It all started with a plan to make a vegan shepherds pie, and ended with a vegan tourtiére. I haven’t made tourtiére’s since I was a hardcore carnivore the traditional meat pie is as it sounds, ground pork, ground veal, ground beef, and a little bit of veggie. Tourtiére is a traditional french Canadian dish especially served around Christmas.

There is a lot of history behind the Tourtiére being that it was originally made around 1611 with the now extinct Passenger Pigeon (tourte in french). Now there are many varieties depending on the family, region, and supply of ingredients, and some of the french coastal families even make it using fish rather then ground meat.

Anyways enough history the point is I wanted to make a Tortiére and wanted to make it vegan, happily I was successful and it turned out to be the best Vegan meat pie I’ve every made.

Now onto the Recipe.

What you need:

2 cups of TVP

2 cups of boiling water

1 vegan beef bouillon cube

1 tsp liquid smoke

16 ounce can of chick peas, drained and rinsed

1 large onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 cup of sweet corn

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp ground thyme

1/4 tsp ground sage

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/8 tsp ground cloves

2 TBS Bisto

1/2 cup of water

Pie Crust:

6 TBL Ice water

2 cups AP flour

1/2  tsp salt

2 tsp granulated sugar

2/3 cup Crisco vegetable shortening

The Process:

1. In a large bowl combine flour, salt, and sugar, whisk together to evenly distribute. Now cut in your shortening with two butter knifes until the sheen is gone from the shortening, and you have what looks like a bowl of white beans.
2. Sprinkle in 1 TBL of ice water at a time and mix with a fork until it begins to pull together. Gather it in your hands if it seems crumbly you’ll want to mix another TBL of water or more until you can make a smooth ball in your hands (this will be sticky and messy). Now divide the pastry into two and wrap each ball in saran wrap. Chill in your refrigerator for at-least an hour.
3. Onto the filling.
4. Bring your 2 cups of water to a gentle boil, dissolve into it the bouillon cube and add all the spices and liquid smoke except the salt, whisk together and stir in the TVP, bring back to a light boil cover and remove from heat, let sit for 5 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.
5. In a medium-large saucepan add 2 TBL of olive oil, then your onions, and garlic, fry until onion is translucent. Add your chickpeas, and corn and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
6. Mix in your TVP and stir well, then fry for another 2 minutes. Add your salt and mix in your Bisto, and 1/2 cup of water, stir well and bring up to a gentle simmer. cook for 2-3 minutes until it thickens up slightly.
7. Remove from heat and let cool while you prepare your pastry.
8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. Roll out 1 chilled ball of pastry to a 1/8 thick sheet, then transfer to your pie pan press in the corners then cut off any excess.
10. Roll out your top layer of pastry again to a 1/8 thick sheet, then pour your filling into the pastry lined pie pan, gently press it to compact it a bit. Then cover with your top pastry. Gently pull back half of your pastry and dab the edge with cold water (this will help the edges seam together better). Place the top pastry back over your pie and repeat water treatment with the other half. Now trim the excess pastry and press the edges with a floured fork to seam. Add some tops slits, however you wish.
11. Use 2 inch strips of tinfoil to wrap the crusts edges, and bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes until crust is golden.
12. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes and serve. This can be served by itself or with a dark gravy.

Enjoy.