Name: Leek and Potato Pie
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h 4 min
Total time: 1 h 29 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 600 g waxy potatoes, cut into 2 cm chunks; 40 g butter; 4 large leeks (about 700 g), sliced; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 200 ml double cream; 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard; 100 g grated mature cheddar; 1 tbsp chopped thyme; 375 g ready-rolled puff pastry; 1 egg, beaten

Leek and Potato Pie

A vegetarian pie of leeks, potatoes and mustard cream cheese under puff pastry, baked for 45 minutes until golden.

1 hr 29 min total Serves 6 servings Medium

How to Cook Leek and Potato Pie

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Boil the potatoes in salted water for 8 minutes until just tender. Drain.
Melt the butter in a large pan and cook the leeks for 10 minutes until soft. Add the garlic for 1 minute. Drain off any liquid.
Stir in the cream, mustard, cheddar and thyme, then the potatoes. Season and cool for 10 minutes.
Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F. Tip the filling into a 1.5 litre pie dish, cover with the pastry, trim, crimp and brush with egg.
Bake for 45 minutes until the pastry is deep golden and the filling bubbles.

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What Can Go Wrong

Undercook the potatoes slightly; they finish in the oven.
Cool the filling a little before covering with pastry.
Cut a small steam hole in the lid to stop it going soggy.

Common Substitutions & Variations

In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

A Little Background

The first cold week of the year is the moment for a pie like this one, when the leeks look good at the market and the oven becomes the warmest room in the house. A leek and potato pie is the sort of dish that makes a meatless dinner feel substantial. Leeks reward patience.

Cook the potatoes first, in salted water, just until a knife slips in easily; they carry on softening in the oven, so stop short of soft. Slice the leeks and soften them in butter until sweet and limp. Drain the leeks well, because water from the filling turns the pastry base soggy. Stir the leeks and potatoes into a sauce of cream, mustard and cheddar, and let it cool a little. Cool the filling first.

A hot filling under cold pastry melts the butter before it can puff. Fill the dish, cover with the puff pastry, crimp the edge and brush with egg. Bake until the lid is deep gold and the filling bubbles at the sides. Rest before slicing.

To Go With It

Green beans · Buttered peas · Pickled red cabbage · Mustard

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Braised Red Cabbage, Fried Bread, Honey Roasted Carrots.

Storing Leftovers

Keeps for 3 days in the fridge. Reheat in the oven until hot all through. Freeze baked for 2 months.