Method

• Grease a 20cm diameter, deep pie dish with butter. Line the dish with shortcrust pastry pushing the pastry to the edges. Trim any excess pastry. Chill in the refrigerator until needed.
• Heat the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onions and leeks with a pinch of salt and gently fry for 15 minutes until soft. Stir in the potatoes and thyme, cover and cook on a low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are soft. Pour over the cream; turn off the heat and leave to cool.
• Preheat the oven to 200C/180Cfan/Gas6 and place a baking tray on the middle shelf.
• Stir half the grated vegetarian Cheddar into the potato and onion mix. Season to taste.
• Remove the pastry dish from the refrigerator. Scatter half the remaining vegetarian Cheddar, half the spring onions and half of the finely sliced Black Garlic over the base of the pastry case then spoon in the potato mix.
• Scatter the remaining vegetarian Cheddar cheese, spring onions and sliced Black Garlic cloves over the top of the potato mix, ensuring the finely sliced Black Garlic cloves are pushed into the mix.
• Bake the pie on the preheated baking tray for 40 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Top Tip:* leeks can be gritty. To wash leeks, cut off the dark green tough leaves, slice the stalk in half lengthways, hold from the root and rinse under a running tap, letting the water run down the layers.