This recipe, along with my gluten-free tourtiere, is the perfect lineup for a French Canadian Christmas menu! Salmon pie is a dish from my childhood, popular in Québec during the holidays, but also perfect for a surprisingly quick dinner that yields lots of leftovers. It's traditionally made with a large 15 ounce can of salmon, keeping all the juices, bones and skin, mixed in with seasoned mashed potatoes. The mixture is baked inside a buttery flaky pie crust, and it makes a finger licking good dinner! I've adapted this gluten-free salmon pie to be exactly what I remember from my childhood, but with ingredients that are celiac-approved! It's similar to a gluten-free fish pie, a British dish with mashed potatoes and fish, except it has a doughy pie crust. Yum!
Ingredients
This gluten-free fish pie is surprisingly easy to bake gluten-free, as all the ingredients except for the crust are naturally gluten-free.
For the crust, I use my bakery's gluten-free pie crust recipe. You can of course use any crust recipe or premade crust you enjoy, but I encourage you to check out my recipe! It makes a dough super easy to shape and quite pleasant to work with.
The rest of the ingredients are kitchen staples.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Let's bake a traditional gluten-free salmon pie!
- Make mashed potatoes; peel and boil until soft, add butter and mash.
- Sauté onions in a pan with butter. When they are translucent, place the onions, mashed potatoes, spices, and salmon (the whole can: juices, bones, skin) in a large bowl.
- Mix together until well combined.
- Roll the bottom pie crust and place the filling inside.
- Roll the top pie crust, decorate as desired, and brush with egg wash.
- Bake 35 minutes at 350 F, until the gluten-free fish pie is a deep golden brown. Enjoy!
Hint: In terms of prep time, you have a lot of flexibility to plan ahead! You can make mashed potatoes three day ahead of time, and you can also make the pie crust two days ahead of time! They'll need to be refrigerated, but once those are ready to go, it's a super quick dinner!
Substitutions
The allergens in this recipe are: milk, eggs. You can easily substitute both!
- Egg-free - Omit the egg wash! Optional: replace with brushed melted butter on top of the crust to help it brown. You may need to bake the pie slightly longer for coloring.
- Dairy-free - Milk is in three places:
- Butter: substitute vegan butter, preferably one high in saturated fats like coconut-based, or even cold lard.
- Milk: substitute your favorite vegan milk, mine is rice-based.
- Milk powder: this ingredient is part of my pastry flour which is used to make the pie crust. Check out my gluten-free pastry flour recipe and scroll to the dairy-free version, which I use in my bakery for my customers with additional allergies. You can make it with coconut milk powder or oat milk powder.
Equipment
I use a 9-inch disposable pie pan. This is important, as it yields the perfect crust to salmon ratio. You can find them at the dollar store!
You'll also need a rolling pin and a rolling mat.
Storage
You'll definitely need to refrigerate any leftovers. The gluten-free salmon pie will stay fresh in the refrigerator for two days in an airtight container.
You can also freeze leftovers, or an entire baked pie! It has to have completely cooled, then wrap in plastic, and again in foil to make sure it's airtight. Freeze for a month. When ready to use, thaw in the refrigerator. You can cut individual slices and heat them in the microwave, or warm the whole pie in the oven. To warm the pie, make sure the plastic wrap is removed, but keep the aluminum. Heat for 15-20 minutes at 300F, or until fully warmed. Enjoy!
Top tip
When I make pies, I always place the pie pan on top of an aluminum lined baking tray, so that melted butter drips on the aluminum and not the bottom of my oven! You can also fold the aluminum over the edges of the crust, which tend to brown much faster than the middle, to get an even golden brown all around.
FAQ
Salmon pie, or pâté au saumon in French, is a traditional dish from Québec. It's a filling of mashed potatoes, onions, canned salmon and seasoning, baked inside a flaky pie crust. It's best to use EVERYTHING from the can of salmon, including all the juices, skin and bones, for best flavor and authenticity!
Related
Looking for other gluten-free dinner ideas? Browse these recipes!
Gluten-Free Salmon Pie
Equipment
- 1 pie pan, 9 inch
- 1 rolling mat & pin
Ingredients
- 2 gluten-free pie crusts
- 500 grams potatoes 2 medium potatoes
- 3 grams salt ½ teaspoon
- 3 grams ground pepper ½ teaspoon
- 3 grams thyme ½ teaspoon
- 3 grams parsley ½ teaspoon
- 60 grams milk ¼ cup
- 28 grams butter 2 tablespoon
- 1 onion
- 1 can of salmon 15 ounce
- 1 egg wash
Instructions
- Make the gluten-free pie crust at least 4 hours and up to two days ahead of time. Store in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic.
- Make the seasoned mashed potatoes up to three days ahead of time: boil the potatoes until soft when poked with a fork, ~15 minutes. Drain the water and mash the potatoes.
- Add the seasonings, milk and ½ the butter to the potatoes (reserve the rest of the butter to sauté onions). Mix well. Set aside or store in the refrigerator until ready to bake the pie.
- In a saucepan, add the rest of the butter and sauté the onions until translucent, ~4 minutes.
- Add the onions to the seasoned mashed potatoes.
- Open the can of salmon, and pour all of it (including juices, bones and skin) into the mashed potatoes. Mix the filling well.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (177 °C)
- On a lightly gluten-free floured surface (any 1:1 mix is fine), roll half of the pie dough into a 10 inch round. Fit it in the pie pan and trim the edges.
- Add the filling to the pie pan.
- Roll out the other half of the pie dough, and place on top the pie. Optional: you can make decorations with the extra dough trimmings.
- Cut slits in the pie crust to let out steam while baking.
- Brush the top of the crust with egg wash.
- Place the pie pan on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil (to catch drippings while baking).
- Place the pie in the middle of the preheated oven and bake 35 minutes.
- At the 20 minute mark, you can peak in and if the crust is browning quickly on the edges, you can roll the aluminum over the edges of the crust so it bakes more evenly.
- Once the crust is golden brown, remove from the oven and serve. Enjoy!
Naelle @ GlutenFreeDIYers
My kids LOVE this, it's a pretty good way to get them to eat fish :)