Sunny Lenten Pie to share with many people :)

  
I found this pie on the internet and as I am always looking for bring and share recipes this looked perfect.
It is also really pretty and simple to do. I adapted the recipe for Lent although I will put a link to the original at the end of the article.

Pastry:
Jusroll is vegan and can be bought if you don't like making your own pastry. I made mine with wholemeal because it is very forgiving.
The recipe for wholemeal shortcrust pastry is 2 x wholemeal flour to 1x fat ( butter, vegan maragarine etc.) The filling can be varied according to  season or what you have available.

Ingredients:
8oz (225g) wholemeal flour
4oz (100g) vegan margarine
cold water to mix

Method:
Rub margarine into flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add water until a soft wet dough appears and knead.
Roll out using lots of  flour.
(you can freeze the pastry)

Lentil and Pepper Filling:
Ingredients: 
12oz red lentils washed
vegetable stock cube
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
knob of margarine
1 red and  1 green pepper finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 teaspoon  yeast extract
(Herbs or spices to taste)
Sunflower seeds (can use any) for decorating the top of the pie

Method:
Boil lentils with the stock cube for 20 minutes until lentils are soft. Try to not use too much water as you need the lentils to be  the bulk of the pie.
Fry onion and garlic in margarine until soft then add peppers, tomato puree, yeast extract, herbs and spices. cook a little more and mix thoroughly.
Allow to cool for a while.

To build the pie.
The size of your pie will depend upon the size of your baking tray and oven.
I used a large plate to help make the circle.
Put the mixture in like this.



Then cover it with a larger second circle of pastry.
 
Fork around the edges to make them look neat (if you want or if you don't want to waste any of the pastry you can make the edges uneven but still fork them together to seal the pie).
 
Cut the dough into pieces approximately 2 cm thick, keeping it attached at the centre.
  
Then slightly twist each piece carefully. I used a  palette knife to help.
 

 Sprinkle on the seeds at this point. I baked  the pie  for about 30 minutes Gas6 / 200C/ 400F. The final Lentil and pepper filling makes the  pie redder than this image and the wholemeal pastry makes  the sun look a little darker.


Each guest took a ray of the sun. Happy eating and Sharing. 
http://www.bestyummyrecipes.com/sunny-spinach-pie/