Monthly Archives: October 2013

Savoury vegan pie

The recipe I would like to share today is the recipe for a pie that my mother made recently. It was delicious and very filling and included lots of vegetables and even passion fruit and peanuts.

A slice of pieSavoury vegan pie

Time taken:  1 ½ hours

Serves 6 or 8

Ingredients:

Base:

  • Wheat flour – 1 cup
  • Vegetable oil margarine – ¼ cup
  • Salt, to taste

Filling:

  • Green peas – ¾ cup
  • Carrot – ½ cup, chopped and grated
  • Tomatoes – ¾ cup
  • Cabbage – 2 tbsp, shredded
  • Potatoes – 1 or 2
  • Onion – ½
  • Chilli – 1
  • Crushed peanuts – 1 tbsp
  • Ginger – ½ or 1″, as per taste
  • Garlic – 3 or 4 cloves
  • Pepper and salt, to taste
  • Low fat oil (sunflower or canola) – 2 tbsp

Top layer:

  • Soya milk – 1 cup
  • Urad dhal/ Ulunthu flour – 2 tbsp
  • Wheat flour – 1 tbsp
  • Passion fruit – 1
  • Rosemary – 1 tsp
  • Sesame seeds – 1 tsp
  • Chilli or capsicum – 1
  • Onion – ¼
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

  1. Make the dough for the pie base by mixing the wheat flour, margarine and salt, to taste and kneading it. Let the dough rest while making the filling for the pie.
  2. Boil the tomatoes and mash them slightly. Boil the potatoes and cabbage.
  3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the ginger and garlic. Then add the onion and crushed peanuts and fry for a few minutes.
  4. Add the slightly mashed, boiled tomatoes to the pan and then add the carrots followed by the green peas and finally the potatoes and cabbage.
  5. Add pepper and salt, to taste. Keep aside the vegetable filling.
  6. In a saucepan, heat the soya milk with 2 tbsp urad dhal and 1 tbsp wheat flour. Bring to a boil, adding salt and pepper, to taste.
  7. When the sauce begins to thicken, add the pulp of passion fruit to give the mix a tangy and fruity flavour.
  8. Take the pie pan and roll out the pie base, covering the pan.
  9. Spoon the vegetable filling on top of the pie base and level it smoothly across the pan.
  10. Pour the tangy batter-like sauce over the vegetable filling.
  11. Sprinkle chopped onion, capsicum or green chilli and the rosemary and sesame seeds over the sauce covering the pie.
  12. Bake for 30 – 40 mins at 220⁰C/ 428⁰F.
  13. Serve hot with some spicy chutney or sauce.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Vaalakkai Varuval

Back home after an amazing two weeks of travelling around Yunnan province, it was comforting to be greeted by the familiar. So, my first post for this month will be to share my mother’s recipe for her regular fried ash plantain which I really enjoy.

Vaalakkai varuval/ Ash plantain fry

Time taken: 40 mins

Serves 3

Ash plantain fryIngredients:

  • Ash plantain/ Vaalakkai – 2
  • Malu miris or red capsicum – 1
  • Turmeric – ½ tsp
  • Salt – ½ tsp
  • Onion – 1
  • Garlic – 4 or 5 cloves
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp or pepper – 1 tsp
  • Gingelly oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

  1. Boil the ash plantain with skin for 15 minutes.
  2. Set aside the ash plantain to cool. After it has sufficiently cooled, remove skin and chop the boiled fruit into small pieces.
  3. Chop up the malu miris, onion and garlic.
  4. Mix the chopped ash plantain, malu miris and ½ tsp turmeric and ½ tsp salt and let the flavours soak in.
  5. Heat 2 tbsp oil of sesame oil in a pan and add the fennel seeds and the chopped onion and garlic.
  6. When the aroma of the onion and garlic wafts about, add the turmeric and salt coated chopped ash plantain and malu miris and the curry leaves. Cook until they are sufficiently fried which will take around 10 mins.
  7. Just before removing the pan, add 1 tsp crushed chillies and mix well for a minute.
  8. Serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.