Low Carb Steak Pie – Savory & Keto Friendly Pies

Once upon a blog post, long long ago, we wrote up a quick work-in-progress recipe for Pie Crusts. It was geared toward sweet pies since the hubs requested a sugar free pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. And it was, per usual, delicious. Check out the practice runs and recipe for sweet Keto Friendly Pie Crusts here.

Our newest pie-related suggestion is one we’ve never tried before – a SAVORY low carb pie; more specifically, a steak pie. Om nom nom.

Jump to: Low Carb Steak Pie Recipe | Substitutions

Recently, we’ve researched and tested different ways we might simplify and tweak our original low carb pie recipe. Here’s what we came up with for this Ketofy My Favs challenge: a gluten free crust with easy-to-find ingredients for most bakers, in most countries.

That said, if the goal here was not simplicity, I’d be using oat fiber and vital wheat gluten to create a more pliable crust reminiscent of pastries made with all purpose flour. Both ingredients seem to be harder to find in local shops, especially outside North America. One day I hope we’ll test and review those for pastries on Homemade Noms, but until then! Here’s how we make gluten free, low carb, keto friendly, and savory steak pies.

Keto Friendly & Low Carb Steak Pie

Brief Summary: Make the Savory Pie Crust. Make the Steak Pie Filling. Bake. Eat.

Savory Pie Crust

The dough in this recipe can make one large 9″ pie crust (without a top) or 3-4 8oz pans/ramekins with tops. This really depends on how thin or thick you make the crusts.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup Almond Flour, finely sifted
1 tsp Xanthan Gum (optional)
1 tsp Gelatin (optional)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 large Egg
4 tbsp Unsalted Butter (cubed/cold)

Directions

1. Grease your desired pan(s) or casserole dish. We like to use 8oz ramekins.

Tip: We’ll be using a food processor to quickly combine everything together. You can mix all the ingredients below by hand without issue – just takes a bit more time to fully incorporate the cold butter.

2. Add all dry ingredients (almond flour, xanthan gum, beef gelatin, salt) to a food processor. Pulse a few times.

3. Add the vinegar and egg to the dry ingredients. Pulse until a wet, crumbly dough forms.

4. Add the cold, cubed butter and pulse until butter is evenly distributed and a dough starts to form a ball.

Note: This dough is buttery and soft and will be a bit greasy/sticky to the touch. It will still be a little loose and that’s okay.

5. Plop the dough onto a piece of parchment paper and use your fingers or a silicone spatula to smoosh the dough into a ball-like shape. If the dough feels too soft to work with, place it in plastic cling wrap and set it in the fridge or freezer until it firms up a bit (about 5-10 minutes). Do this as often as you need to while working with the dough.

6. Evenly divide the dough into your desired number of pies.

7. Gently flatten a piece of dough with the palm of your hand (you can put a layer of cling wrap or parchment paper between your hand and the dough).

8. Carefully peel the slightly flattened dough off the parchment paper and place into your pan or dish. Use your fingers/palm to continue flattening the dough into the pan’s shape and up around the sides. If you’re feeling fancy and a bit brave, you can try flipping the dough into the pan directly from the parchment paper. It might fall spectacularly apart, but no worries. Just smoosh it all back together in the pan.

Note: If you’ve decided to omit the xanthan gum, the dough will be a little trickier to peel off in one go. And that’s okay too. Just place the pieces of dough into your dish and continue smooshing flat to form the crust.

9. If blind baking the crust before adding filling – place pan/dish in a 375° f oven and bake for about 7-10 minutes. The dough will darken in color slightly and be firm to the touch when done. Let cool and/or store in cling wrap or an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days before using.

Makes 4 large servings | Serving: 1 piece | Net Carbs: 3.2g | Calories: 382
Disclaimer: Info provided here by entering the ingredients used into Carb Manager. These numbers can change based on the ingredients/brands/etc. you choose to use.

Steak Pie Filling

This filling makes enough to fill 8-9″ pie pan or 3-4 8oz ramekins.

Reduced too much! Add more broth if this happens.

