Onion and cheese pie

Add the plain flour, diced butter and a pinch of salt to a food processor, and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, you can add the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and rub the mixture between your fingertips until it reaches the desired consistency. Add 6 tbsp of cold water, pulsing (or mixing) until it clumps into a ball. Wrap in cling film and then chill in the fridge for around 30 minutes.

Place the chopped onions into a pan and add 3 tbsp water. Cook for around 10 minutes until tender, leave to cool and drain off any excess water.

Heat the oven to gas 6, 200°C, fan 180°C. Mix the onions and grated cheese together in a bowl, and season with black pepper and salt to taste.

Beat 2 eggs lightly, and add to the cheese and onion mix.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Cut ⅓ of the pastry off and roll out the larger remaining ball onto a floured surface. Line a shallow pie dish with this pastry and trim the edges.

Add the filling to the pie dish and smooth out on top for an even layer. Roll out the rest of the pastry until ½ cm thick. Lay this pastry on top of the mix, sealing the edges. Crimp the edges with a fork and make a small steam hole. Then brush the top with the remaining beaten egg.

Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Leave to cool for around 10  minutes before serving.

Tips & tricks

For the best cheese and onion pie, we recommend keeping the ingredients simple. Invest in good quality cheese and onions for your ingredients, and let the flavours be the star of the show. Some recipes do include other ingredients like potatoes for texture, and English mustard and cayenne pepper for flavouring. Our preferred recipe is above, with a straightforward approach to good ingredients. We’d also suggest using white onions for the best flavour, but if you want to explore other options we have a helpful guide to 21 types of onions here and a host of onion-based recipes to try your hand at.

Making the pastry at home adds on time to the recipe, and can be a little tricky to get spot on. If you add too much water when making the pastry, this can be salvaged by balancing out with more flour. Or if you’d prefer to leave it to the professionals, you can buy perfectly delicious ready-made shortcrust pastry from most major supermarkets and shops instead.

Variations of the recipe

One popular variation of the recipe we’ve shared above is cheese onion and potato pie with puff pastry, adapting the main ingredients for added texture and switching in puff pastry for a crunchier finish. 

Other popular variations include cheese and onion quiches. This one has a little less pastry in the recipe and a soft bubbling top of cheese. You can find our favourite recipe for a cheese and onion quiche here.

Storage

You can store cheese and onion pie safely in the fridge for up to three days. It’s possible to reheat in the oven, simply heat the oven to gas 6, 200°C, fan 180°C and reheat for around twenty minutes. Or enjoy a slice of pie cold straight from the fridge.