A Winter Roasted Roots & Gruyere Pie
A delicious wintery pie perfect for a veggie sunday dinner, a celebration meal or even the festive table. Do use whatever root veggies (or squash) you have in, the more of a mix the tastier and more interesting the pie. Veggies are encased in a rich Gruyere, Parmesan and wholegrain mustard sauce. I tend to make my own rough puff pastry for this using this recipe on the BBC site: Rough-puff Pastry, but you can just as tastily use shop bought all butter puff pastry, buy it ready rolled for added convenience.
Makes: 6-8
Ingredients
- 1.2 kilos mixed Winter Vegetables (you could use Celeriac, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Sweet Potato, Swede, Turnips, Pumpkin, Beetroot or Parsnips)
- 2 large Onions, large dice
- 6 cloves Garlic, left whole with skin on
- 1 heaped tablespoon chopped fresh
- Rosemary
- Salt and Pepper
- 4 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 50g Butter
- 50g Plain Flour
- 700ml Whole Milk
- 180g Gruyere, grated
- 30g Parmesan, grated
- 1 tablespoon
- Wholegrain Mustard
- Salt & Pepper
- 450g Rough Puff or shop bought Puff Pastry
- 1 Egg, beaten
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200ºC/Gas Mark 6.
- Dice all your veggies, bar the carrots, to a similar 2-3cm chunk size. Cut the carrots into inch long narrow battens. Place in the roasting tins, along with the diced onions, garlic cloves, rosemary and a generous pinch or two of black pepper and salt. Drizzle over the olive oil and give everything a thorough mix with your hands. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes, turning the veggies twice during the cooking time.
- Meanwhile make the cheese sauce. Using the roux method gently heat the butter in a medium sized saucepan until it’s melted. Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon and with the pan still over the heat slowly but gradually add the milk. You may want to switch the spoon for a balloon whisk at this point, whisking thoroughly between milky additions, until all the milk is incorporated. Continue stirring with the whisk or wooden spoon until the sauce is simmering. Stir in both the cheeses, mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Remove the whole roasted garlic from the Roasted Roots and squeeze out the loveliness contained into the sauce. Give a final thorough stirring.
- Combine the sauce with the veggies and place in your pie dish.
- Turn down the oven to 190ºC/Gas Mark 5.
- Cover the top of the veggies in a layer of the pastry, crimp the edges. Brush with the beaten egg.
- Place in the pre-heated oven for 40 to 45 minutes until the pastry is fully cooked, puffed up and golden brown. Slice and eat. With lashings of buttery mash to ward off the cold.
