Tourtière with pork, beef and lentils
90 min · 23 g protein · 362 cals / serving
The Christmas Eve meat pie of Quebec, with its warm cinnamon, clove and allspice filling intact. Lentils and mushrooms stand in for half the meat, and a single flaky crust goes on top only, so you get the pastry everyone fights over without the soggy bottom layer nobody misses.
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 large russet potato, peeled, in chunks
- 250 g (1/2 lb) ground pork
- 300 g (2/3 lb) ground beef (95% lean), extra-lean
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 3 stalks celery, finely chopped
- 225 g (1/2 lb) crimini mushroom, cremini, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 625 ml (2 1/2 cups) cooked lentils, brown or green, drained and rinsed
- 250 ml (1 cup) beef broth
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp cloves, ground
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- scant 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Steps
- Boil the potato in salted water until very soft, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash it smooth.
- In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook the pork and beef with the onion, celery, mushrooms and garlic, breaking the meat up finely, until the mushroom juices have cooked off, no pink remains and the meat reaches 160°F, 12–14 minutes. Spoon off any fat that pools.
- Add the lentils, broth, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring now and then, until almost all the liquid is gone, about 15 minutes. Stir in the mashed potato; it binds the filling so it slices cleanly. Taste and adjust the spices, then let it cool for at least 20 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Spoon the filling into a 9 inch deep pie dish and level it.
- Lay the crust over the top, trim it to a 1/2 inch overhang and tuck the edge inside the rim. Brush with the beaten egg and cut a few steam vents. Bake 30–35 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden. Rest 15 minutes before serving.
Good to know
Why let the filling cool before the crust goes on?
Hot filling melts the butter in the pastry before it reaches the oven, and the crust bakes up tough and pale. Lukewarm is fine.
What do I serve with it?
Ketchup or fruit chutney is the Quebec habit, and a sharp green salad or pickled beets cuts the richness nicely.
Can it be frozen?
Yes, baked or unbaked. Freeze unbaked pies fully wrapped and bake from frozen at 375°F for about 60 minutes, until the center is hot.
Per
- Calories
- 168
- Protein
- (27%)
- 11 g
- Fat
- (36%)
- 6 g
- Carbohydrates
- (37%)
- 17 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 4 g
- Sodium
- 311 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2898 kcal goes into the pot and 2376 g of ingredients comes out as about 1730 g of food: 168 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.