Layers of phyllo pastry are wrapped around a savory mix of lentils, mushrooms, walnuts and cranberries, and baked to golden, flaky perfection to make these scrumptious savory vegan hand pies.
Is there just something about hand-held food? All the goodness is bundled and squeezed into a little hand-held package. Pie is delicious. Hand pie is at least equally delicious (or maybe more, because there's more crust!), and it fits into the palm of your hand.
I've covered the heck out of savory vegan pies before. (If you haven't caught any of those recipes, be sure to check out my vegan pot pie, chickpea pot pie, and vegan shepherd's pie.) So I decided it was time to switch things up a bit. It's time for hand pies.
And this is kind of perfect, because Thanksgiving is next week. So I designed my pies with Thanksgiving in mind. They make an excellent main dish that's perfect for pairing up with vegan mashed potatoes, vegan marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole, and vegan green bean casserole.
I'll be honest: this time of year I have more recipe failures that any other. I think it's all the planning. Whereas most of the year I wing it, day in, day out, and just kind of post whatever moves me on a particular day, once the holidays arrive I start to actually put a calendar together. After all, I've got a whole menu to cover.
I posted a lasagna mushroom recipe a few weeks ago that could totally work as a Thanksgiving main dish, but I wanted to post another so we could all have options. After failure after failure at developing a complicated vegan roast, I gave up and decided to go with something simpler, and that everyone would love (because let's face it, if you're feeding omni grandparents they're not likely to get on board with a big hunk of baked seitan).
Everyone loves pie.
And so my savory vegan hand pie recipe was born. I actually adapted the flavors in here from my failed roast: the stuffing had walnuts, leeks, cranberries and the spices you'll find in here. But it was a traditional bread stuffing, and bread inside a pie didn't sound too appealing to me, so I switched it up for lentils and mushrooms. Super savory, super hearty, and perfect for pie.
Savory fillings, flaky phyllo, oh, and then you get to dip them in gravy. Perfect for Thanksgiving.
More Vegan Holiday Main Dishes
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Savory Lentil Mushroom Vegan Hand Pies
Layers of phyllo pastry are wrapped around a savory mix of lentils, mushrooms, walnuts and cranberries, and baked to golden, flaky perfection to make these scrumptious savory vegan hand pies.
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 10 ounces cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped
- 1 large leek, white and pale green parts only, cleaned and chopped
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage (or 1 ½ teaspoon dried rubbed sage)
- 2 cups cooked brown lentils
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the Crust
- 1 pound frozen phyllo pastry (18 sheets, thawed)
- Olive oil
For Serving
Instructions
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To make the filling, begin by coating the bottom of a large skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms in an even layer. Cook about 5 minutes, flip and then cook another 5 minutes, until browned. Remove the mushrooms from the skillet and transfer them to a plate.
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Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Once the oil is hot, add the leeks, carrots, and celery. Sauté for about 10 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and sauté about 1 minute more, until very fragrant.
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Add the wine, thyme, rosemary, and sage to the skillet. Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a simmer. Allow to cook until most of the wine has cooked off, about 5 minutes.
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Return the mushrooms to the skillet and add the lentils, soy sauce, cranberries, walnuts, and vinegar to the skillet. Flip everything a few times to incorporate, and then remove the skillet from the heat. Taste test the mixture and season with salt (if needed) and pepper to taste. Adjust any other seasonings to your liking. Allow the mixture to cool for a few minutes.
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Preheat the oven to 375° and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
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Place a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a small bowl. Remove the phyllo from the package. Remove one sheet and arrange it on a work surface with one of the wider sides facing you. Cover the rest of the phyllo sheets with a damp dish towel to prevent them from drying out.
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Brush the top of the phyllo sheet with olive oil. Place a heaping ¼ cup of the filling in one of the corners closest to you, leaving about an inch between it and the sides. Fold the sheet in half, width-wise, so it covers the filling. Fold the sheet in half again, width wise. At this point you should have a 4-layer strip of pastry extending away from you with the filling located near the end towards you. Fold the section with the filling at an angle away from you, forming a triangle containing the filling. Fold the triangle away from you. Continue folding in this manner, so the pastry wraps the filling as you fold, gently pressing the pastry between folds to work out any big air pockets. At the end you should just have a triangular pocket containing the filling. Place it on the baking sheet.
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Continue folding pies until you run out of filling and phyllo. Arrange them all on the baking sheet and brush the tops with olive oil. Cut a slit or two in each with a sharp knife.
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Bake the pies until golden, 22-25 minutes.
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Serve with Super Simple Vegan Gravy.
