Woolton pie or Lord Woolton pie, was a substitute for meat pies filled with seasonal vegetables and topped with potato or wheatmeal pastry. Created by Francois Latry, the head chef at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1941, it was named after the then Minister of Food, the 1st Earl of Woolton.
Celebrating Heritage British Food & Cooking
The recipe for Woolton pie was first published in The Times, which described it as economic and wholesome. It was one of several commended to the British public by the Ministry of Food to enable a nutritious diet to be maintained despite shortages and rationing of food.
A Recipe From My Britain At War Collection
During WWII and for nearly 10 years afterwards, the UK population was subject to food rationing. To feed the family some very creative recipes were used to make the best of the available foodstuffs. Eggs and meat in particular were severely restricted.
Rationing finally ended in 1954 when the last item, meat was made freely available.
About The Recipe
The recipe involves dicing and cooking potatoes (or parsnips), cauliflower, carrots and possibly turnips. Other vegetables are added where available. Rolled oats and chopped spring onions are added to the thickened vegetable water which is poured over the vegetables themselves. The dish is topped with potato or wheatmeal pastry and served with vegetable gravy. The content of the pie filling can easily be altered to include whatever vegetables are in season at the time.
Lord Woolton Pie
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 1 lb cauliflower
- 1 lb swedes I used parsnips
- 1 lb carrots
- 1 lb potatoes
- Bunch of spring onions chopped
- 2 teaspoons Marmite yeast extract – or you can use a stock cube
- Tablespoon rolled oats
- Salt and pepper to taste once cooked
- Parsley fresh or dried
For the pastry:
- 8 oz wholemeal/wholewheat flour
- 4 oz mashed potato
- 3 oz margarine or lard
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- couple large pinches of salt
- Dash of water if needed.
Conversions
Instructions
- Chop up the vegetables into chunks with those that take longest to cook into smaller pieces.
- Place in pot and bring to simmer with just enough water to reach 3/4 of the way up the veg in the pot.
- Add in Marmite and rolled oats, salt and pepper and cook until tender and most of the water has been absorbed.
- Place mixture in deep pie dish and sprinkle with fresh parsley (or add dry parsley to mixture and mix in)
- Make the pastry by mixing the flour with the baking powder and salt and then rubbing in the margarine.
- Mix the mashed potato in to form a dough and knead (add a little water to the mixture if too dry)
- Roll out to form pie crust and place on top and decorate then brush with milk.
- Place in oven at 200℃ for 30 minutes or so until top is formed and browned.
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