Turkey gets the star treatment in this gorgeous Moroccan Turkey Filo Pie, bursting with fruit, nuts and spices – perfect for your leftover turkey on Boxing Day or even as an alternative to a traditional roast turkey on Christmas Day.
Christmas is a time for miracles, and quite frankly it is a miracle this pie ever got made. It was made on an awful day when we had no loo and no water for large parts of the day and workmen in and out of the house all day. (We were getting our bathroom done at the time – all finished now. Phew).
I’d had this idea for months and was determined to try it out and had other things planned for other days, so I just had to get on with it. But I didn’t hold out much hope of it working. Especially first time, and I didn’t have enough time to reshoot it if it didn’t work, so it was a one shot thing…and, as I’ve shared before, me and pastry don’t always see eye to eye.
I knew I had a good chance of getting a nice turkey tagine type thing. That sort of thing I can make with my eyes closed (OK maybe not literally!!!), but stuffing it all in a filo pie, and it ending up looking and tasting good…I wasn’t too sure.
But then the miracle happened, not only did it work, but it actually tasted ridiculously good and looked pretty good too. And it was the gift that kept on giving, like a lovely ham in the fridge, we kept picking at it for the next few days and it tasted just as good cold as it did hot. Perhaps even better!
This would be an absolutely brilliant Boxing Day buffet centrepiece – a really good way to use up leftover roast turkey (far better than turkey sandwiches!) But you can also make it with fresh turkey fillets, so it also makes a wonderful Christmas Day main as well – a lovely alternative to a traditional roast turkey.
In fact there is no reason to limit this just to Christmas – it would make a fabulous show stopping main any time when you want to impress, or just make it on a random Wednesday in March, if you fancy… it’s quick and easy enough to do any time you want to treat yourself.
If you want to make this using fresh turkey, simply pan fry some turkey breast fillets first and then continue with the rest of the recipe.
One word of warning – you should ideally put this pie in a tin with a loose bottom. If you don’t, it is rather tricky to get this pie out of the tin without scattering the flaked almonds EVERYWHERE! I should know, because this is exactly what happened to me! The problem is easily remedied though, simply scatter the almonds that have fallen off back on the pie…and no one will ever know! (Except if you tell everyone on your blog, that is…)
A Grenache based rosé from the South of France would be a brilliant wine match for this dish or else a Grenache/Garnacha based red or, if you want to drink white, a Viognier would work well here too.
So all it remains for me to say is Merry Christmas!! Funnily enough I won’t be blogging tomorrow – I thought I’d take Christmas Day off from my blogging marathon! But don’t worry I’ll be back on Boxing Day with my roundup of fabulous easy peasy Boxing Day leftovers ideas 🙂
And don’t forget to check out my Ultimate Easy Peasy Christmas Dinner post, if you are still working out what to make for Christmas Day!!
More leftover turkey recipes…
For more great ways to use up leftover roast turkey check out my roundup of 10 Easy Ideas for your Turkey leftovers.
Moroccan Turkey Filo Pie
Equipment
- A wide, deep saucepan
- A deep sided cake tin, ideally one with a loose bottom
- A pastry brush
Ingredients
- 1 onion red or white, sliced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ - 1 teaspoon chilli flakes (or to taste, or use fresh chilli if you prefer)
- 2 teaspoons ras el hanout
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Black pepper
- 650 g cooked turkey shredded (or 800g fresh turkey breast fillet, chopped into cubes)
- 50 g apricots
- 50 g cranberries
- 50 g pistachios
- 50 g ground almonds
- 2 tablespoons fresh coriander
- 300 ml boiling water
- 50 g melted butter
- 8 sheets filo pastry
- 25 g flaked almonds
- A few fresh cranberries for decoration (optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 200C/ 180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F.
Filling
- Place the olive oil and sliced onion in a wide, deep pan and fry gently, with the lid on for 5 minutes until softened but not browned.
- Add the garlic, chilli, black pepper and spices and fry for 1 more minute, then add the cooked turkey, apricots, cranberries, pistachios, ground almonds and water and stir thoroughly.
- Simmer gently for about 3 minutes, until the sauce thickens, then turn off the heat.
Pie
- Brush your tin/dish (I used a deep sided cake tin) with melted butter and lay the first sheet of filo in the dish so it covers the base and some of the side and the rest flops over. Brush more melted butter over the parts of the pastry that are touching the tin and lay another sheet of filo half over lapping the first one, but covering all of the base.
- Continue round the tin until the base is covered with 7 layers of filo and all of the sides are covered and you have lots of pastry flopping over the sides and melted butter between each layer. Save one sheet of filo for the next step.
- Put all of your filling inside the pie and then flop the overhanging bits back in scrunching the filo as you do this. Brush with melted butter, then take the last sheet of filo and scrunch it up and place this on top. Give this sheet another really good brush of butter, then place your pie in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove the pie from the oven and scatter with flaked almonds. Return the pie to the oven for a further 10 minutes (20 minutes in the oven in total) or until the pastry is crisp and nicely browned on top.
- Serve with salad or as part of a Boxing Day spread.
Notes
- If you are using fresh turkey breast fillets, simply pan fry the cubed turkey breast for about 5 minutes or until cooked through, then shred and continue as per the recipe above.
- Not suitable for freezing (except the filling on its own IS suitable for freezing).
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
Get More Easy Peasy Leftovers Recipes here…
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Julie McPherson says
Oh yummy, I love the sound of this recipe Eb. It’s the perfect way of using up leftover turkey. Commenting as BritMums Baking Round-up Editor.
Eb Gargano says
It’s so good! It’s a really nice way to use up leftover turkey and turn it into a bit of a treat, but you can make this with turkey breast fillets too – so it would make a really festive centrepiece on Christmas Day (but way cheaper than buying an actual turkey!!) or could be done any time of year, really! Eb x