Looking for a wintery vegetarian dish? You’re in luck as here’s another one of our Great British Chefs’ visitors’ great displays of baking and cookery. We ask our site’s visitors to share what they have made & upload photos to our Great British Chefs Flickr group so we can share our favourites with you all.
We simply loved the creativity of this curried vegetable pie with a chapati lid. It looks hearty and extremely warming, there’s no butter and you make the lid using a simple chapati dough. Mita from Mix It Cook It has kindly shared the recipe.
Here’s what she said:
I have taken the British classic, and simply curry -fied it.
No shortcrust pastry in sight, only a chapati for a lid.
No creme fraiche or gravy to be seen, only thick spicy tomato sauce. The idea jumped out at me when I ran out of plain flour!
What’s great about this lid is, it doesn’t have to be totally round, no butter involved, takes 20 minutes to bake, and it tastes great.
▶Recipe for 6 servings:
Ingredients:
10 Okra
1 Butternut squash (peeled and diced)
8 Chestnut mushrooms
1 Leek
1 small sweet potato
2 Garlic cloves, crushed and chopped finely.
Small piece of ginger (about 1 tsp when chopped finely)
1 small red chilli deseeded and finely chopped.
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin powder
1 tsp ground coriander powder
1 tsp chilli powder
400ml Passata
50ml water
2 tsp corn flour
Fresh coriander
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable Oil
1tsp nigella seeds
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp mustard seeds
Chapati Dough:
2 cups of chapati flour
1 cup water
Any cup size will do, I used a standard mug.
Method:
: Preheat oven to 150°c, a slightly low temperature, as this dough bakes quick.
: Making the dough: pour half the water on the flour, and using your hands knead slowly. Add more water, if it’s not coming together: knead until soft and elastic, then keep to one side, at room temperature.
: Chop all the vegetables, making sure they are roughly the same size.
Okra can get sticky, but remember they are good for you!
: In a large pot, add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil and the seeds.
: Once they start to sizzle, tip in the garlic, ginger and chilli.
: Time to make the paste, and get the oven fan on, or open a window.
: Add the turmeric, ground cumin, coriander, chilli, garam masala and paprika.
: After 30 seconds, add the leek and stir.
: Incorporate each vegetable separately and stir, this way they are all covered in spice.
: Pour in the passata and water.
: Simmer for 20 minutes, then taste, if you think it needs salt and pepper go ahead.
: Add the cornflour and stir through, leave for a further 5 minutes then turn off.
: Lightly flour the surface and rolling pin with chapati flour, and roll the dough out.
: Pick up with both hands and flip over, maybe two or three times, so you can feel the thickness is equal.
: Pour filling in your pie dish, sprinkle some coriander then cover with lid. You don’t need to brush the pie dish with egg, to make the lid stick. Fold any excess dough, to make a nice decoration round the edges, and prick in the middle a few times. Creating holes in this lid, is very important.
: Bake for 20 minutes until the sides are golden brown, and the centre rises a bit.
Chapatis normally take less than 3 minutes on a tawa (an Indian cooking implement), or griddle pan, so this needs a bit more time as heat is not directly on the dough.
Serve with sweet potato mash, natural yoghurt or salad.
