These vegan cheese and red pepper filo hand pies are crisp, flaky and filled with a creamy, cheesy vegetable filling that's packed with flavour. They're perfect for lunchboxes, picnics, buffets or a light lunch with salad.
Made with layers of delicate filo pastry, they're lighter than traditional pies but still satisfy that craving for golden, crispy pastry. Try serving them with Marinated Cherry Tomatoes on the side.
The roasted red pepper paste (or try this Sundried Tomato Paste) adds a rich Mediterranean flavour, while the creamy vegan cheese gives a savoury bite. They are easy to make ahead, taste good warm or cold, and are great in Packed Lunches.
At-a-Glance - Vegan Cheese & Red Pepper Pies
⏲️ Ready in: 35 minutes
👪 Serves: 5
🍽 Calories: 393
🧾 Main ingredients: Filo pastry (phyllo pastry, red pepper paste, vegan cream cheese, vegan cheddar, nutritional yeast (nooch), spring onion (green onions/scallions), red pepper, cherry tomatoes & sweetcorn
👩🏻🍳 Suitable for: Vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, egg-free, vegetarian
These little pies are great for lunch but also good served for dinner with baby potatoes and a dressed green salad.
Summarise & save this recipe:
⭐ Why You'll Love These Hand Pies
- Light, crispy pastry
- Creamy cheese filling
- Easy to tweak
- Good served warm or cold
- Great for lunchboxes
- A tasty way to use up leftover vegetables
- Lighter than puff pastry pies
💭 Filo Pastry Vs Puff Pastry
| Filo Pastry | Puff Pastry |
|---|---|
| Crisp but delicate | Richer |
| Lighter texture | Buttery flavour |
| Contains less fat | Softer inside |
| Very flaky | Heavier |
| Great for smaller pastries | Better for larger pies and sausage rolls |
👩🏻🍳 Why do you Layer Filo Pastry?
Each layer traps pockets of air as it bakes, leaving you with light, crispy pastry.
Brushing or spraying each layer lightly with oil or melted vegan butter helps the layers crisp up and prevents them from sticking together.
👩🏻🍳 How to Keep the Pastry from Drying Out
One of the downfalls of filo pastry is that the large sheets can dry out quickly and become brittle and unusable. Here are a few tips to stop that from happening:
- Preheat your oven
- Make your filling ahead
- Don't take the pastry out of the fridge until you are ready to make your pies
- Lay the sheets between two clean, damp teatowels
- Only take one sheet out at a time to use; leave the rest covered
- Work quickly
🧾 What You Need
Here are the ingredients you need to make these cute little red pepper lunch pies. The full list of ingredients and method are in the recipe card.
- Cherry tomatoes - you can use any small tomatoes
- Red pepper paste - you can use Sundried Tomato Paste instead
- Nooch - is also called nutritional yeast
- Herbs - you can also add fresh or dried herbs to the cheese mixture
👩🏻🍳 Can I Make these Ahead?
You can make these ahead, chill, and bake later in the day, or once cool, you can keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
They do lose some crispness, but you can pop them in the oven or air fryer to crisp up again. They are still good in lunchboxes, even if they aren't as crisp.
👩🏻🍳 How to Make Vegan Cheese & Red Pepper Pies
These step-by-step photos will show you how easy these pies are to make. Check out the recipe card for the oven timings, full ingredient list and method.
Step 1
1. Preheat the oven, then add the vegan cream cheese, grated cheddar, nooch (nutritional yeast) and spring onions to a mixing bowl and season.
Step 2
2. Add the corn and red pepper to the filling and mix well. Have your muffin trays ready, then take the filo out of the fridge and cut into squares.
Step 3
3. Layer up filo squares in each muffin hole, spray each layer with a little oil or brush with melted vegan butter, then add the paste and filling to the pastry cups. Top each pie with cheddar and slices of tomato.
Step 4
4. Bake the pies until golden and crisp, then serve and enjoy!
👩🏻🍳 How to Serve these Cheesy Hand Pies
| Lunch | Dinner | Picnics |
|---|---|---|
| Macaroni Salad | Roast potatoes & veg | Dill Coleslaw |
| Dressed green salad | New potatoes & salad | Hummus & veg sticks |
| Beet Slaw | Steamed vegetables | Chopped Corn Salad |
| Dill Potato Salad | Sweet potato wedges | Cucumber & olives |
| Homemade Tomato Soup | Baby potatoes, broccoli and corn | Marinated cherry tomatoes |
🍄 Variations
- Garlic mushroom cheese pies - sauté mushrooms with garlic (make sure they aren't wet), add a layer of hummus instead of red pepper paste, then the mushrooms, then the cheese layer.
