Halloween Inspired Pumpkin Shaped Salsa and Cheese Pies
These are just 6 ingredients, really easy to make and vegan friendly too. Perfect for the halloween season, these pumpkin shaped pies are stuffed with Holy Moly Salsas and vegan cheese to create the ultimate comfort food.
What’s in the recipe?
Puff Pastry- Most puff pastry found in the shops is accidentally vegan friendly. I use a ready made sheet that simply needs unrolling and warming to room temperature before using.
Holy Moly Salsa- For this recipe I’ve used the new Smoky Red Pepper and Tomato Salsa along with the classic Tomato and Mango salsa. The larger pumpkin has the smoky red pepper one, whereas the smaller pumpkins have the tomato and mango salsa.
Vegan Cheese- I’ve used a block of mature cheddar style ‘cheese’ which I had grated to help melt a little quicker inside the pies.
Tomatoes- I love the tangy sweet pop of flavour from the tomatoes in this, you can easily leave this ingredient out however I love it for the texture.
Vegan butter- Using melted plant based butter mixed with the Smoked Paprika creates the perfect glaze for the pastry before popping in the oven. It gives a beautiful orange colour to help with the theme too.
Tips and tricks:
Pastry- I find letting the pastry warm up a little from the fridge helps it stay easy to work with. Don’t let the pastry get too warm otherwise it’ll become difficult to work with and won’t hold the filling very well.
Preheat the oven- Get the oven up to 200ºC whilst making the pumpkins so it’s piping hot when you put the pumpkins in.
No cookie cutter?-Don’t worry, simply free hand it, that’s what I did. I just folded the sheet of pastry in half then cut out the pumpkin shapes so each pumpkin had the perfect other half to fit the shape.
Leftover pastry?- Simple cut into long strips and twist the two together, coat in the butter and paprika, top with vegan cheese and bake with the pumpkin shapes. Zero waste too!
Leave them in the oven until golden- You don’t want undercooked pastry, everyone’s oven is slightly different so make sure the top has changed to a beautiful golden pastry colour on top before taking out of the oven.
Pumpkin scoring – Using a sharp knife, score moon shaped lines into the top of the pastry to create the look of the pumpkin
Stems- For the stalk of the pumpkins, I use use pieces of the leftover pastry and shaped them into the stalk and popped them at the top of the pumpkin.
Halloween Salsa and Cheese Pumpkin Pies
Ingredients
- 1 sheet of puff pastry
- 3 -4 tbsp Smoky Red Pepper & Tomato Salsa
- 3-4 tbsp Tomato and Mango Salsa both @holymolydips
- 70 g vegan cheese grated
- 1 large tomato sliced
- 2 tbsp vegan butter melted
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
Instructions
- Roll out the puff pastry sheet and using either a pumpkin cookie cutter, or free hand, cut out 2 large pumpkin shape and 4-6 smaller pumpkin shapes
- On the large pumpkin, place a few tbsp of the Smoky Red Pepper and Tomato Salsa on one side, 1 handful of grated vegan cheese, a few slices of tomato, then place the other piece on top, pinch the edges together then coat in some of the melted butter and paprika
- Repeat with the smaller pumpkins but with the Tomato and Mango Salsa
- Place on a lined baking tray and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until golden on top
This post was in partnership with Holy Moly.
If you like this recipe why not try my Home Made Pop Tarts / Hand Pies