RecipesPies & Baked Goods

Lentil and mushroom pie

by Micaela Harrasser

I love that you can make it all year around since the two main ingredients are brown lentils and mushrooms. You can adapt the mushrooms to whichever type (fresh or dry) you prefer.

This pie is awesome because lentils are a great source of proteins, while mushrooms give a ‘meaty’ bite to it. You certainly won’t miss the super meaty versions! To make it vegetarian friendly, you can omit the guanciale/pancetta.

It’s very rich so it serves as filling main, together with a nice fresh salad or some gorgeous sauteed greens. You can make the stuffing beforehand (for instance you can use leftover/defrosted lentils), which makes it super quick to assemble. You can also freeze it (if all ingredients used are fresh), making it a perfect dish to make over the weekend in big batches and store for a quick weeknight dinner!

[rating]

Lentil and mushroom pie

Serves: 6 Prep Time: Cooking Time: Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

For a 24cm dish:

  • 200g dry brown lentils
  • 30g freshly grated pecorino cheese
  • 200g mixed mushrooms (here I used 100g shiitake and 100g champignon, both fresh)
  • 100g guanciale (or pancetta), finely diced
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 1 big spring of fresh thyme (alternative herbs that work: rosemary and parsley)
  • 700ml veggie stock good quality
  • Salt and pepper a generous pinch
  • 2 eggs
  • 1x puff pastry

 

Instructions

  1. First, rinse the lentils then finely chop the onion and guanciale/pancetta.
  2. In a small pot, drizzle in some oil, then add the onion.
  3. Cook for about 10 min on low heat until it’s soft and translucent, then add the guanciale.
  4. On medium heat, stir often to quickly cook the guanciale (we don’t want it to get hard), around 3-5 min.
  5. Next, add the lentils, spring of thyme, salt, pepper and 500ml of the veggie stock.
  6. Bring to a gentle boil and cook the lentils according to the instructions on their box (usually 25-30min), without a lid.
  7. Make sure the liquid doesn’t evaporate completely while the lentils are still not ready.
  8. Here we aim for cooked but firm lentils, still a bit al dente, with some of the broth left – eventually add a bit of stock.
  9. While the lentils cook, take care of the mushrooms: gently wash them to remove dirt, then finely chop them.
  10. In a small non-stick pan, add a drizzle of oil and once hot add the mushrooms.
  11. Keep stirring on medium flame until cooked and well reduced in size, 5-10min.
  12. Once the lentils are done, set them aside to cool down (if in a hurry, put them somewhere colder – I recently put them on my balcony!).
  13. While the lentils cool down, turn the oven on to 200C. Once ready to assemble: put the pastry on the pie dish, make some holes with a fork to ensure air can escape (otherwise it will puff).
  14. Crack the eggs, mix well with a fork, and combine well with the grated cheese.
  15. Combine lentils, mushrooms and cheese+egg mix together, mix until well mixed like pictured below:
  16. Add on top of the pastry.
  17. Eventually add a ‘lid’ to the pie dish with leftover pastry (as I did here).
  18. If you do so, you can eventually keep some ½ tbsp of the egg on the side, add ½ tbsp of water and brush it on the pastry to get that wonderful golden crusty heaven.
  19. Place in the pre-heated oven and cook for 50-60min at 180C (until the top looks ready). Let it cool down before serving.

Notes

To speed things up, you can cook the lentils (and even mushrooms) one day in advance so that on the cooking day you only have to assemble the ingredients. Storage suggestions: you can keep it in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to 2 days (because of the meat). If you used fresh ingredients, you can also freeze it once cooked and store it for up to 1 month.

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