Baked Lentil Hand Pies

Healthy Baked Lentil Hand Pies are crispy on the outside with a tasty filling on the inside. These are Vegan Hand Pies which are so delicious and healthy. These have been made with Yellow Lentils and Indian spices. Serve this with my Keto Ketchup or Aioli.

If you were my neighbor then you'd be the first ones to taste these delicious Baked Lentil Hand Pies. It's so damn good that I want to bring it to you right away.

Also called, " Baked Dal Kachoris" in Hindi, this is a popular Indian snacks recipe or a typical north Indian breakfast recipe.

Here are the world's crunchiest, crispiest and tastiest hand pies that you've ever had.

They are so satisfying that you would want to bake them whenever you can.

Honestly, fried lentil hand pies taste the best. I really love the crust of the fried hand pies but getting them baked would save me from having so much oily food.

It was just getting evening and I was feeling so hungry. I tried having a cup of tea with my freshly baked batch of Peanut Butter chocolate chip cookies. But this hunger wasn't ready to go away.

Hence, I decided to make some quick and healthy snacks. Mark the healthy word in that sentence my friend. 'coz I am about to make something really healthy in just a moment.

After a lot of left swipe of the recipes, I finalized on lentil hand pies. But, I was going to bake them!

Let's Make Some Baked Lentil Hand Pies

So get your lentils out of the kitchen shelf and let's make that the hero of our today's recipe.

I have used split Yellow Lentils. Why? Honestly, this is the time when you got to focus on the "quick" part of my earlier sentence. This is a lentil that cooks really fast. So, you got to use them.

However, Don't be sad if you haven't got Yellow Lentils at home at the moment. You can still be a part of this.

You can use any lentil you want. Just make sure that you soak them in some hot water for about an hour or cook it in the Instant pot until soft.

Even if you are using yellow lentils you got to throw them in a bowl of hot water for about 30-minutes. I know you are hungry. Me too! But I promise it'll be worth it. Let's give our lentils some time to drink some water and get half cooked.

So, what do you do until the lentils are soaking? I got some work for you. Let's make the dough for our hand pies.

To make the dough we will use Wheat flour. Into the bowl of wheat flour, we add our closest cooking buddy - oil and some salt.

Adding them we'll crumble our dough. As you reach a crumbly texture it's time to add some water. Knead it lightly until the dough is soft.

By this time your lentils should have been soaked. If you still got some time, then you can relax scrolling through your Instagram feeds for a while or by playing with your dog.

Once its time, get ready to make the most delicious stuffing for these baked lentil hand pies.

In a cast-iron skillet add some olive oil and throw in these powdered spices - turmeric powder, Red chili powder or Cayenne pepper, Salt, Cumin, Coriander, Garam Masala, Dry Mango Powder and some Black Pepper. Stir it well.

As you start adding your spices you will experience a beautiful smell coming out of your skillet. If I would be a magician, I would capture that in a box and keep it beside me all the time. Adding a little water helps these vivid spices get some time so that they can get cooked.

Now, let's bring in some freshness. Add some chopped cilantro and mint leaves and let their rejuvenating aroma make your spices even more fragrant and flavorful.

Now, let's bring the star of the show into the skillet. Get your soaked lentils out of the water and bring them into the fragrant playground where all the magic is happening - your cast iron skillet. Stir it well so that every little lentil gets colored and flavored in those aromatic spices.

Add some water and stir some more. During this time your flame should be on medium. Let the water evaporate. Don't let the lentil stick onto the skillet for long. We don't want our lentils to get burnt. Ouch! why would we ever want that?

Once the lentils are soft and cooked its time to cool it down. Turn on the fan and keep it right underneath it. Let the heat fly off from our lentil. Now you got some more free time to kill. So what you can do is preheat your oven to 220C and prepare your baking tray with parchment paper.

Make small little balls of the hand pie dough and flatten them out with your palm. Using your thumb make a small hole or space in the middle. Flatten out the sides and add some of your cooked lentil mixture into it. Fill it real nice and pull the sides so that you have some dough to seal it. Now bring them all to the center and give them a nice little twist. This will seal your lentil hand pies. And, all your work is done!

Now is the time when you place them on the baking tray and grease them with some oil. Keep your fingers crossed and get them baked at 220C or 420F for 16-minutes. After 16-minutes when your microwaves beep and give you a call go and turn your pies over. Bake them at the same temperature for another 7-8 minutes.

Cooking Variations

You can use Puff Pastry sheets. Just use a cookie cutter and cut circles. Place the filling in one of them. And top with the other half. Crimp the edges using a fork. Brush Olive Oil on top and Bake or Air Fry. 

You can alternatively use Phyllo sheets. If using phyllo Sheets, thaw them overnight and then unroll, damp with a kitchen towel and then use it. Layer about 2-3 sheets with oil in between and then place the filling in between. Fold the sides and place it on a baking dish. 

You can serve these with Ketchup or Aioli or any Dip you love.

More Lentil Recipes

• Slow Cooker Lentil Chili
• Slow Cooker Lentil and Rice {4 Basic Ingredients}
• Instant Pot Lentil soup recipe
• Vegan Lentil Coconut Curry in Crockpot
• Vegan Lentil Loaf {Vegan Meatloaf}
• Instant Pot Lentil Sloppy Joes Recipe {Vegan}
• Lentil Bolognese with Spaghetti - Vegan - Plant Based Dinner