Guinness and mushroom pie
This is a great recipe from Jamie Oliver adapted for vegetarian tastes. I’ve cooked this a few times and each time it turns out great. It does take a little bit of time to cook, but the results are well worth it. Plated up with some hot fresh chips and salad, it’s perfect whenever I want some nice warm hearty pub style food.
To be a truly vegetarian dish, you need to ensure the dark ale you use does not use animal derived products such as isinglass in the production process. Guinness used to be a favourite beer of mine, till I found out it was not vegetarian. Fortunately there are a few sites that have lists of vegetarian alcoholic beverages so being informed is even easier than before. You can find these resources on my vegetarian links page.
- The Pie inside
- Coopers Best Extra Stout
Recipe: Guinness and mushroom pie
Ingredients
- Puff pastry sheets
- 400g mushroom chopped
- 2x 400g canned red lentils, drained and rinsed
- Handful of tvp chunks soaked and squeezed of excess moisture
- 4 carrots peeled and chopped
- 3 celery sticks chopped
- 1 (or 2) 330ml bottle of good vegetarian Stout Beer (I use Coopers Best Extra Stout)
- 2 large onions sliced
- 3 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
- Knob of Butter or olive oil
- Salt
- Powdered Vegetarian Stock (I use Massell stocks)
- 2 Teaspoons dried rosemary
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- (optional) shredded cheddar or mozerella cheese (ensure it has non-animal rennet)
- 1 Free range egg, beaten
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190C
- Heat Butter or oil in a deep ovenproof pot
- Add the onions and fry without colouring for about 10 minutes till they are soft.
- Add the garlic, and fry for a couple of minutes
- Turn up the heat, add the mushroom, lentils, carrot, celery, TVP chunks to the pot and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes.
- Add the bottle of beer, flour, rosemary and just enough water to cover. Season with a little salt and pepper and some stock powder and stir.
- Cover, bring to a simmer and cook for a about 5 minutes.
- Place the whole pot with lid into the oven for about 1 hour. Take the pot out and stir the contents. If it’s a bit too dry, top up with a bit of water till a little runny again. Put back in the oven for another hour, stirring every 20 minutes, adding water as needed until the lentils have softened to your liking. Have a taste and season if necessary with more salt or stock powder. Leave to cool a little.
- Depending on how big your pie dishes are, thaw out the required puff pastry sheets
- Scoop the stew into your pie dishes. If you want, you can sprinkle some cheese on top at this point. Top with a piece of puff pastry large enough to cover the pie dish entirely.
- Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and place the pies in the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the pastry is lovely and golden.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 3-4 hour(s)
Serves: 4-6