Mushroom and Guinness Pie, our take on a Vegan Steak and Ale Pie. Hearty, warming comfort food at its finest. Flaky pastry filled with meaty mushrooms and vegetables in a delicious thick gravy.
Vegan Steak And Ale Pies
These mushroom and Guinness pies are the ultimate comfort food. The delicious portobello mushrooms give the meaty texture needed and the porcini mushrooms add a wonderful deep umami flavour to the gravy. The pies are a staple in our kitchen, whether we want something hearty and warming on a cool day or something comforting to cheer us up, we can’t stop making them year-round.
What Type Of Beer To Use In A Steak And Ale Pie?
In our recipe we use Guinness, it gives the gravy a wonderful rich flavour. You can use any brown ale, porter or stout, something with a deep colour and flavour. A beer with a malty sweetness is what you want. If you don’t want to use alcohol, adding more vegan beef stock will still make a wonderful gravy.
What Pastry Do You Use In A Steak And Ale Pie?
Let’s be honest, most of the time we don’t have enough time to make pastry from scratch and even when we do make it, the store-bought pastry ends up being almost as good, so we believe it’s not worth the effort making your own. Luckily most store-bought pastries are vegan by default and are easy to find. To make it even easier we tend to go for the pre-rolled versions. For vegan steak and ale pies, we suggest using sturdier shortcrust pastry for the base and because you will likely need to purchase a second pack for the top going for puff pastry gives your pies a nice flaky top.
Serving Mushroom and Guinness Pie
This recipe makes four 12cm individual pies. We love our pastry so making individual pies is perfect for us so we get more pastry per serving. However, if you want to mix it up feel free to do what you prefer, if you are not a fan of too much pastry consider using the filling to make pot pies without the bottom pastry. You can also use the filling to make a single family-sized pie.
Mushroom and Guinness Pies are great served with mashed potatoes or colcannon. Colcannon is an Irish side dish made with mashed potatoes and cabbage. Colcannon can easily be made by thinly slicing half a head of savoy cabbage and sweating it off in a pan with a generous amount of vegan butter until beginning to wilt, around 4 minutes. Once the cabbage is nice and soft mix it into some creamy mashed potatoes.
Pressed Mushrooms For A Meaty Texture
To get the best texture for your steak and ale pie filling, it is a good idea to ensure all of the liquid is cooked out of the mushrooms. This will give them a meaty texture perfect for a pie. The best way to press mushrooms is to use a flat-bottomed metal potato masher. Take the pan off the cooker and place it on a sturdy heat-proof surface then press down on the mushrooms to remove as much liquid as possible. Do this a couple of times throughout cooking to get the best meaty texture.
Mushroom and Guinness Pie
Ingredients
- 25 g dried porcini mushrooms
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 500 g portobello mushrooms
- 30 g vegan butter
- 1 medium carrot diced
- 1 stalk of celery diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree Paste
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 ½ tablespoons flour
- 200 ml vegan beef stock
- 300 ml Guinness
- 3 sprigs thyme
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 packet of vegan shortcrust pastry
- 1 packet of vegan puff pastry
- Plant-based milk for pastry wash
Instructions
Filling
- Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in 150ml of boiling water. Cover and let sit until later.
- Clean then cut the portobello mushrooms into large bite-sized pieces.
- Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the portobello mushrooms and stir to coat them in the oil. Let the mushrooms cook, stirring occasionally until all the liquid has been released. This will take 10 to 15 minutes.
- Optional step: to remove more liquid from the mushrooms and to give them a meatier texture they can be pressed using a flat-bottomed potato masher.
- Once the mushrooms are cooked and all the liquid has cooked off remove the mushrooms from the pan and reserve for later.
- Turn the heat down to medium then add the butter, once melted add the diced carrot, celery and onion along with the minced garlic. Gently sweat off the vegetables until they are soft, around 6 minutes.
- Add the tomato puree (paste) and Dijon mustard, and stir to coat the vegetables. Cook for 1 minute.
- Remove the porcini mushrooms from the soaking liquid and chop them into small pieces. Don’t discard the liquid.
- Add the chopped mushrooms to the pan with the soaking liquid.
- Sift the flour into the pan while stirring to incorporate it into the liquid. Cook off the flour for 1 minute then add the vegan beef stock, Guinness, thyme and black pepper to the pan along with the cooked portobello mushrooms. Stir thoroughly to mix in the flour.
- Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.
- Taste for seasoning, adding salt and sugar as necessary. We added 1 teaspoon of sugar to balance the bitterness of the Guinness and had to add 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature before adding to the fridge for at least 1 hour. The flavours will develop more if left in the fridge overnight.
Assembly and cooking
- Preheat an oven to 180°C (350°F)
- Roll out the shortcrust pastry to a thickness of 3mm then line the bottom and sides of each pie tin. Trim off any excess pastry around the edges of the tin. Dock the bottom of the pastry by piercing it with a fork several times.
- Fill each pie tin with some of the mushroom filling. The filling should reach up to the same level as the rim of the pie tin.
- Roll out the puff pastry to a thickness of 3mm then cut to fit the top of the pie tins. Place the puff pastry over the top and crimp around the edges with your fingers or using a fork. Make a small hole in the centre of the pie to allow steam to escape.
- Use a pastry brush to give the pastry a wash using plant-based milk.
- Place the pies in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and cooked through.
- Serve your Mushroom and Guinness pie with a portion of mashed potatoes and your favourite vegetables.