- Spinach & cheese pies - mix chopped fresh spinach with the cheese mixture; you can also crumble some vegan feta when serving them
- Mediterranean pies - use sundried tomato paste instead of red pepper paste and add olives
- Mexican filo pies - add black beans, paprika and chilli flakes.
💭 FAQs
It sounds like it dried out; you need to keep it between damp teatowels to keep it damp and work quickly, just taking out what you need.
Either the vegetables were rinsed and not dried well, or the pastry wasn't baked long enough.
If the filling is leaking out, you may have overfilled the pies or torn the pastry.
🥟 More Vegan Pastries to Try Next
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Cheese & Red Pepper Filo Hand Pies
Ingredients
- 200 g vegan cream cheese
- 8 tablespoons vegan cheddar grated
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- pinch salt and pepper
- 1 large spring onions or two medium, finely sliced
- ½ red pepper finely diced
- 3 tablespoons cooked sweetcorn
- 3 sheets filo pastry cut into squares
- 3 tablespoons red pepper paste
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- spray oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/350f/gas mark 4.
- Grease a muffin tray.
- In a mixing bowl, mash the cream cheese to soften it, then add 6 tablespoons of grated cheddar and the nutritional yeast. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
- Add the chopped spring onion, red pepper and sweetcorn and mix again.
- Add a square of pastry to 5 muffin cups (you may have enough pastry for 6) and brush or spray with a little oil.
- Add another 2 or 3 layers (I used 3 layers altogether), at a slightly different angle each time so you are creating a frill around the muffin cup with a spray of oil between each layer.
- Add a scant tablespoon of red pepper paste to the bottom of each pie, then top with a big scoop (2-3 tbsp) of the cheese mix.
- Top each with a sprinkle of the reserved cheese and slices of cherry tomato.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden and the cheese has melted.
- Leave to cool in the muffin tray for a few minutes then serve warm or move to a baking rack to continue cooling. A spoon will help to ease the pies out the tray.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use spray olive oil or melt some vegan butter or spread to coat the pastry between layers.
- If you don't have red pepper paste, sundried tomato paste is good. you can use tomato puree and stir in some dried herbs, but use less.
- Leftover filo can be covered with a damp tea towel if you are using it for another dish after making these or making a double batch.
- If you want to use the leftover pastry another day, wrap it firmly in cling film then place in a firmly sealed freezer bag and keep it in the fridge for a few days until you need it.
- These pies are best served the same day, hot or cold, while they are at their crispest. They can be chilled in an airtight container for a few days. They are still tasty but not crisp.
Jill says
What a treat these are for lunch or dinner with a side salad (which I dress with your French dressing by the way). I do prefer them cold though. Jill x
Jacqueline Meldrum says
Oh yes I prefer them cold too and that is a tasty salad dressing. I made a batch last week to have with a rocket and tofu salad.
veenaazmanov says
These look so amazing. My kids would love this for their lunch boxes during the school season. I love how simple and easy it is to make.
Kathryn Donangelo says
Love how this is vegan and reminded me of pizza! All of the ingredients came together perfectly and made a delicious lunch!
Sisley White says
These look so good! I can't wait to make them again. Absolutely yum
Maria says
Those look tasty and healthy! Can't wait to give these a try.
Charl says
I love filo pies and love that these are suitable for my dairy free lifestyle. They look extremely tempting, I just wanna dig in!
Adrianne - Sweet Caramel Sunday says
These look healthy, delicious and I love that they are vegan! I can't wait to give this a go, yum and yes please!
Jacqueline Meldrum says
I hope you and the kids enjoy them Bintu.
Jacqueline Meldrum says
Yeah it's easy to eat more than one. Enjoy them.
Jacqueline Meldrum says
Oh yes the are so easy to make and great results.
Jacqueline Meldrum says
O hope you enjoy them Shanna 😁
Andrea Metlika says
I really like how easy these fabulous looking hand pies are to make. I canr wait to try them.
Shanna says
These look so delicious and I can't wait to make them.
Bintu | Recipes From A Pantry says
My kids would love to see these in their lunchbox - they sound so delicious! I love the idea of having them for dinner, I might have to give them a try one evening this week!
Kechi says
These hand pies look so so tasty! I see myself eating a couple, would make perfect appetizers! Thanks for sharing!