As a child (and even still as an adult) I was never very fond of pumpkin. After my daughter started eating solids at 6 months, I started 'teaching' myself to eat chunks of steamed pumpkin whenever I gave them to her. Now I wonder why I used to replace the pumpkin with zucchini in all of my recipes for years and years ;-). I still don't really like 'sweet' pumpkin recipes, but prefer the ones that have strong contrasting tastes. This recipe is a perfect example of that. I found it in my favourite vegetarian cookbook, Handboek Ecologische Voeding - Velt, and didn't change anything because I thought it was perfect ;-).
Pumpkin Pie with spinach, pecorino & goat's cheese
- 1 puff pastry pie base (supermarket)
- 500 g of (orange) pumpkin
- 40 g spinach (fresh or frozen, if frozen, defrost first)
- 1 onion
- a bunch of spring onions
- 100 g cottage cheese
- 100 g goat's cheese (buche)
- 2 eggs
- 4 tbsp. or 20 g grated pecorino cheese
- 1 tbsp.olive oil
- a pinch of rosemary
- pepper
- salt
- Clean the vegetables. Chop the onion and the spring onions and cut the pumpkin into small pieces (approx. 1/2 cms).
- Heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil and glaze the onion. Add the pumpkin, a bit of water and a pinch of rosemary and simmer until the pumpkin is soft enough to eat (but not too soft, since you still have to put it in the oven.)
- Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a bowl and mix them with the cottage cheese and 2 tbsp. of the pecorino cheese (so half of the total amount of pecorino). Add small pieces of the goat's cheese and stir well.
- Allow the pumpkin to cool down and add it to the egg mixture once cool enough. Add the defrosted or fresh spinach (chop if necessary). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Put the pie base in a baking tin and and pour in the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle the remaining pecorino on top and immediately put the pie in the oven. Bake approx. 30 mins at 200°C (180° C for a fan-assisted oven).
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.
