This pie recipe is for anyone who wants a fabulous, tasty vegan vegetable pie, but doesn’t want the faff of making a crust. It’s a crust-free vegan veggie pie. Veggie pie made super easy. 

You don’t need a crust? What!?

Pie without a crust yes.

Crusts are often helpful things, specifically designed to hold in the contents of a meal within a pastry.

But what if your contents don’t need holding in? What if the pie holds together, all by it’s magical self 😁? Then you don’t need a crust yay!

Welcome to my new vegan veggie pie square recipe! A magic pie that holds together so well that you don’t even need to bother making a crust.

This vegan veggie pie…

• Incredibly delicious
• Gluten-free and vegan
• Holds together perfectly
• Serves hot for dinner, cold for lunch, picnics or parties

How do I actually make a veggie pie without a crust?

Crusts are designed to hold in the contents of a pie… but they can be a little awkward and tiresome to make.

A crustless pie is possible when the contents (in this case vegetables) hold together so well that you don’t even need a crust to keep everything in.

It makes things everything so much easier.

Additionally, crustless pie is a brilliant idea for gluten-free people as you immediately eliminate the need for wheat. 

You bake it, slice it and then serve.

Next stop; what holds the veggie pie together?

Using chickpea flour batter as a veggie pie binder

As mentioned above, in order to make a pie without a crust, I need all of the contents (in this case sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini, tomato and sweet pepper) to hold together into a square sliceable meal.

Enter chickpea flour batter! Also called gabanzo bean flour and gram flour, it is a magical addition to the kitchen.

Chickpea flour acts as an excellent, protein rich binder. For this vegan veggie pie recipe, you make a batter with it, which in turn encases each vegetable and sets the whole thing together.

“Pouring chickpea flour batter onto the vegetables for the pie and pressing everything together.”

Chickpea flour batter works remarkably well at melding all of the vegetables together to form one whole, complete veggie pie. 

You simply add liquid and the condiments (sea salt, paprika, cumin, garlic, ginger) to the chickpea flour. Next you blend it… and then you have a chickpea flour batter. Mix it in (see pics above). Then decorate it (see pic below). Pop it in the oven and magic!

Continue to Content

Veggie Pie Squares - vegan, gluten-free

Yield: 4 large squares

Vegetable pie squares. Easy to make without a pie crust. They hold together perfectly with a chickpea flour base.

Print

Ingredients

• ½ large brocolli
• 1 sweet potato (medium sized)
• ½ zucchini (UK: courgette)
• ½ sweet pepper
• 5 baby tomatoes

Batter mixture:

• 150g (1 cup) chickpea flour (gram flour/garbanzo bean flour)
• 100ml (⅖ cup) passata (in USA: strained or seived tomatoes)
• 150ml (⅔ cup) water
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 heaped teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 teaspoon paprika (smoked or sweet)
• 1 cm cubed (half inch approx) fresh ginger
• 1 large clove garlic

Instructions

1. Chop the broccoli into bite sized florets.
2. Chop the sweet potato and zucchini (UK: courgette) into small pieces.
3. Boil or steam the sweet potato and brocolli for about 15 minutes. Add the zucchini about 5 minutes before the end of cooking time.
4. Slice the tomatoes and pepper, putting them to the side for now.
   

Making the pie batter

1. Add all the batter ingredients to a blender. You will need to take the skin off the garlic first.
2. If you have a powerful bullet blender, then blend for about 15 seconds. This will allow everything to evenly combine and for the garlic and ginger to breakdown throughly. If you have a less powerful blender, simply blend for a little longer.
3. Alternatively, if you don’t have a blender, or prefer to mix by hand, then put the chickpea flour through a fine meshed sieve. Finely grate the ginger and garlic. Add the salt and spices. Add the liquid gradually and mix throroughly by hand with a metal spoon until there are no chickpea flour lumps in the batter.

Bringing the pie together

1. Once the vegetables have steamed or boiled, make sure they are drained of all water.
2. Line an oven proof dish with parchment paper. I used a baking tin 21cm x 21cm (8.5 in x 8.5 inches) in size. You can use anything similar square, rectangular or circular.
3. Put the vegetables into the parchment lined oven dish.
4. Mix in the batter thoroughly. You need to make sure that all of the vegetables are properly covered. Do not skip this stage as it essential for holding eveything together.
5. When you are happy that everything is evenly mixed, press down with the back of a spoon to make sure the pie is tightly packed.
6. Decorate the top of your veggie pie with your sliced sweet pepper and tomatoes.
7. Put your veggie pie into a pre heated fan oven at 180C (350F) and bake for about 40 minutes. You know it is ready when the batter starts to form a thin crust on top and looks tanned. It should be firm to touch.
8. Slice immediately for a hot dinner, or serve cold later. This keeps for a few days in the fridge.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

Pin vegan veggie pie for later…

Another favourite recipe using chickpea flour…