You know that moment when you realise you have half a leftover chicken, a fridge full of veggies yet no idea what to make for dinner? That was me on Friday night. I felt pretty sure they wouldn't just eat chicken and veggies, so I quickly whipped up a fridge emptying batch of pastries to use the leftover chicken. I couldn't help myself and filled them up with some cooked quinoa and fetta cheese as well to increase the yum factor and they went down a treat.
I've use puff pastry for these, but you could put them in a shortcrust base and a puff top if you have a pie maker on in pie dishes. Don't feel like you have to stick with the veggies I've listed, they are a guide for quantity. Switch them for your faves or whatever your fridge contains!
I cooked my quinoa in my Kambrook Rice Master that I reviewed for you last week. It made the quinoa light and fluffy and even better? I didn't have to watch it on the stove. Which was very convenient and made it far quicker (and less painful) to get the quinoa cooked!
These chicken, quinoa and vegetable hand pies would also be awesome as a lunch box item. They freeze well uncooked and bake easily from frozen in only 20 minutes. These were devoured by Master 2 and Miss 4 and I was glad to have escaped the pizza that Miss 4 had decided she wanted for dinner.
I'm keeping a big stash of these in the freezer for lunches from now on and any other time when dinner is just too hard. Seriously, they contain enough veg for a whole meal!
Chicken, quinoa and vegetable hand pies
Ingredients
- I leek thinly sliced
- ½ cauliflower chopped finely
- 1 carrot grated
- 1 zucchini grated
- 1 parnsip peeled and grated
- 1 cup quinoa two cups when cooked cooked, I did this in my rice cooker
- ½ cup vegetable stock
- 1 cup shredded cooked chicken
- 200 grams fetta crumbled
- 6 sheets puff pastry
- 3 tbsps olive oil
- 2 tbsps milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
- Take out the pastry to defrost.
- Heat the olive oil in a frypan over medium heat.
- Put the quinoa on to cook.
- Cook the leek until soft.
- Add the carrot, zucchini, parsnip and cauliflower. Cook until soft.
- Add the vegetable stock and cook for 5 minutes more.
- Combine the cooked veggies with the quinoa, chicken and fetta.
- Cut each pastry sheet into 8 triangles.
- Place a tablespoonful of the filling on each triangle then fold over and press the edges.
- Brush with milk.
- Bake at 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden.
- (alternatively freeze before baking and then bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes from frozen)
Nutritional Information
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