lentil curry; lemony sweet potato; satay vegetable; and gluten-free lemon custard.

Plant-Based Apple Pie
Recipe / Naomi Sherman

Is there a more comforting food than apple pie? I think not. Everyone has their own pie filling preference — some like it mushy, some like it layered with apples that still have some bite. Me? I like to meet in the middle. I like my filling to be thick with soft chunks of apple and loads of aromatic spices. Top it with some pretty plant-based pastry and you’ve got a winner.

Serves: 8
Pastry

200g plain flour 
50g sifted icing sugar 
125g plant-based butter
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ cup oat milk or plant milk of choice

Filling

1.5kg Pink Lady apples,
peeled, cored & halved
¼ cup plant-based butter
½ cup caster sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla paste
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp water

1. Place flour, icing sugar, plant butter and cinnamon in the bowl of your food processor and blitz until crumbs form.

2. Slowly add the plant milk until a ball of dough forms.

3. Tip out and shape into a disc before wrapping in cling wrap and chilling in the fridge while you make the filling.

4. Cut the apple halves into ½cm-thick slices.