While maybe not everyone knows what a pasty is, most everyone knows how delicious a meat pie is and so it shouldn’t take a lot of convincing to get you to try out a Cornish Pasty. That’s really what they are in essence – a meat pie that’s wrapped up in flaky, buttery crust, making it perfect for a handheld meal on the go.
I happened to grow up in a small Gold Rush mining town where these were very popular, so I’ve been eating them for decades because we had not one, not two, but three local pasty shops. (In fact, my family has a weird tradition of eating them on Christmas Day!) See, Cornish Pasties were made popular all over the world as Cornish miners made their way around the globe, so this delicious little pie is popular in places like Michigan as well as small mining towns in Northern California.
Now that we have that covered, we can get to a bit more interesting trivia. I have always been told that pasties were popular with miners because it was an easy meal to bring down into the mines, since it was handheld, filling, and delicious. But what’s more than that, originally pasties were often made with savory filling in one half and sweet filling in the other, so you could eat your way through your beef pasty down in the darkness of the mine and finish up with a sweet berry pie filling at the end. I haven’t seen them made that way in the modern-day or made them that way myself – my favorite filling is beef and vegetables, though there are about 101 different ways to go about filling them
Yield: 8 pasties
Approx. WW Points: 5–6 points each
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
- 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
For the Filling
- 1 lb 96% lean ground beef
- 2 cups Yukon Gold potatoes, diced small
- 1 cup carrots, diced
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried rosemary
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- Cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Spray a skillet with cooking spray and cook the ground beef until browned. Drain any excess liquid.
- Stir in the onion, carrots, potatoes, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Cook for 8–10 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften. Let the filling cool.
- Mix the self-rising flour and Greek yogurt until a soft dough forms. Knead for 2–3 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll each into a 6-inch circle.
- Spoon about ½ cup filling onto one half of each circle.
- Fold the dough over, press the edges together, and crimp with a fork.
- Brush the tops with beaten egg.
- Bake for 22–25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Let cool for 5–10 minutes before serving.
WW Tips
- Use 96% lean ground beef to keep the points low.
- Dice the vegetables small so they cook through evenly.
- Serve with steamed vegetables or a side salad for a filling, low-point meal.