Easy cheesy ham and leek pie for one

Ingredients

• ½ leek, chopped
• 1 tsp plain flour
• 200ml milk
• Handful of grated mature Cheddar cheese
• 1 slice of thick-cut ham, torn into chunks
• 1 small square of puff pastry
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method

This is comfort food at its best! A luxuriously gooey cheesy sauce with a flaky pastry lid and all made with the very minimum of effort. Using regular sandwich ham, this recipe shows that cooking on a budget does not have to compromise on your enjoyment of food.

Preheat your oven to 190°C/gas mark 5. Fry the chopped leeks in an ovenproof dish or pan* in a splash of olive oil over a medium heat for a few minutes until soft.

Add the flour and cook for a further minute. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously, and cook until you have a smooth sauce.

Remove from the heat, stir in the cheese, season with salt and pepper and add the ham.

Top the filling with a piece of puff pastry cut to the same size as the top of the dish or pan, score it lightly in a criss-cross pattern to make it look pretty, and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.

*If you don’t have a pan with an ovenproof handle, then just use your normal pan and transfer the filling to an ovenproof dish before adding the puff pastry lid.

Recipe extracted from Super Easy One Pound Meals by Miguel Barclay, out now £16.99 Headline. Photography by Dan Jones.

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