Making Pasties with Leftovers

Making pasties is one of my favourite ways to use up leftovers. I always have a few rolls of puff pastry in the freezer ready for if I have leftovers from any of the weeks meals. It is as simple as leaving your leftovers to chill in the fridge, then spooning into some ready made pastry.

They are great because you only need a few spoonfuls of filling to make a few pasties that are great for lunches, quick snacks or as the basis for another dinner. I love making pasties with leftover beef stew and having them for tea with chips, gravy and mushy peas! They freeze really well when made too.

You can fill them with pretty much anything, some of our favourites are:

• Leftover cauliflower / broccoli cheese
• Leftover vegetable bake
• Leftover beef / lamb / chicken etc stew
• Leftover chilli
• Leftover curry (curry pasties are soooo yummy and different)
• Leftover bits from a roast dinner (mix together a few finely chopped veggies, a few chunks of meat and a bit of gravy)
• Leftover chicken in sauce (from things like chicken in mushroom sauce, or even fajitas / casseroles etc).

Here are my basic instructions for making pasties…

Ingredients:

Small bowlful of leftovers (in the pics I am using leftover cauliflower and broccoli cheese)

1 roll of puff pastry

Splash of milk

Method:

1) Cut your pastry roll into squares / rectangles however big you want your pasties to be. I made two giant pasties and two smaller pasties.

2) Add a spoonful of filling to the middle of each pasty.

3) Add a splash of milk to a small glass and use a brush to paint around the edge of each pastry square (where you will seal the pasty).

4) Fold the pastry over the filling and crimp the edges together to seal the filling in the middle. You can do this with your fingers (like me) or be posh and use a fork. Don’t worry too much about how they look as they tend to look OK when they puff up even if they look messy when they go in!

5) Lightly flour a baking tray (this stops them sticking and stops the bottoms being greasy) and place your pasties on the tray.

6) Brush a bit of milk over the top of the pasties.

7) Pop in the oven and cook for 15-20 mins (until nicely golden).