A warm pie with a rich filling of mushroom and Guinness might sound bizarre to you, but it’s actually the most delicious meal, and very easy to make. Enjoy it on a cold day or serve it proudly on St. Patrick’s Day.
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and we are getting ready to celebrate with a vegan Guinness mushroom pie. I’ve been dreaming about this pie for a while, we have eaten it long time ago in a pub in the lake district and I really wanted to try to recreate it at home. I already pictured my dinner, lots of fluffy potato mush, four spoons of bright green peas, and then the queen of the plate: my Guinness pie.
I was determined to make it vegan without giving up anything on taste and here we go: I hope you’ll try my recipe and share it with family and friends.
St. Patrick’s Day falls on 17th March every year, it’s not only a big day in Ireland, but all around the world. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by Irish immigrants and aficionados as it’s always great fun from the parade to the pub.
Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was the first one to bring Christianity to the island and lots of legends come with his name. For example, he explained the Holy Trinity to people by using the iconic Irish clover, the shamrock.
Interestingly, the first Saint Patrick’s parade occurred in the United States rather than in Ireland. Records show that a parade took place for the first time in a town in Florida at the beginning of the 17th century. It was then resumed by homesick Irish soldiers in New York in the late 18th century. From then on, it only grew bigger and bigger.
This might shock you, but even the town I come from in Italy celebrates Saint Patrick’s Day.
Near my hometown, there was (and I imagine there still is) an Irish pub. That place was quite uncommon and different from anything else we knew as teenagers.
When I was young(er), pub didn’t used to be a thing in Italy. The drinking and night culture is very much different from the British one. I guess this Irish pub brought novelty to the town, charmed everyone with its foreign notes, and kept everyone coming with its streams of Guinness and Harry Potter-like interiors.
We went there every Saturday as teenagers (I realise now how weird and controversial that is…). That pub was the place to be.
The place was so popular that they got special council’s permit to close the entire high street on St. Patrick’s Day so the party could be brought outside of the pub’s wall and people could drink and celebrate all night long on the cold 17th of March.
All your friends, the boy/girl you liked, the weird guy you haven’t seen for years, the pal who never goes out (me)…all the town was there. The street was so packed you could barely hold your pint with your hands. Different generations, different type of human beings all joining in to celebrate a tradition they barely had a clue on.
The power of Guinness!
So here we go, I have very fond memories of St. Patrick’s Day and make a point of celebrating it every year.
A cheer to my lovely Irish friends, a cheer to Ireland, a cheer to Guinness, a cheer to my teenagerhood!
☘️☘️☘️
Vegan Guinness Mushroom Pie
Course: MainsDifficulty: Easy6
servings25
minutes30
minutesA warm pie with a rich filling of mushroom and Guinness might sound bizarre to you, but it’s actually the most delicious meal, and very easy to make. Enjoy it on a cold day or serve it proudly on St. Patrick’s Day.
Ingredients
1.5 kg mushrooms (I’ve used white closed cup mushrooms but any other type will do – the pie is even more delicious with a mix of different types)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 medium white onions
2 medium carrots
3 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
fresh thyme
2 tbsp flour blended with 2 tbsp of warm water
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
25 ml dark soy sauce
200 ml of stout or brown ale
100 ml vegetable stock
1 tsp of maple syrup
400 g store-bought vegan puff pastry
salt and black pepper to taste
- Equipment
1 big pan
1 pie dish
Method
- Mushrooms
- If using frozen mushrooms: cook them over high heat on a big pan (don’t worry if they overflow, they will quickly lose water and reduce in volume and fit your pan perfectly). After 5 minutes drain the mushrooms to get rid of the water**, bring them back to the pan, simmer and drain them again when you have one inch of water. Now add some olive oil and salt and fry them over high heat to make sure to lose all the water. This operation is necessary as you don’t want to boil your frozen mushroom.
- If using fresh mushrooms: add some oil to the pan and let it heat up. Keep stirring the garlic to avoid burning it and evenly brown it. After 2 minutes add in the mushrooms. They will lose a lot of water but don’t drain them. If you keep high heat on and keep stirring the water will quickly evaporate and you’ll preserve all the mushroom flavours in your pot. After 2 minutes, add a pinch of salt and pepper and stir for another 10 minutes.
- The filling
- Slice the onions and mince the garlic. Fry them together with olive oil. This will take around 15 minutes, don’t rush them and keep the temperature on medium-low.
- Chop your carrots and add them in. Stir for 5 minutes.
- Taste your filling, if it’s too bitter for your taste you can add a spoon of honey or maple syrup. If not seasoned enough, add salt and pepper to your taste.
- Transfer the filling into a pie dish.
- The pie
- Roll out the puff pastry so to cover your pie dish. Keep a bit aside to decorate.
- Cover your pie dish and pinch the borders with a fork so to close it down. Don’t forget to make a cross at the centre so to let the filling’s steam evaporate – and not explode (been there before). Brush the pie with plant-base milk to make it pretty and add your decorations (optional).
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 180 C (Fan oven). Let it rest for 10 minutes before serving with potato mush and pies, and your favourite ale – why not, it’s been a long day and this pie deserves a little celebration.
Recipe Video
Notes
- *When you need to thicken a sauce, always blend your flour in water first, this will avoid you having any annoying flour lumps in your pie fillings.
- **Don’t through away the mushroom water, you can use a few spoons to add to the pie filling and use the rest to make a broth.
