Filo pies - Turkey and pepper, chick pea and pepper. National Pie week: day 7, pie #4

 Once again a veg dodger and a vegan version were required - so I made one fil pie with turkey mince, and the other with chickpeas.  Served with patatas (not very) bravas, and a lovely salad with avocado.  Delicious.

The trick with these meals is to make the bulk of it to be shared between the two versions, and then add the meaty / protein alternatives to the appropriate dish.

For this meal start with the pepper filling, the spinach and the turkey (or other) mince filling - then move on to the potatoes.  Return to complete the fillings, build the pies - bake, then construct the salad.

Onions
Olive oil
Garlic
Celery
Peppers (red, orange and/or yellow)
Paprika
Spinach
White wine

Mince (turkey, … or … )

Potatoes
Tinned tomatoes
Chilli

Filo pastry

Salad leaves
Tomatoes
Spring onions
Avocado
Mixed seeds
Garlic
lime juice

1.  Chop onions.   Gently fry about half in olive oil for the pepper mixture, about a quarter in olive oil for the turkey mix, and a quarter in olive oil for the (not very) bravas sauce.
2.  Add crushed garlic to all three pans, stir and continue to fry gently.
3.  Chop potatoes into 1cm cubes, toss in olive oil and a little salt, roast for 45 minutes or so.
4.  Add chopped celery and peppers to the pepper mix, with a pinch of paprika and salt.  Continue to fry until soft, adding white wine and water to allow to simmer gently.
5.  In a fourth pan wilt spinach in a little water.  Turn the heat off as soon as the spinach is wilted.
6.  Add the mince to the second pan of onions and fry until slightly browned,  keep moving in the pan.
7.  Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, salt and chilli flakes, and half a tin of water to the final batch of tomatoes and simmer to create the sauce for the potatoes.
8.  Build the pies - grease pie plates with a little olive oil - layer on three layers of filo, brushing with olive oil each layer - build the veggie one first.  On the bottom - half of the spinach, then peppers, then drained rinsed chickpeas.  Top with three layers of filo, each brushed with olive oil.  Tuck in the edges and drizzle the edge with olive oil.  Repeat with the meaty one - pastry, spinach, peppers, mince, pastry.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.
9.  Salad - add leaves, chopped tomatoes, chopped spring onions, scooped out sliced avocado and seeds.  Spritz with lime juice to prevent avocado oxidising.  Drizzle with a little olive oil.  Serve with a little extra dressing made from lime juice, crushed garlic and olive oil.
10.  Serve, scoff …. it was good.

Butternut squash, spinach and feta filo pie

Victim suggested it would be better as individual tarts - but all in all, not a bad veggie offering.  So, roasted a butternut squash with garlic with a splash of olive oil for about a hour.  Made filling by softening red onion, a clove more garlic, a grated courgette and a handful of chopped mushrooms in olive oil,  added roast squash and good amount of spinach - heated gently and mixed until spinach wilted - added cumin, more garlic, chili and whatever curry spices were to hand - looking for gentle flavouring, not heat.  Took off heat and stirred in feta.  Made pie by scuffily layering fio sheets in a kind of overlapping diamond shape - brushing with olive oil every sheet.  Dollop mix in the middle, grind on some black pepper. Top with one layer of filo, olive oil, and sprinkle on pine nuts.  Scrunch up ends of remaining filo sheets over the top of the pie.  Brush with olive oil, and sprinkle on sesame seeds.  Bake for 30ish mins... depnding on your oven (about 180C).  Salad - beetroot, spring onion, chopped carrot, cherry tomatoes - dress with balsamic vinegar and olice oil, topped with radish sprouts.  Best thing.. leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  :)