Healthy Vegan Vegetable Mini Pie

I have become a part of the Eggless Baking Challenge Group where we are given challenges every month to convert a egg filled delicacy to eggless. July's challenge was one of my favourites because not only was it something I wanted to try from a long time but the twist was that it was savoury. A welcome relief from all the sweet bakes that I have been doing.

I have been wanting to bake a pie from forever but the quantity of butter required and the sheer size of a pie was holding me back. When this challenge came up the first thing I did was to logon to Amazon to buy pie pans. After browsing through a lot of options, I couldnt make up my mind on the large pans vs the mini ones. I found that the mini pans were also 4.5 inches or more in diameter and felt it was a bit too big. I prefer individual portions than an overwhelming big size. And thats the same reason I prefer cupcakes to cakes. I then stumbled upon some images of pies being made in muffin pans and I had the tool I was looking for right in my kitchen.

I also found a recipe for making the pie crust without butter (which I cant seem to find again to link to) and adapted it further to incorporate whole grains into it by substituting half the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

My tips for a happy experience:

1) Use parchment strips/aluminium foil strips lining each cup in a way that lifting the strip would lift out the mini pie. Aluminium foils are easily pliable and can line the cups better. Ensure that both ends of the strip jut out of the muffin cavity.
2) I found it easier to flatten a ball of dough with my hand using my palm. Since the pie dough is usually hard it is tough to roll it out using a rolling pin even if sandwiched between sheets of parchment/wax paper. I flattened the dough to 1/5 inch thickness and used a round cutter to cut out the pie bottom and top.
3) Cooling the ingredients before mixing and mixing it barely ensures a flaky texture. No muscle power required.
4) If placing a top crust then brush with little oil to get a better taste before baking.

This pie crust is a keeper because its low calorie and really good.

Healthy Vegan Vegetable Mini Pie

Servings: 6 Mini Pies (2 inch wide)
Prep Time: 2 hrs   Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients 

For the Pie Crust

3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/4 cup Oil (I used Canola)
1/4 cup Cold water
Salt to taste

For the savoury filling

1/2 Medium onion
1 Carrot
1/2 Capsicum
1/2 cup Corn
3 tsp Oil
1 tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Instructions

To make the savoury filling

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and saute finely cut onions till transcluscent.
2. Add in the grated carrot, finely cut capsicum and corn and saute for a couple of minutes.
3. Mix in the spice powders and salt and saute for another couple of minutes till its done. 
4. Set aside to cool.

To make Pie 

1. Line the muffin cavities with aluminium foil strips such that the two ends of the strip jut out of the cavity.
2. Lightly grease the cups
3. Mix the all purpose flour and the whole wheat pastry flour in a bowl and freeze for 30 - 45 mins
4. Freeze the oil for the same amount of time
5. Mix salt into the chilled flour, add the oil and mix lightly. 
6. The flour becomes crumbly and should remain that way with big clumps
7. Add water very little at a time to form a hard ball of dough. Do not add too much water and also ensure that the dough does not become soft and pliable. 
8. Pinch off a golf ball sized dough and flatten it to form a 1/5 inch thick disc.
9. Cut the dough to a 3 inch diameter circle using a round cutter. (I used a container cap)
10. Push the circle into a muffin cup and lightly press against the walls of the cup to form a pastry shell.
11. Optionally, leave a little bit of the dough outlining the mouth of the cup especially if its an open pie
12. Spoon in a tablespoon of the filling into the shell, topping it with cheese optionally.
13. Cut out a 2 inch dough circle and place on top of the filling. Press a fork all around the top crust so that it seals the pie. Lightly brush oil on the top to aid browning.
14. Bake at 350 F for around 30 mins. The top may not brown all that much if using whole wheat flour. It is done when the dough gets crusty.
15. Serve warm optionally topped with cream cheese. 

Easy Eggless Pad Thai Noodles with Vegetables

Pad literally means Stir fried. Noodles are the easiest thing to dish up on a busy week day or night.
I made this to impress my m-i-l and onlya fter laying it out on the table did I get to know that she doesnt eat noodles. Pasta is ok but Spaghetti is not. Well, I got to try out a new recipe so there. Pad thai is usually served with crushed peanuts as a garnish. But I decided to incorporate the peanut flavour in the sauce itself by using peanut butter. Since this is the vegetarian version no question of using fish oil or eggs. Also replaced the rice noodles which is used in the classic dish with its whole wheat cousin. The whole wheat version does make the dish heavier. Mung bean sprouts are an important element in the dish but I havent used it since I was out of it.

