This easy seafood pie recipe makes rustic seafood pies in a creamy spring vegetable sauce with flaky puff pastry lids. The rustic look belies the velvety sauce within, made with fresh spring vegetables such as asparagus, zucchini and peas, fragrant herbs such as dill and flat leaf parsley, and chunky pieces of salmon, sweet prawns and plump mussels.
If you’re a seafood pie lover and you enjoyed my salmon tray bake recipe, which made crispy skinned salmon fillets baked so that the skin crackles but flesh remains moist, served with roasted spring vegetables that are just-done so that they’re still taste fresh and crunchy, you should enjoy this easy seafood pie recipe.
It was that salmon tray bake and the leftover salmon fillets and spring veggies that inspired this dish, although I have to confess that if my seafood pie recipe didn’t make such an incredibly delicious pie, and one that’s such a cinch to make, I might have shelved this post.
I almost didn’t share this recipe for these creamy seafood and spring vegetable pies with you because they’re not the prettiest pies I’ve made. But they just tasted sooo good, I had to. I nearly called them ‘ugly delicious seafood pies’, which made me think if David Chang can do it, then I can do it, so here you are.
The problem was the pastry. I used a different puff pastry to the one I’d used for my Irish beef and Guinness pie recipe which made those adorable little beef stew pies which I baked in ramekins. While Terence bakes sourdough bread and I frequently make dough for dumplings, I don’t have the time to deal with puff pasty right now. I’ll tell you more about my pastry woes below.
Before I do, if you’re a seafood lover, particularly a salmon lover, do try my fish pot pie recipe – no pastry needed, it has a crispy cheese lid. You’ll find more of our best salmon recipes here, including smoked salmon blini, a salmon ceviche-style appetiser, salmon soup, salmon potato salad, salmon pasta, clay-pot salmon, and Terence’s crispy skin salmon fillet with colcannon with prawns – or creamy mashed potatoes if you prefer.
Now, before I tell you more about this seafood pie recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers.
Looking for more cooking inspiration? We’ve got thousands of recipes in our archives from around the world from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. And note that you can save your favourite recipes in a private account by clicking on the heart on the right of the post. Now let me tell you about this easy seafood pie recipe.
Seafood Pie Recipe for Rustic Seafood Pies with a Creamy Spring Vegetable Sauce
Don’t be discouraged by the rather ‘rustic’ appearance of my pie, this easy seafood pie recipe will make you the most delicious creamy seafood and spring vegetable pies that make such a refreshing change from the usual seafood pies.
The creamy sauce of spring vegetables – asparagus, zucchini and peas – and fragrant herbs such as dill and flat leaf parsley, along with chunky pieces of salmon, sweet prawns and plump mussels, make a deliciously rich pie that I did not want to stop eating. I’m so glad I made four! And, yes, they all looked like this.
Terence and I love our pies. Along with sausage rolls, they’re one of the things – two of the things! – we miss about Australian food. Australian bakers make the best pies and sausage rolls. Terence is the baker in our household and while he mostly bakes sourdough, he occasionally bakes a meat pie or sausage roll and loves getting creative with flavours.
Browse this collection of our best meat pie and sausage roll recipes and you’ll find recipes for meat pies and sausage rolls inspired by Southeast Asian dishes, particularly Cambodian dishes, such as a curried chicken pie based on the classic Cambodian chicken curry to sausage rolls with eggplant and pork inspired by a char-grilled eggplant and minced pork dish.
That was partly my inspiration for conceiving a seafood pie that was a bit different. Plus, the fact that the only pies Terence hadn’t tested before were seafood pies, and as I’m more of a seafood lover, I thought I’d better take it upon myself to experiment with seafood pie recipes.
That, combined with having leftover salmon fillets and spring vegetables – and the confidence that came with how well the little Irish beef pies turned out – is how this ‘beauty’ came about. If only the puff pastry would have co-operated!
Pastry can be tricky enough as it is here in the steamy tropics, which is why we have to turn the air-conditioning on full blast to cool the kitchen down, although there’s little we can do about the humidity.
This particular pastry took a longer time than usual to thaw and the sheets tore as I tried to separate them. As I was racing to bake the pies so we could shoot them before the sun went down, I took the pastry outside where it quickly turned into a soft gluey mess.
I will tackle my own puff pastry one day. Until then I’ll be careful about which frozen puff pastry brands we buy, because when it’s good frozen puff pastry is brilliant, and pies and sausage rolls are a breeze to make. Next time. Because there will be a next time. Because I need to replace this ugly delicious seafood pie of mine!
