Ham, leek, and potato pie

Based on a recipe from BBC Good Food; adapted to make it a bit more Slimming World friendly (OK, pastry will never be syn-free, but the rest of it almost is). It may sound fairly ordinary, but it was really delicious and well worth repeating — it’s the mustard that really makes it shine. If you’re not on a diet you can use crème fraîche instead of quark, but we found the quark worked really well; the flour in the sauce stops it curdling. The original recipe specified puff pastry, but we just used home-made shortcrust and it was fine. In fact thinking about it, you could maybe use a few layers of filo pastry on top to reduce fat further. It’s best to make the filling ahead of time and let it cool before adding the pastry.

2 tbsp butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 leeks, finely sliced
2 large potatoes, diced
2 tbsp plain flour
300ml stock
100ml low-fat fromage blanc or quark
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
200g cooked ham, shredded
42bay leaves, optional
375g pack puff pastry, or shortcrust
egg or milk to glaze

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and gently fry the onions and leeks till soft (about 15 minutes). Add the diced potatoes after 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for a few minutes before turning up the heat and adding the stock. Stir and continue to cook till it thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and stir in quark, ham, bay leaves, and mustard.

Allow to cool and then pour into a pie dish. Put a pie funnel in the middle (or an egg cup will do). Roll out the pastry and use a strip of it to edge the pie dish, using beaten egg or milk to stick it down. Brush the top of it with egg or milk and lay the pastry over the top, sealing the edges. Trim edges and make an air hole over the pie funnel. Decorate with pastry scraps cut into shapes if you like. Glaze with egg or milk and bake at 200C for about half an hour, till the pastry is golden.