Meatless meat pies

When a vegetarian is desperate for mom's meat pies, lentils prove to be a surprisingly good substitute. These pies  are glorified Cornish pasties, in flaky pastry. You could also do the spinach filling from the ricotta  canneloni and just grate in a bit of extra cheddar cheese and exclude the egg. May I suggest if you don't feel like the whole pastry rolling thing,  try the traditional Cornish pasty dough, given below. It is easy make and  accessible to all pastry dunces out there! If you have a favourite flaky pastry, use that. I use one with 4 cups flour, 2t salt, 12ml baking powder, lemon juice, water and 500g butter.

                                                        Lentil Filling
(This is a direct swop from mince to lentils, so you can use 500g mince!!)
1 cup brown lentils
Vegetable stock to cover
1 onion chopped
1 potato, cubed (small)
1 carrot, cubed
1 punnet peas (or 3/4 cup frozen)
salt, pepper
1T chopped parsley
1T tomato paste
1T soya sauce or Worcester sauce

Boil lentils in vegetable stock 10 minutes. Fry onion till soft, add lentils and all other ingredients, except salt. Cover and cook till lentils and veg are soft and liquid all absorbed. Check and add salt if needed. Leave to cool completely.
                                                Cornish  Pastry
270g Butter
375g flour
1/2t salt
60ml cold water

Rub butter into flour till it resembles bread crumbs, add salt. (Food processor or mixer does a good job of this!) Add the water and mix till pastry collects together in a mass. Knead briefly into a ball and rest 1 hour (in fridge if hot). I usually find I need a bit more water. On a floured surface roll dough out to approx 50mm thick, cut into rounds - use a saucer or side plate. Put filling in the centre, brush the edge of one half with egg and draw up the sides to meet on top of the filling in half moon shape; press edges together well. OR  just fold over and press together well. Brush with egg, cut 2 slits in each pie and bake at approx 25min at 180C, or until golden. Serve hot or cold.