Savory Green Tomato Pie with Beef and Onions in Whole Wheat Pastry

Scrumptious Green Tomatoes in a Prairie Meat Pie

My lust for heirloom tomatoes has deviated from the fleshy vine-ripened globes of juicy fruity wonder to their dense, firm, green, acidic unripened counterparts. Green Tomatoes are succulent. Who knew? Not I. Assuming unripened fruit inedible, I had not gone there. Ketchups and relishes, yes. Straight up? No. Until this season. It was the Fried Green Tomato Recipe that I made that changed everything.When a new texture and flavour experience rears its head, it is a time to celebrate and that is just what I am doing: working at developing arecipes to enjoy these late harvest gems. The research tells me a lot of people make Green Tomato Pie exactly like I make my apple pie. That sounds like a great idea, only if it would be as good or better than the iconic apple pie. Of course, I will eventually try it. But, even I concede that a Green Tomato Pie could only disappoint if an apple pie was possible. However, the evening meal seems the perfect time to serve a Savory Tomato Pie. The Canadian harvest season is somehow reminiscent of pot pies and stews: that meat and vegetable combination that is irresistible when the cold weather rolls in. The traditional French Canadian Tortièrre was my inspiration and is a very basic mixture of ground pork and beef with a little onion seasoned with the scent cloves and cinnamon. Vanja and loves and cinnamon? Nope. Beefing up the nutrients and using the carrots and celery from the harvest to add to the ground beef made sense. Right from the get-go I knew this would be a layered pie and that caramelized onions would be the middle layer. The sweet sticky texture would hold the filling together and balance the acidity of the green tomato.

Seasoning the meat is critical to this dish. Nothing exotic for my uber carnivore. Soy. Worcestershire. Sage. Butter. Butter? There is no sauce better than butter with soy sauce. It made sense. The Worcestershire adds a little je ne sais quois and the sage that familiar autumn blush. None of the additions could be identified, yet all added to the depth of flavour of the meat filling.

Whole wheat pastry was a given, yet I did worry that the grains may overwhelm the pie; however, the flavours were enhanced by the whole wheat crust.

A deep dish pie in a spring form pan was the plan. My pre-made and frozen discs of homemade pastry are a bit too small for the inside of the pan, so here is the solution. Roll out one disc and place it in the pan. Roll out the other for the crust, and use the bottom of the spring form pan to cut out the crust. The extra pastry will be added to the sides of the pastry in the pan to extend the height of it.

You can see the additional pastry edges added to the spring form crush, below.

The curves cut out around the crust fit perfectly into the curves around the edges of the spring form pan.

I actually rolled the cut out top crust a little larger as the bottom I traced was for a smaller pan.

To ensure the fillings would hold, I added cornstarch to the meat and to the onions. The consistency was perfect.

Imagine another image with the meat filling covered with the caramelized onion layer. The green tomatoes covered the onions.

The pastry folded perfectly over the seasoned green tomatoes and the crust was placed on top, and crimped with a fork. I did moisten the edges of the pastry to ensure a good stick.

Slits to let the steam escape, and into the oven to bake. A cookie sheet with parchment or foil is always placed on the floor of any oven I bake a pie in.

The humble, simple Savoury Green Tomato Pie reveals itself.

Giddy, as the first slice plated perfectly, I examined the layers. Subtle, but there. Sniffed it. Juices flowing, I took my first bite. This Savoury Green Tomato Pie is tastier than even I imagined possible. But, the family is the key to all that I make once more… and this pie got rave reviews. The tomato layer adds such a lively kick and the onion layer adds such a comforting pleasure. I may add a diced green tomato or two to the meat filling next time, to enable the green tomato to dominate the ingredient list.

At this point, this Green Tomato Pie recipe is exceptional!

5 from 1 vote

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Savory Green Tomato Pie with Beef and Onions in Whole Wheat Pastry

This is A Canadian Foodie Original Recipe and it is scrump-dilly-ishious!

Course Main

Cuisine Canadian

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Servings 8

Author Valerie Lugonja

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 3 large onions , sliced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vegeta
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 3 stalks celery , diced
• 1 large carrot , diced
• 1 pound or 500g ground beef
• 1/2 t sage
• 2 large cloves garlic , minced
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoon soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3-4 green tomatoes , sliced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Whole wheat pastry for double crust pie

Instructions

1. Saute onions in 1 tablespoon olive oil at medium high heat in heavy skillet, stirring constantly, until caramelized; season with Vegeta and pepper and cool to room temperature
2. Saute celery and carrots in 1 tablespoon olive oil at medium high heat in heavy skillet, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes
3. Add ground beef to the pan; continue to saute and stir until completely browned
4. Add sage, pepper and garlic; saute 30 seconds, stirring
5. Add sauces and butter; saute another minute, or until butter melts
6. Stir 2 tablespoons cornstarch into meat mixture; cool to room temperature
7. Pre-heat oven to 350F
8. Roll out one disc of whole wheat pastry, place bottom of spring form pan in middle of rolled pastry, ensure a couple of inches of dough extend all sides
9. Cut out round for top of pie, carefully preserving curved edges just cut away from it
10. Roll second disc of pastry; place into bottom of spring form pan (sides will not be high enough)
11. Using preserved curved pastry edges, build them onto sides of pastry placed in spring form pan to extend height of pastry sides to reach height of pan sides (use dabs of water to gently glue pastry pieces together)
12. Fill bottom of pie with room temperature meat filling
13. Add one tablespoon cornstarch to room temperature caramelized onions, mix together; layer onions over meat mixture
14. Lay tomato slices over onion layer; fill in empty spaced with small triangles of tomato
15. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper
16. Fold pastry on sides of pan over tomatoes; scantly dab with water to enable pastry top to stick
17. Place pastry disc onto top of pie; crimp edges with fork
18. Using a sharp knife, make air vents slits in pastry top
19. Bake for one hour, with cookie sheet or foil in bottom of oven to catch drippings (watch to avoid over browning; cover with foil when browned)
20. Remove from oven; rest 15 minutes
21. Loosen from sides of pan carefully, if necessary
22. Remove from pan; plate and serve with a dollop of crème fraîche

Recipe Notes

When using the spring form pan, ensure the lip of the bottom disc is facing down when securing sides; this will enable the cooked pie to easily slide onto a plate without catching on the edge of the bottom disc of the spring form pan
This Green Tomato Pie is also excellent served with Green Tomato Relish, Green Tomat Ketchup or any Green Tomato preserve