Organic Mince Beef Pie

This month is Organic September!

I have been challenged to create a meal using just organic ingredients and to show you that not all organic ingredients are expensive.

Eating organic can be done cheaper than you may think.

Now that the weather is turning more autumnal I am steering more towards some good old comfort meals of pies and slow cooker meals. 

So I have decided to make an organic meat pie.

Every single ingredient is organic and when I was shopping I was amazed by how it was not as expensive as I thought it would be. I even discovered that there were some organic products that were actually cheaper than the regular ones!

Organic foods are not just fresh foods. In this recipe I have also used organic flour, frozen peas and stock.

This is what I did...

Organic Mince Beef Pie - Serves 4 -5

Ingredients

Pastry

300g organic plain flour

150g cold organic slightly salted butter, cubed

5 - 7 tbsp cold water

1 egg (from our chickens!)

Filling

500g organic mince beef

2 organic onions, chopped

2 organic carrots, cubed

2 organic leeks, sliced

200g frozen organic peas

1 organic beef stock cube, I used Kallo gluten free organic stock cube

To serve

750g organic potatoes, chopped

50g organic mature cheddar cheese, grated

120mls organic semi skimmed milk

Method

1 - To make the pastry place the flour in a mixing bowl and add the cubed butter

2 - Rub the butter into the flour to create a breadcrumb consistency

3 - Gradually add the water and bring the mixture into a dough

4 - Once you have a dough do not handle it too much, make it into a ball, wrap in cling film, flatten into a disc and place in the fridge to chill

5 - Pre heat the oven to 200C/180C fan

6 - To make the filling place the mince beef, onions and leeks in a pan and dry fry, the juices that will come from the meat will cook the vegetables without the need of adding extra fats

7 - After cooking for 10 minutes add the carrots and peas and cook on a high heat for 5 minutes

8 - Reduce the heat down to low/medium, cover the pan and leave to simmer for 10 minutes

9 - Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured work top

10 - Line the top of the pie tin with a strip of pastry, this will stop the pastry lid coming away from the tin

11 - Spoon the meat mixture into the tin and roll out the remaining pastry to create the pie lid

12 - Place the pastry on top of the pie dish, crimp to seal, add a pastry decoration and cut 2 - 4 slits to allow the steam to escape during baking

13 - Beat the egg and brush over the pastry, this will leave the pastry with a lovely golden sheen after baking

14 - Place in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 30 minutes

15 - While the pie is baking boil the potatoes until soft

16 - Once the potatoes are soft. drain and mash

17 - Mix in the grated cheese and milk

18 - Once the pie is golden remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

This pie is perfect for this time of year and was a huge success with the whole family. This is a completely organic meal. Pre made organic pastry is not available, that I know of, but once you know how to make pastry it really is easy to make and can be made cheaply and organic!

As this is a Thrifty Organic challenge, let me tell you what this meal cost to make...

• Doves organic flour - £1.75 for 1kg (53p)
• Organic slightly salted butter - £1.60 for 250g (96p)
• Organic mince beef - £3.50
• Organic carrots - £1.00 for 750g (40p)
• Organic leeks - £2.00 for 3 (£1.33)
• Organic Lady Balfour potatoes - £2.50 for 2kg (94p)
• Organic onions - £1.00 for 750g (33p)
• Organic frozen peas - £2.20 for 750g (59p)
• Organic semi skimmed milk - 60p for 1 pint (12p)
• Kallo organic beef stock - £1.30 for 6 stock cubes (22p)

All of the ingredients for this recipe came to £17.45 however I did have a lot of food left over for other meals. With the foods that were bought in packs as opposed to what I needed I have broken down the cost to show exactly what the ingredients for this recipe cost. I was amazed to see that to make this organic meal it cost just £8.92! That is just £2.00 - £1.78 per portion!

I hope that this recipe has shown you that not all organic foods are expensive, it is a lot more affordable than you may think, and better for you!

Enjoy x

Disclosure: I was sent some vouchers for the ingredients for this post. All views, words and opinions are my own and 100% honest.