Cheese and onion pie

Name: Cheese and onion pie
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: Plain flour for pastry lid; Unsalted butter for pastry lid; Half egg; Floury potatoes; White onions; Olive oil; Lancashire cheese; Reduced-fat cheddar; Semi-skimmed milk; Salt; Black pepper

Cheese and onion pie, plated as one serving.

400 kcal a serving, against 707 for the traditional version. That is 307 kcal off, or 43%, with 13.7g of protein. Serves 6. 1 hour 15 minutes.

What the traditional version is

The classic cheese and onion pie: shortcrust pastry, top and bottom, filled with sliced potato, plenty of onion sweated in butter, and a heroic amount of Lancashire cheese.

What changed, and what each change costs

Double shortcrust pastry to pastry lid only

The base soaks up plenty of butter and cheese, and adds 60g flour and a good whack of butter per serving. Making it a top-only pie still gives you the golden lid and most of the crunch, but you ditch about half the pastry.

What it costs you. You lose the best bit if you're a pastry fan. The filling sits directly in the tin, so when you slice it, there's no bottom holding a wedge together. You'll need a spatula and a sense of acceptance.

Lancashire cheese down by half, and swap some for reduced-fat cheddar

Traditional Lancashire is about 30% fat, so it's an easy way to drop a load of calories. Using half Lancashire and half reduced-fat cheddar bumps up protein and keeps enough flavour.

What it costs you. You'll notice less rich tang and a bit less ooze. The texture goes less creamy and the top browns a bit differently, but at least you're not stuck with rubbery 'diet' cheese.

Butter for sweating onions swapped to a tiny splash of olive oil

The original uses a good lump of butter to give the onions that sweet, melting texture.

What it costs you. You don't get that luxurious, buttery flavour. The onions still sweeten, but the aroma isn't quite right. The filling feels lighter, and if you want to clutch your pearls about missing butter, you're not wrong.

Whole milk to semi-skimmed

Not the biggest change, but every little helps. It makes barely any difference in the filling's texture, but you'll have to take the saving where you can.

What it costs you. Absolutely zero taste penalty here unless you're drinking it by the glass.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Plain flour for pastry lid
Unsalted butter for pastry lid
Half egg
Floury potatoes
White onions
Olive oil
Lancashire cheese
Reduced-fat cheddar
Semi-skimmed milk
Salt
Black pepper

How it starts

First, make your pastry lid: rub 75g butter into 150g flour with a pinch of salt until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Slice the potatoes thinly.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sweat the onions very gently for at least 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, until they're soft and sweet but not browned.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish British.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	707	400
Protein	23.1g	13.7g
Fat	43.8g	22.5g
Saturated fat	26.9g	13.2g
Carbohydrate	55.8g	36.4g
Protein per 100 kcal	3.3g	3.4g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish British prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. gluten, milk, eggs.

The method is in the book

Here's the deal: if you're in it for the pastry, you'll feel short-changed. No crisp base, just a lid, and the filling's more like a cheesy potato bake than a sliceable wedge. But the flavour's not bad at all. The reduced cheese is still enough to keep the onion and potato together, and with a good pastry lid, you get most of the classic comfort. The third slice in never feels quite as virtuous, but this version is friendly enough on the numbers that you can have it for lunch and not spend all afternoon looking longingly at your trainers. Best eaten warm, with pickled onions or some sharp chutney to cut through the richness you've lost. If you want the full works, have a proper slice now and then, and don't apologise.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish British, along with 56 more. Buy the paperback