Ingredients

1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil or preferred pan oil
12oz Steak, cooked and shredded or thinly sliced
We use low sodium, canned roast beef when pressed for time.
1/2 cup Peas
1/8 cup Spring Onion, chopped (optional)
1 cup Broth (+1/2 cup more if needed) We use low sodium beef or chicken, you can also substitute for bullion + hot water.
1/4 tsp Salt, to taste
1/4 tsp Pepper, to taste
1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum (optional)

Note: Sometimes we use 1-2 tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream rather than Xanthan Gum to help thicken the gravy – but the pie dough above is THIRSTY and will absorb a large amount of the liquid while baking so it doesn’t need to reduce much. You may also add other low carb veg or a small amount of carrots. This will impact nutrition info so keep that in mind.

Directions

1. Heat up a medium-sized pan over medium-high heat. Once warmed up, add oil and lightly coat pan.

2. Add spring onion to the pan and let it cook down for a few minutes.

3. Add steak and peas to the pan and stir well.

4. Add broth and seasoning (salt, pepper), stir well and let broth come to a slight boil.

5. Once the broth starts to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and let liquid reduce slightly. Stir occasionally.

6. If the filling mixture seems too soupy/liquidy, add in the xanthan gum (or heavy whipping cream, see above note) and allow mixture to thicken and reduce a bit further before turning off heat.

Tip: Don’t allow the broth in the filling to reduce TOO much. This pie crust is thirsty – without enough liquid, the filling will dry out too much while baking.

If you’re planning to assemble your pies at a later time, let filling cool completely then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Makes 4 servings | Serving: About 1/2 – 2/3 cup | Net Carbs: 2.4g | Calories: 245
Disclaimer: Info provided here by entering the ingredients used into Carb Manager. These numbers can change based on the ingredients/brands/etc. you choose to use.

Bake

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375° f.

2. Evenly scoop pie filling into pie crust(s).

3. If adding pie crust tops, carefully flatten a piece of dough and transfer it on top of the filling. Since the dough is delicate, you may need to peel off smaller pieces and gently assemble/smoosh the top into place. If desired, brush the top of the pie crust with an egg wash or melted butter.

4. For raw dough, bake the pie(s) for 15-20 minutes or until top starts to turn light golden brown. For blind baked dough, bake for 10 minutes or until edges look golden brown. Times will vary based on the sizes of your pies and how much filling is inside.

5. Let cool for 10-15 minutes. It will still be very hot, but should be cooled down enough to slice or, if desired, remove from pans. Thinner crusts might not hold together as well, but all of ours have come out cleanly so far – when cooled down enough.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up a few days.

Makes 4 large servings | Serving: 1 piece | Net Carbs: 5.6g | Calories: 626
Disclaimer: Info provided here by entering the ingredients used into Carb Manager. These numbers can change based on the ingredients/brands/etc. you choose to use.

Substitutions

Almond Flour: Almond flour is just ground up almonds, usually blanched and finely sifted, so by nature it’s more coarse than all-purpose flour. On top of how easy it is to find (or make at home), the fat and protein content are both high, so that makes almond flour very nutritious, very low carb, gluten free, and still lends itself well to baked goods and pastries (more so than bread). After lots of trial and error, we believe the best taste and texture in gluten free/sugar free baked goods is achieved by using combinations of almond flour and coconut flour. But not everyone can eat almonds, let alone enjoys the taste or texture.

So, what else is there? You can use additional coconut flour in place of almond flour – but these flours absorb moisture very differently so the amounts you’ll need to use will be very different. Swap out the almond flour for 1/4 cup coconut flour (in addition to the 2 tbsp coconut flour already in the recipe).

You can also try about 1/2 cup (or less) of Lupin Flour for every 1 cup of flour – however, we haven’t gone down that rabbit hole yet and cannot attest to how that might turn out.

Xanthan Gum: Fun fact – we didn’t use any for our final pies! And they still held together. But the dough was really tricky to work with as it’s quite buttery and delicate. Xanthan Gum helps with the texture for most low carb baked goods but it’s derived from corn, soy, or sometimes wheat – so if you have known issues with any of those, it might be best to avoid this one. Guar gum makes for a decent substitute – it helps to hold everything together, but in a different way, so the texture will be slightly different from xanthan gum.

Gelatin: There’s very little that can mimic this ingredient but on the bright side, you don’t have to use it at all. This ingredients creates a slightly soft, fluffy, slightly puffed texture that we really enjoy in pastries but it can be omitted as well if needed. Expect a thinner, denser crust without it.