Tips to Making this Seafood Pie Recipe for Seafood Pies with a Creamy Spring Vegetable Sauce
As usual, just a few tips to making this easy seafood pie recipe for my rustic seafood pies in a creamy spring vegetable sauce with flaky puff pastry lids, because they are easy if you’re using a good frozen puff pastry brand.
Part of the idea for this pie was to create an old-fashioned creamy seafood mornay sauce but with spring vegetables and herbs to give the sauce more texture and flavour. If you weren’t a fan of the old mornay and you don’t think cheese and seafood go together, then simply skip the cheeses, as it still tastes delicious.
A lot of seafood mornay pie recipes call for milk, but cooking cream obviously gives it a creamier texture and a richer taste. If you’re dieting, you may want to stick with milk. The flour will still thicken the sauce, you don’t need cream to do that.
I wanted to get away from the usual seafood pie recipes that go for a combo of peas, carrots and potatoes if they’re using vegetables, hence my inclusion of fresh spring vegetables such as asparagus, zucchini and peas, and fragrant herbs such as dill and flat leaf parsley and I also added some celery leaves. But by all means, experiment and try other veggies. This is a great opportunity to use up leftover bits and pieces in your fridge veggie drawer.
As for the seafood, I’ve gone with chunky pieces of salmon, sweet prawns and plump mussels as that’s what I had on hand and I think it’s a great combination. Barramundi would be wonderful with baby clams and crayfish tails. Lobster claw meat would be heavenly.
The reason I waited until the end to pop the seafood on top of the creamy vegetable sauce and not combine it earlier was mostly so the salmon didn’t break up, but also so that the seafood wouldn’t over-cook, plus I wanted to see lovely pieces of seafood as I peeled of the pastry lid.
These are very filling pies and are really a meal in themselves, but a fresh garden salad is nice on the side, along with some slices of sourdough to mop up the creamy sauce on the bottom of the pie dish.
Seafood Pie Recipe for Rustic Seafood Pies with Creamy Spring Vegetable Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 300 g salmon
- 200 g prawns
- 100 g mussels
- 1 onion - finely diced
- 4 asparagus pieces - sliced into 1cm lengths
- 1 zucchini - finely diced
- 1 ½ cups cooking cream
- ¼ cup plain flour - sifted
- 50 g Parmigiano Reggiano - grated
- 50 g mature cheddar cheese - grated
- 4 scallions/spring onions - finely sliced
- 2 tbsp fresh dill - finely chopped
- 1 cup peas - fresh or frozen and defrosted
- 1 tsp sea salt – or to taste
- ½ tsp ground white pepper – or to test
- 4 sheets frozen puff pastry - defrost as per instructions
- 1 egg - whisked
Instructions
- To a frying pan, over high heat, add one tablespoon of olive oil and quickly sear the salmon, then the prawns, then the mussels in batches until almost-done, don’t cook through, as they’ll continue to cook in the pies. Keep the oily seafood juices in the pan and transfer the seafood to a colander.
- To the same pan, add another tablespoon of olive oil, heat, then turn the heat down to medium, then cook the diced onion until soft. Add the asparagus pieces and diced zucchini and continue to fry until tender.
- Add the cooking cream and simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, then gradually add the sifted flour, stirring continuously, to create a thick sauce.
- Turn the heat to low, then add the cheeses, spring onions, fresh dill, peas, salt and pepper, stir well to combine, then taste, adjust the seasoning if necessary, then remove from the heat to cool a little.
- Turn your attention to the seafood: chop the prawns in half or thirds, depending on their size, then chop the salmon into chunky pieces around 1 ½ cm in length.
- Transfer half of the salmon to the creamy spring vegetable sauce, mash roughly, stir to combine, then taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat your oven to 220°C/430°F. Grease 4 ovenproof pie dishes (12.5cm/5in wide x 4cm/1.5in deep) with butter and space them out evenly on a rimmed baking tray.
- Distribute the creamy seafood and spring vegetable mix into each pie dish, filling two thirds of each dish, then pop the salmon pieces, prawns and mussels on top, pressing then down into mixture a little, then top with more of the creamy vegetable mixture to fill the pie dishes.
- Top each dish with a sheet of pastry, pressing the pastry around the edges to seal, allowing any excess to overhang, then use a fork to prick the centre of each top, and use a pastry brush to brush the whisked egg on the pastry lid.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or so until the pie lids are golden, then serve immediately with garden salad.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our easy seafood pie recipe as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
