Many of us have got into cooking during lockdown – and for some of us, Sunday dinner has taken the place of eating out in a restaurant. And who doesn’t love a Sunday Roast?!
But without all the family round to devour everything, it can be tricky to get the portions right and there can be a lot of meat and veg left over.
But fear not because this is the easiest and most delicious pie that makes use of all that yummy veg and meat. And you can smile because you’re helping to fight climate change by cutting down on all that food waste!
The pastry
We appreciate that not everyone is confident making their own pastry – so you can make this with ready-made short crust or puff pastry. Just make sure you buy the ones in the cardboard packaging and not the plastic packaging so it can be recycled. If you want to give it a go making your own, we fully trust BBC Good Food to explain how to make a good pie pastry >.
What ingredients do I need?
To be honest, this pie works with any of your roast dinner left overs; chicken, turkey, beef...even the odd pig in a blanket can add a tasty element. But we're going for chicken.
A good pie pastry – either homemade > or shop bought)
1 onion sliced
300 g leftover cooked chicken (or other meat)
400 g mix of leftover cooked vegetables
400 ml leftover gravy (or make up some more)
100 ml cream
What equipment do I need?
You're going to need a wide, deep pan for this (because we're putting all the ingredients in it)
And a pie dish - you can base the size on the amount of ingredients you have left over. We’ve based our ingredients on fitting in a 28cm x 20cm dish.
Let's go!
1. Preheat your oven to 220C / 200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F.
2. Chop up any of the left over meat and veg into bite-sized pieces.
3. Grab a large onion, peel and slice it. Pop it in the pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook it over a medium heat for around 5 minutes with a lid on until it starts to go soft.
4. Before the onion starts to brown, add the chopped meat and vegetables and fry for 2 minutes.
5. Add the gravy and cream - bring it all to the boil. Then turn the heat down and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, that out the pastry from the fridge and roll it to 3cm bigger than your pie dish, all the way round. (Our dish is 28cm x 20cm but you can base the size on how much filling you have)
7. Remove your pan from the heat and carefully tip it into the dish.
8. Carefully place the pastry on top and remember to make a few holes in it to let the steam escape.
9. If you want that glaze effect on the top of the pie then whizz up an egg with a fork and brush it on top.
10. Put your pie in the oven for around 20 minutes (or until you can see it bubbling and golden on the top)
If you have any roast potatoes left over, you can create some rough mash with them (just add a bit of butter and heat them back up before you mash them)
If you want to find out more about why reducing food waste is so important, check out our food waste blog here