In the depths of the Australian winter, what beats a really good home made pastie? Let’s head back down on the farm with Cherie Hausler, who’s sharing her perfect pastie recipe with us. It’s from her new cookbook, A Plant Based Farmhouse 0(Murdoch Books) which dishes up a range of whole food recipes from her colorful country kitchen. Here she enthuses about her yum Roasted Vegetable Pasties:
Without a doubt, homemade pasties are a brilliant thing to have on hand — or even better, in hand. And if you do a weekly roast using lots of different vegetables, then pasties become fast-food options — fast, just not junky. Fast whole food can be a thing if it’s broken down into sizeable chunks throughout the week.
Make a weekly vegie roast a part of your meal prep, and all of a sudden roast vegie pasties are making a regular appearance. You can use any roasted vegies in these pasties. Potatoes, fennel, brussels sprouts, pumpkin (winter squash), cauliflower and even beetroot work well — just don’t go for anything with too much liquid, like tomatoes.
The pastry is really quick to prepare, and versatile too. I use it for samosas, pies, ‘sausage’ rolls — anything pastry wrapped.
Makes 4 pasties
Ingredients
980 g (2 lb 3 oz) mixed roasted vegetables, at room temperature, cut into 2 cm (¾ in) cubes (for the photo I’ve used fennel, potato and brussels sprouts)
3 g (2 teaspoons) chopped lemon thyme
3 g (2 teaspoons) chopped fresh sage
almond or soy milk, for brushing
tomato sauce, to serve
SPELT PASTRY
240 g (8 ½ oz) plain (all-purpose) white spelt flour, plus extra for dusting
25 g (1 oz) extra virgin coconut oil
5 g (1 teaspoon) salt
75–90 ml (2 ½ – 3 fl oz) water, enough to pull dough together
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
Combine the roasted vegetables in a large bowl with the fresh herbs. Stir together and season to taste with salt and black pepper.
To make the pastry, combine the flour, coconut oil and salt in a food processor and blitz for 30 seconds. Slowly add a little water at a time until the dough pulls together to form a ball.
Place the ball of pastry on a floured board and cut into four even pieces. Have a small bowl of water ready to dip your fingers into.
Using a rolling pin, roll one pastry piece out into a circle about 20 cm (8 in) in diameter. Place one-quarter of the filling mixture in a small mound along the centre line, tapering o. at each end. Use your fingers to wet the edges of the pastry. Pull the two sides over the filling and press together using your index finger and thumb, to concertina the join, working all the way around to each end. Finally, fold the very last piece of dough at each end over itself, to completely seal the pasty.
Repeat with the remaining dough and filling to make four pasties. Brush a little milk across the top of the pasties.
Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until the pastry just starts to colour and is cooked on the bottom. This is not the kind of pastry that puffs up, so don’t wait for that as a sign it’s ready.
Remove from the oven and slide onto a wire rack, to ensure your pasties don’t end up with soggy bottoms. Nothing worse.
We always eat ours with Dad’s homemade tomato sauce. Not sure they can be called pasties without sauce!
Images and text from A Plant-Based Farmhouse by Cherie Hausler, photography by Lean Timms. Murdoch Books RRP $49.99