Easy Eggless Pad Thai Noodles with Stir Fried Vegetables

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 10 mins   Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

1/2 box of Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles
3 tbsp Peanut Butter
4 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp White Vinegar
1 tsp Lemon juice
2-3 tsp Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chilli Sauce
2 tsp or more Red Chilli powder
2 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Black pepper powder
6 tsp Oil
1 Medium Onion julliened
1/2 cup Capsicum cut thin
1/2 cup Carrots cut thin
1/2 cup Mung Bean sprouts (I dint have it today)
Any other vegetables of choice
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Boil a pot of water, add some salt and drop in the noodles. Cook them according to the package instructions to al-dente. 
2. Drain the noodles and keep aside. 
3. In a bowl, mix the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce, lemon juice, garlic powder, red chilli powder, black pepper powder.
4. Heat the oil in a skillet, add in onions and saute till transluscent.
5. Tip in the capsicum, carrots and other veggies and stir fry.
6. Stir in the sauce mix and saute for a few more minutes. Adjust the salt.
7. Fork in the cooked noodles and give it a good mix. 
8. Serve warm.

Khara Biscuit / Eggless Whole Wheat Savoury Cookies

The day before we have to leave for any trip, I have this last minute urge to make and take along a snack. I have made cookies in the past and some savoury bakes. I tend to make the non fried variety so that we can have guilt free indulgence. I, for one get very hungry when I step into a car for any journey greater than an hour.
Our trip to Chicago over the 4th of July weekend had a very hectic prep time because of work pressure during the week. Packing just came down to picking up a stack of ironed clothes off the cupboard and shoving it into the suitcase. I mention this especially because I am a light packer, never carrying any extras. There was a lot of prep work where food was concerned since we prefer to pack lunches for the day outings. So we packed a mini kitchen into two big bags complete with ground pulav masala!
Getting back to what I wanted to post about. Amidst all the crazy kitchen activity I made Khara Biscuit to take along for the ride. I made it with whole wheat pastry flour.

Khara biscuit conjures up memories of Butter Sponge visits when we were kids. Many of our Sundays would start with Sweet bun, Khara bun combo for breakfast and on some extra special occasions it would be accompanied by the Benne Biscuit, Khara Biscuit combo. Yummy!! For me the yard stick in judging a bakery's goods is the Benne Biscuit, Khara biscuit they make as compared to Butter Sponge Bakery in Gandhi Bazar. My attempt here was very close and even though they turned out extremely good, I cannot claim to have recreated the magic. The biscuits turned out delicious and were a huge hit. Its simple to make and easy to stow.

Khara Biscuit / Eggless Whole Wheat Savoury Cookies

Servings: 20 biscuits
Prep Time: 1 hr        Cook Time: 20 - 25 mins

Ingredients 

1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 cup Butter (softened on the counter)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Ginger paste
2 Green Chillies finely chopped
1 tsp Coriander leaves finely chopped
1/2 tsp Curry leaves finely chopped
1 tsp Salt (or to taste)
1 tsp Sugar
1/4 cup Yoghurt

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.
2. To this add the ginger paste, green chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves and mix well. 
3. Add the butter to this and mix to form a stiff dough. Do not overmix. 
4. If the mix turns out crumbly add yoghurt very little at a time to get a stiff dough consistency. 
5. Put the dough into a ziplock bag and refridgerate it for 30 mins to ensure that the butter does not stop melting while rolling the dough. 
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
7. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out to a 1 inch thick circle. 
8. Cut out round shaped biscuits and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 
9. Prick the biscuit with a fork to prevent it from puffing up. These are after all biscuits. 
10. Continue to do this for the rest of the dough making sure to leave atleast 1 inch between each cookie.
11. Bake for 20 mins or till the biscuit feels a little firm. 
12. Remove from the oven and cool in tray for 5 mins and further on a wire rack. 
13. The biscuit firms a little more while cooling. 
14. This biscuit stores well in an air tight container in the fridge for 5 days. .