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Thursday 6 March 2014

I Spy Spring Pies! Pieminister's Lighter Range

Sweet, sweet pie dreams
In 2006, I ran a music festivals website. I spent every weekend bogged down in mud and eyeliner, and became an expert in festival food. Some was good - this was a boom year for boutique festivals and the launch year for middle-class dream Latitude - and some were soggy rubbish. By July, I'd got into a groove, and ended up eating Pieminister pie with peas and mash at least once a weekend.

I don't eat many shop-bought pies (or much processed meat for that matter) because it's often dubious quality meat - try our top 10 pie recipes to make your own. I bloody love Pieminister. Their meat is free-range British, and as close to getting an Eton-educated, lovingly brought up cut as you possibly can without making the thing yourself. Their veggie pies are approved by The Vegetarian Society. They even did a charity drive for Africa last year called - ho ho - The Cattle Drive. They're just nice. Given the last festival I went to was Glastonbury 2007 (never again), I'd thought my pie days were behind me. I'm healthy! Ish. I do 5:2! Well, I did it that day, last year, once.


And then Pieminister offered to send me some pies. They didn't know that I have a colossal soft spot for them, so the fact I responded with the epistle equivalent of "PIES! Pies for me! It's Christmas come again!" probably caused them some concern. Anyway. Moving on. 

Their new Lighter range is a shameless and delicious grab for the 5:2 market. They've ditched the usual crust in favour of a thinner, seeded pastry and it's got a herby, seed-y crumb topping which means each pie rocks in at 440 calories while still being the size of a small house.

There are three varieties: Light as a Feta (butternut squash, feta and sun-dried tomato), Kooky Chook (free-range British chicken, sweet potato, coconut and chilli) and Chickalito (free-range British chicken and free-range British dry-cured ham). I'm just going to carry on writing free-range British until I go blind.

Kooky Chook! Should go perfectly well with Quirky Bird.
For the sake of science, and the fact that just mentioning the word 'pie' had my colleagues sniffing around like vultures, I changed my plan to just eat them all myself, and split up the pies in a desk picnic. They were lovely cold, but really got going when popped in the microwave.

Kooky Chook was gorgeous.  Having just got back from Thailand, I left it til last, but it was my favourite. I adore coconut at the best of times, but the whole pie just clicked. And actually, it's not remotely Thai, so forget I said anything. Light as a Feta impressed the whole group. We're a bunch of carnivores, but this pie was well-seasoned and had a terrific flavour. I'd happily pass one of these off as my own cooking next time I have to cook for a veggie at dinner (sorry Ian).
Chickalito - needs an Abba remix
I was a bit more apprehensive about Chickalito, simply because my first job after graduating was working in a meat-packing factory I kid you not, and that is mostly to blame for my shyness around hams. But hurrah for free-range British ham. And hurrah in fact for this pie: with a bit of Pieminister's No 10 chutney on the side, it was great. It just needed a bit of coconut. And chilli. And - oh wait, I really did like that Kooky Chook.

Pieminister Lighter Pies are £3.50 each or there's an intro offer at Waitrose/Ocado at £2.62 a pie. You can also pick them up at farmers markets, pie pubs and at Pieminister restaurants. YUM.

2 comments:

  1. Just cooking my first Pieminister Lighter pie this evening (it's a Light as Feta). I'm a huge fan of their all pastry pies, both veggie and meaty.
    On another tack, you should try Glastonbury again. I was there in 2007 with 2 teenage daughters - so wet and cold (but still excellent). Went again last year. It was breezy, sunny and perfect. Oh, and Pieminister were there of course! Hattie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bang! Excellent work Hattie - although I'm not sure you could convince me to Glastonbury or any other festival for the moment. Unless I could stay in a hotel... x

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