Pie Floater Recipe with Pea Soup

Chef's Notes

Pies – You can use any store bought pie if you like – beef, chicken, curry or potato pies would all taste amazing. but for the best flavour we recommend making them yourself. Our Mini Meat Pies are the perfect accomplice to your homemade pie floater. Add the pie just before serving so the pastry stays crispy and flaky. To be extra authentic you can serve the pie upside down in the soup. 
Pea Soup – Our traditional-style soup is made with dried blue boiler peas or Marrowfat peas – they give the best texture for mushy pea soup once cooked! However, they both require some pre-planning since you need to soak them overnight. To save time you can use regular peas (fresh, canned or frozen) or green split peas, similar to our homemade Erwtensoep – Dutch Split Pea Soup. You could even use canned pea soup – though the flavour will never be the same as homemade. If your pea soup is too thin, try adding pureed vegetables such as potato, carrot or celery OR, make a cornflour slurry from 1-1.5 tsp of corn starch and 3 tsp cold water. Stir through the soup to thicken.
Tomato Sauce – In Australia we love tomato sauce, which is similar to American ketchup (definitely not canned tomato puree used for pasta).
Make it Vegan – Swap the beef pie for your favourite vegan pie, and use vegetable stock in the soup instead of chicken stock.
Tweak the Sauces – Traditional options include mint sauce, BBQ sauce, or malt vinegar. Another popular version is to top with mashed potato and gravy! But if you’re feeling more adventurous, you could try it with Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, Yakisoba sauce or even Takoyaki sauce. Those last two are amazing Japanese condiments with a similar flavour to BBQ sauce.
Store & Reheat – The pea soup will last for around 3 days in the fridge, up to a few months if stored in the freezer. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove top. Homemade beef pies can be stored in the freezer, then thawed completely before baking in the oven until heated through. Serve your assembled pie floater immediately.