Last year in fall or winter, Sky News announced the upcoming UK budget revelation with an infomercial where the main character was a pie... a wintry pie that looked delicious and easy enough to try to make. The infomercial showed the pie being made from scratch, and even without an actual recipe, I thought well, come on, you can figure this out. So, here it is, probably not exact and really it doesn't matter. Because this pie is delicious, and it's vegetarian. That makes it pretty much perfect for me. The question was, would my husband -the carnivore- like it too?

• 1 butternut squash peeled and sliced into 1 cm portions or in fingers
• 1 red paprika (bell pepper), washed, seeds removed, cut into chunks
• 1 medium sized carrot peeled, then washed, and shopped into strips
• 1 courgette, peeled and shopped into strips
• Optional: spinach, washed, sauteed and liquid removed (use fresh spinach, well rinsed)
• 1 egg, beaten with a little water
• 2 sheets of "feuilette pie dough" or puff pastry for savory filling
• 1 packet of Feta cheese, chopped in chunks
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• fresh garlic cloves (2 or to taste, minced)
• salt, pepper
• Knorr vegetable broth

• Preheat oven to 200C (400F)
• In a roasting dish, spread butternut and red paprika. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and toss with salt, pepper, and minced garlic cloves
• Roast for 25 minutes and set aside to cool
• Add carrots to vegetable broth, (salt optional) and pepper. Simmer for 5 to 8 minutes. Then add the courgette and simmer 5 minutes more. (You can do this to your desired tenderness). Of course you can also steam the veg) - drain and set aside to cool.
• (optional: wilt spinach with salt and pepper and squeeze the liquid out)
• Line a tin oven dish with feuilette (you can use the baking paper it is packaged in to make it easy, or butter a dish. Prick the bottom dough layer with a fork.
• As in the image below, create a conservative mixture of butternut/paprika and carrots/ courgette (and spinach). NOTE: you will have extra veg, so start with small amount - about 2 cups of filling.
• Carefully spoon a reasonable amount of feta cheese cubes through it.
• Add vegetable-cheese mixture in the center of the pie, leaving space to fill the dough.
• Add the second layer of dough over the top and gently seal the two layers of dough together
• With a sharp knife, cut slits into the dough from about the center to the rim - here I got creative and with some extra dough that I trimmed off the top layer, I made the Vendée symbol (in other words, I got creative and you can too!)
• Brush egg wash over the top
• Bake for 30 minutes, making sure the bottom of the pie is well browned. (cover top with aluminum foil if it's brown on top but not the bottom, and add some cooking time in 5 minute increments)
• Serve chilled white wine with a hint of pear (e.g. Sauvignon or Sancerre)

NOTE: this pie is perfect to serve with roasted potatoes or a wintry salad (e.g. with pear and walnuts), or as a new twist in your roasted turkey Thanksgiving or Christmas menus. It is a great alternative to pumpkin -or sweet potato pie, or roasted veg.

From our (test) kitchen to yours... bon appétit!
Brenda