Looking for a show-stopper holiday main dish that will have everyone at your dining table completely satisfied, vegan or not? This twist on the traditional French Canadian savory meat pie is sure to do the trick….and no one would guess that it’s vegetarian let alone vegan! This is comfort food at it’s best and can be made ahead of time, in fact it tastes even better the next day. Enjoy with salad, or a side of mashed potatoes, roasted veggies and mushroom gravy.
When I started my Crumbs & Caramel account on Instagram in the fall of 2017, I had planned on sharing images of cakes and sweets I was making. I had wanted to start a blog for a long time, but with 2 little kids, it just seemed like such a daunting task. With Instagram I could start to join the vegan food community but perceivably with a smaller time commitment. The problem I started to run into though, was that to have content I needed to produce more cakes and sweets. While I think that having dessert or sweets is fine on occasion, it’s not healthy to eat sugar (unrefined or not) regularly. With the summer over and the farmer’s market finished up, I’d be feeding what I was baking to my family. I didn’t want to feed them sweets daily and we could only share so much with friends and coworkers. So I hit a roadblock and wondered if I’d continue with my account.
Along the way, I had started following @bestofvegan, a beautiful vegan food and recipe feature account run by @kimjuliehansen. @BestofVegan was running a contest for vegan Thanksgiving recipes and, for the fun of it, I came up with this recipe and submitted it. I was shocked and *so* excited when I won one of the prizes for that week. Suddenly I had a few more new followers (I think I went from 100 to 150 followers.) Plus I was so tickled when someone reached out and told me that they had tried the recipe and really enjoyed it! I felt motivated to get more involved in the food community and to share my recipes with you!
Tips for Vegan Tourtière Pie:
- Stay cool! One of most important contributing factors in a flaky pie crust is temperature of the pastry dough and the filling. Have your dough chilling while you prepare everything else. The filling will need to be chilled as well before the pie is assembled. If the filling is hot when it’s added to the pie crust, the fat in the crust will melt prematurely and the crust will lose its shape and may be tough.
- Try not to overwork your pie dough – kneading it or over-mixing will result in the gluten strands developing which leads to a tough crust.
- Use refined coconut oil – if you use unrefined, your pastry will taste like coconuts which isn’t a bad thing but not what we’re after in this recipe. If you don’t have coconut oil, you can use half stick (not tub) margarine and half non-hydrogenated shortening, and reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp if your margarine is salted.
- Rinse your millet – this helps get rid of any bitterness.
If you make these pancakes, let me know in the comments below, and feel free to give it a rating! Also, I love connecting on Instagram where you can tag me in your creations using my recipes. I love seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
Vegan Tourtière Pie
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ¾ cup refined coconut oil, chilled
- 6-7 tbsp ice cold water
Filling
- 1 cup millet
- 2 ½ cups water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 16 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups diced onion
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ tsp ground sage
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ cup white wine
- 5 tbsp tamari
- 2 cups soup stock, divided
- 4 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1-2 tbsp plant-based milk
Instructions
- Rinse the millet in a fine mesh sieve under cold running water. Place in a medium sized saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduced heat to low and cover for 20-25 minutes until the water is absorbed.
- In a large frying pan or saucepan, heat olive oil on medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook for 10-15 minutes until softened and slightly caramelized, stirring often. Increase heat to medium-high. Add the garlic, mushrooms and spices and cook for for 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the wine to deglaze the pan. Add the tamari and 1 1/2 cups of the soup stock. Bring to a simmer. Whisk the flour and the remaining soup stock together to form a paste. While whisking the mushroom mixture, drizzle in the paste. Keep whisking until the gravy thickens and the flour is cooked, about 4-5 minutes. Turn off the heat. Fluff the millet and add to the pan, mixing well ensuring there's no clumps of millet. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cover. Place in the refrigerator until cold.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and split into 2 pieces. Roll out one piece and fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Add the chilled filling. Roll out the second piece of chilled pastry and fit over the top. Trim the excess with a sharp knife, and seal and shape the crust as desired. Using the sharp knife, make a few slits in the pastry to ensure the steam can escape during baking. Brush the top gently with the plant-based milk. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
JJ
Saturday 27th of November 2021
Hi. Thank you for sharing this recipe! Christmas “Pork pie” is tradition in my family (and a particular favorite of mine). It’s one of only three dishes I miss since going vegan. I’m excited to try this version, but do I need the white wine? I don’t keep any on hand and would prefer to substitute with something commonly in my kitchen (water, broth, other?).
I’m also curious to know if you have figured out a successful vegan version of pork stuffing? (Another holiday dish I miss.) Memere would combine 2 lbs of ground pork butt, 1 finely chopped medium onion, and salt, stirring over low/medium heat until the juices started to boil. Then she’d turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for an hour. A boiled and peeled Yukon gold potato would be added to the pot. Both the potato and meat would be mashed until fully combined. The secret ingredient, Bell’s Poultry Seasoning, would then be mixed in until the perfect flavor was achieved. (We always used lots of Bell’s.) I miss this side and would love a vegan option.
Crumbs & Caramel
Monday 29th of November 2021
Hello! Thanks for your interest in the vegan meat pie. You can substitute the white wine with broth.
I have played around with a vegan version of pork stuffing but haven't published anything yet. I've tried Beyond Beef's vegan sausages (they're lightly seasoned with Italian spices) but if you're looking for a traditional sausage flavor, Lightlife "Gimme Lean" sausage and is pretty good. I've heard excellent things about OmniPork too, but it's not yet available where I live (maybe it is where you are!) All that to say, is perhaps try using your family recipe and use a vegan ground pork product instead of the pork (and maybe adding a bit of vegan butter in there for extra fat you'd be missing from ground pork)? Hoping it works out perfectly and that you can enjoy these traditional foods with a vegan spin this Christmas :) Let me know if you have any other questions! ~ Bronwyn