Many great new recipe ideas come to me at night, when I’mlying in bed, waiting for sleep. The same story was with these pies. Just theday before, I had made a delicious turnip and red lentil soup and I couldn’tget enough of this combination. Turnip has grown to be a really big favorite ofmine. These pies are actually really authentic Estonian, since my ancestors atelentils even before they got to know potatoes, and turnip has always been a prettypopular root vegetable in my country. I also thought that it would be much easier to just make aone big pie, but I had to make little ones this time. And they were perfect!So, so delicious. My boyfriend really loved these. They are also suitable totake along to the picnic or on a road trip.

20-21medium piesYeast dough:

·        2 Tbsp / 11 g active dry yeast·        ½ tsp salt·        a pinch of (brown) sugar·        1 ¼ cups / 200 g all-purpose flour·        1 cup / 120 g whole-wheat flour·        1 cup + 1 Tbsp / 250 ml handwarm water·        2 Tbsp oil
Mix the dry ingredients (yeast, salt, sugar and flours). Add water. Mixwith your hands a little bit and then add the oil. Mix again and knead hard ona floured surface until the dough is elastic. Put the dough ball into a bowland cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Leave it in a warm place to risefor about an hour. In the meantime you can prepare the filling.
Filling:
·        2 ½ cups / 350 g cubed turnip·        ½ cups / 100 g red lentils (uncooked)·        3-4 Tbsp oil·        3 onions·        salt and pepper to taste·        ½ Tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice·        4 Tbsp tomato juice or tomato sauce·        handful of chopped fresh chives
Boil the turnip cubes and red lentils in a lightly salted water until theturnip is soft. In the meantime, heat up some oil on a deeper pan. Add choppedonions with a dash of salt and pepper. Cook, until the onions are golden brown.Drain the turnip cubes and lentils and add to the cooking onions. Cook for acouple of minutes. Add apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, tomato juice ortomato sauce and chopped chives. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Tasteand add some salt if needed.

When the dough has risen, dip your fingers in a little bit of oil anddivide the dough ball into 20-21 little dough balls. Put the little dough ballon a floured surface and roll it into a little “pancake”. Add aboutone tablespoon of filling onto the “pancake” and fold the dough edgesonto the filling. Seal the dough tightly with your fingers, leaving the sealedbump under the pie. Put the filled pies onto a big baking tray covered withparchment paper. Put the pies back into a warm place to rise for another 15minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400 F / 200 C. When the pies haverisen, bake them in the oven at 400 F / 200 C for 25 minutes until goldenbrown. Cover the baked pies with a clean kitchen towel and let them cool down alittle.