Vegan Thursday: Tofu Vegetable Pie- low fat pastry

Any resemblance to the Union Jack is purely coincidental; but it did spark off a dinnertime debate on the merits and demerits of patriotism!

There's nothing quite like a crisp pastry crust on a creamy savoury pie... or is there? Conventional shortcrust pastry is high in fat and calories and can be hard to digest, but my husband knows how to have his pie and eat it: he made a crust which is part soda bread, part pastry, part soda bread pizza base. It's much lighter than normal pastry and not at all soggy; it's even quite crisp and crusty at the edges. He was quite justifiably proud of his delicious creation, so we took pictures and here it is!

The filling is soft, fluffy and yummy

There follows the recipe for the crust, and some guidelines for the filling. We stuck to vegan so the whole family could eat it. Firstly we steamed some veggies:small florets of  broccoli, a bunch of asparagus (chopped) and some sweetcorn. After making the pastry, we mixed 1/3 quantity of tofu tahini cheese with enough soya milk to make a thick sauce and threw in some more nutritional yeast for good measure. The addition of a little black pepper and some dried basil completed the filling. After blind-baking the pastry at 175C for 5-10 minutes (but not so that it browned at the edges) we poured in the filling and added the veggies, plus some cherry tomatoes on top. My husband even used strips of leftover dough to decorate the top. If you want it extra"cheesy" you caould always sprinkle with some almond parmesan.

Makes a large open pie, as the pictures show:

2 cups (250ml) plain wholemeal flour

1 cup self-raising flour

5 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

25ml olive oil

25ml coconut oil

enough water to form a scone-like dough

• Simply combine all the ingredients in this order: dry, oily (rub in), wet. Roll out to fit your oven dish and leave some over for decoration if you like.