Recipe Notes
The filling can be made a day ahead.
Yum! I love everything with pastry but especially phyllo. It reminds me of my mum's Christmas pie. Can't wait to try these!
These look like hearty little morsels!
Thank you! :)
This flavor combination sounds amazing! I'd love to try these!
Thank you!!
Could these be made before hand and frozen ? Should they be baked before freezing?
They can be baked first and frozen! I froze a few of mine and they weren't as crispy as right out of the oven, but still delicious. :)
Thank you so much! I loved this recipe. Do you know if I can freeze this little pies 'till christmas?
I'm glad you enjoyed them! They should be fine if you freeze them until Christmas - they might loose a little of their crispness, but they'll still be delicious. :)
I accidentally bought puff pastry instead of phyllo and made one large free form 'pot pie' but it was just as good. Gotta have the gravy! We're having the leftovers, with phyllo!, for lunch today. Another winner.
Oh that sounds delicious!! Glad you enjoyed it!
Made them for Thanksgiving yesterday. I usually make a lentil loaf but this is waaay better. My only problem was figuring out how to fold the phyllo. I ended up just doing straight folds into a rectangle. A video or photo steps?
Yay!! I'm glad you enjoyed them! I'm slowly adding videos to some of my old posts, so I'll put this one on the list. :)
I would love to see a video or photo series on how to fold these! I'd like to make them for Christmas this year, but I can't make any sense of how to actually fold them!
I've never used phyllo dough before. All my ingredients busted out the bottom when I went to fold the triangle over. Any pointers?
Do you really only use a single sheet of phyllo? Should I wait for the stuffing to cool first?
Aside from that, this recipe is delicious. I also made your Super Simple Vegan Gravy and that is AMAZING.
Oh no! Phyllo is tricky! I think letting the mixture cool will help - I just added that to the recipe. You could also try folding the sheet in half before you place the filling on it. That way you have a double thick sheet to work with, and fewer folds to make. I'm glad you thought it was tasty though!!
Bummer! Please bold the italics! I doubled my dried herbs.
This looks really good- very festive-, but I'm not a big gravy fan. Does it need the gravy or is the filling moist enough?
It should be fine without the gravy! Enjoy!
How many does this recipe make? I want to make for Thanksgiving, but not sure how many this will feed.
It makes 18 pies, and for Thanksgiving I think 2 pies per person would be very generous. So it should feed at least 9 people - probably more though. Enjoy!
I have been looking for a vegan dish to bring for Thanksgiving and this will be PERFECT. So excited to get cooking next week!
I hope you enjoy them! Have a great Thanksgiving!
Thanks for this recipe -- I've made them twice in the last month already! I'm serving them again tomorrow at a potluck lunch as well. I was wondering if it would be okay to make them today and leave them in the fridge overnight before baking them tomorrow morning? I'm not sure how phyllo dough will handle sitting uncooked overnight but I won't have time to fold the pastries (double batch!) tomorrow. Suggestions?
I'm so glad you like them! I think you could make them ahead of time, but I'd make sure to place them in a very tightly sealed container since phyllo dries out very easily.
OK I didn't have all the ingredients to make this exactly. In fact I improvised on a lot- except the spices/flavorings. I had all of that. I used pie crust, not phyllo (OK with that because I hate working with phyllo), didn't have mushrooms, so I added a cup of cooked Farro for bulk. Didn't have leaks so I used 1 chopped onion and a bunch of baby spinach. Even with my egregious modifications, this turned out amazing. I did add some red pepper flakes in at the end because my heart told me so. I'll probably still use pie crust when I make it again. Or maybe puff pastry?
Wow, really good--and fancy! I didn't have white wine, so used vegetable broth instead. Also used raisins instead of cranberries (and I think used slightly less than called for). Both of these substitutions were fine. The mushroom mixture had a lot of liquid in it when I finished sauteeing it, so I drained it even though the recipe didn't say to--I think this was a good move. I didn't want to mess with making individual pies, so I simply put 6 sheets of phyllo in the bottom of a 9x13 pan (each one sprayed with olive oil), then spread the filling over that and put 6 more oil-sprayed sheets of phyllo on top of that. I'd heard a tip somewhere that you should cut a dish like this BEFORE baking, so I did. Then baked at 375 for 30-35 minutes. Served with gravy as directed. So good. Will definitely make again.
This looks really yummy! Can I use green or red lentils instead of brown lentils?
Thank you! Green should work just fine. I wouldn't recommend red though - they get so soft and hold so much moisture that I'd be afraid the crust would get mushy. Enjoy!