Vegan Cornish Pasties

About a decade ago, I lived in Arizona for a few years while attending graduate school. It was in Tempe that I came across vegan Cornish Pasties for the first time. I loved the heartiness and delicious flavors that can be created from this take on the old English recipe. Since then, I’ve been craving them and yesterday came up with this recipe which ended up fabulous and getting two thumbs up from some of the toughest kid critics in the world…

Okay, here we go:

Pasty Dough

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 sticks vegan margarine (cold)

1/2 cup cold water

Filling

2 vegan sausages

2 large russet potatoes

3 carrots

6 oz Cremini mushrooms

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

sea salt

Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk. Chop butter up and add to the flour mixture. Get your hands in there and mix in the margarine and flour until fairly well blended. Add 1/2 cup cold water to the mixture and work the until a nice dough ball forms. Divide the dough in half, form each into a disk shape (just flatten a bit), cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

With about 15- 20 minutes remaining for the dough chill, begin preparing the filling. Chop the potato into 1/2” cubes and put in a large skillet over medium heat with 2 tsp vegetable oil. Cut the carrots lengthwise and then chop into small half-circle slices and add to skillet. Slice the vegan sausage and add to the mix. Next, slice mushrooms and add to skillet, stirring frequently. Add, garlic powder, onion powder, and nutritional yeast and cook for 10 - 15 minutes. Salt to taste.

After the dough has chilled, remove from refrigerator and preheat oven to 375F. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out each dough disk to 1/8”. Find something to use to cut the dough into 6” circles (I used a small saucer) and then carefully remove excess dough. You will have to roll out the dough likely more than once - you will want to create four 6” circles from each dough disk for a total of 8 rounds.

Next, lay out the rounds on the work surface and place approximately 1/3 cup of filling mixture in the center of each. With a pastry brush, lightly wet one half of the outside edge of the dough round. Fold each over, once side to the other and lightly press the edges together. Next, dip a fork in water and lightly flatten the edges of each to help the pastries stay closed.

Place the pasties on a lined baking tray (I use silpats) and with a pastry brush, lightly brush on vegetable oil over the tops. Lastly, cut 1-3 small slits in the tops of each pasty to allow steam to escape.

Place in oven and bake at 375F for 1 hour or until browned.

Serve with your favorite dipping sauce (I loved them with a simple ketchup). Enjoy!