I promised I would also post some recipes for vegetable pies with a crust made from scratch instead of a store-bought one. Here's the first one:
Spinach pie
Dough:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 75 g butter
- approx. 2 tbsp cold water
Spinach mixture:
- 1/3 cup cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)
- 2 large eggs
- 125 ml milk
- 1 tbsp pesto
- 1 spring onion, chopped
- 1 tsp horseradish sauce (from a jar)
- 1/2 tsp mustard
- 1/2 cup grated cheese (I tend to use parmesan and/or Gouda)
- 2 to 3 handfuls of finely chopped spinach (either fresh or defrosted, the more you use, the greener the pie)
- salt, pepper and nutmeg
- Put flour, salt and butter in the blender and grind it into crumbs. Then start adding water whilst the machine is still running, until the dough turns into a ball. Use a quiche pan with removable bottom (approx. 20 cms) and make sure the dough covers the bottom and (part of) the sides as evenly as possible (this is the hardest part, I promise ;-)). Then cover the dough with parchment paper, fill it with rice or baking beans and put it in the oven for 12-15 mins at 200°C (or 180° for a fan-assisted oven).
- In the mean time, prepare the filling. Mix the cream cheese, eggs and milk. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend them until you get a smooth, green cream. Pour this into the baked crust and put it back in the oven for approx. 30 mins at 180 °C (or 160°C for a fan-assisted oven), until the top becomes slightly brown (as you can see in the picture above). Serves 4.
You can also make 2 spinach pies and put one in the freezer.
Usually when I have cauliflower left over I make soup with it, but this time I decided to try something different. So I made this with some cauliflower that had already been cooked the day before, but of course you could use a fresh one and cook it or steam it first.
It doesn't look like a cauliflower soufflé, even though cauliflower is the main ingredient:
And it's not a 'real' soufflé (since it's not necessary to separate yolks from egg whites in this case), but it's very similar (and easier to prepare). I served this with cherry tomatoes, jacket potatoes and hamburgers, but there are lots of other options.
'Fake' cauliflower soufflé
- 400 g cauliflower (cooked or steamed)
- 3 tbsp milk (or soy milk, or cream if you prefer)
- 4 tbsp chopped chives
- 2 eggs
- pepper
- (salt)
- oil (I used rapeseed oil)
First put the cauliflower in the blender and blend it, then add all of the other ingredients except for the oil and blend it again. If you don't want the 'puree' to turn green you could leave out the chives, too, and just stir them in with a spoon.
Preheat the oven to 180°C or 160° for a fan-assisted oven. Grease 4 soufflé cups with a little (rapeseed) oil. Put the cauliflower 'puree' into the cups with a spoon. Put them in the oven for approx. 20 mins.
My children (17 months and 3 years old) both loved this, and of course you could prepare this with other vegetables (broccoli, spinach, carrots, ...), too...
(Dutch recipe available on demand)
Let's start with something nice and easy. When I posted this picture on Facebook, I received a lot of messages asking me for the recipe:
Little Elf's 'Special Request
Pie': My daughter (3 years old) wanted a pie with broccoli and champignons in it, so I made one for lunch
during a weekend and added some bacon. I bought the dough for this one at the supermarket, though it's probably healthier to make it from scratch, but I don't have the patience to make my own puff pastry ;-). I will be posting some recipes for other vegetable pies with home-made crusts at some point, I promise!
Broccoli, Champignon & Bacon Pie:
- 1 puff pastry pie base (from the supermarket)
- 450 g broccoli florets
- 250 g champignons (quartered)
- 150 g bacon lardons
- 100 g grated gruyere cheese
- 150 g cottage cheese
- 1,5 dl condensed milk (unsweetened)
- 1 tbsp wheat flour
- 2 eggs
- olive oil
- (1 clove of garlic)
- (salt) & pepper
- Briefly steam or boil the broccoli (4 or 5 mins). It should still be crunchy, as you still have to cook it in the oven.
- Fry the bacon lardons in a pan. I prefer them quite well done, but that's a matter of taste (and it's actually not that healthy, I know ;-)).
- Add some olive oil (and some garlic if you like it) and the champignons. Again, don't fry them too long as they still have to spend 20 mins in the oven. Season to taste.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (or 180°C for a fan assisted oven). Beat the 2 eggs and mix them with the cottage cheese, the flour and the condensed milk, then add the champignons and lardons and stir well.
- Put the pie base in a quiche or pie pan (I tend to use a regular pie pan, which means I have to 'fold' the dough a bit at the sides.)
- Now put the broccoli on top of the pie base. You can just throw it in and spread it out a bit, or you can create nice circles with it, that's what I do ;-).
- Pour the champignon 'mixture' on top of the broccoli, sprinkle it with gruyere cheese and put it in the oven for 15 - 20 mins.
Enjoy!
(If anyone wants the Dutch translation of this recipe, send me a message and I will make sure you get it.)
