The Best Tourtière I've Ever Had

A French-Canadian Christmas Tradition + a vegetarian option

I intended to leave you in peace until the New Year, but we had tourtière for lunch on the weekend and one guest said, “This is the best tourtière I’ve ever had.” If someone’s going to hand out flattery for Christmas, I’ll take it! After that moment of triumph, I couldn’t not share the recipe with you.

Tourtière is a Christmas tradition in French Canada, but pies like this are actually a great way to feed a crowd all winter. Usually, they come in a pie plate, but (pffft!) you can have more fun than that. I shape mine in a rectangle, like a giant ravioli, and bake it on a sheet pan. That makes it easy and elegant to serve in long slices. You can make it round or oval, too.

Tourtière is a good thing to have on hand after a cocktail party this time of year, because you can pop it in the oven to feed the close friends who don’t want to go home when it’s supposed to be over. In the context of dinner, I serve slices with zucchini pickle on the side and follow up with a green salad afterwards.

(By the way, there’s a recipe for zucchini pickle in Kitchen Bliss on page 221.)

Here you go, then: My tourtière recipe + a vegetarian filling option (lentil, spinach, mushroom and goat cheese) for those who don’t eat meat. Happy holidays!

xo,

moi

P.S. This is also fair game for the gluten-free among us. Just use Bob’s one-to-one gluten-free flour for the pastry, and, well, Bob’s your uncle!