food to glow

A longtime favourite recipe of ours, and of my cancer nutrition groups, too. Play with the proportions of veg and rice, use best organic Cheddar instead of the feta, change out the spinach for kale or chard – make this savoury pie your own!

This can also be made into little individual tartlets, a la this recipe. xx

500g (1 lb) fresh spinach OR equivalent of cooked frozen leaf spinach (avoid chopped frozen spinach as it is too wet for this recipe)

500g (1 lb) fresh broccoli, coarsely grated or finely chopped, including some stem (it is so sweet)

50g/1.75 oz pine nuts or pumpkin  seeds

1 medium onion, diced

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 large organic eggs, beaten – optional (vegan option: 9 tbsp water mixed with 3 tbsp ground chia seeds and rested 15 minutes)

1 x  225 g/8 oz pack ewe’s milk feta cheese, crumbled OR ½ pack feta and 1  x 200 g/ 7 oz pkg plain tofu OR silken tofu, crumbled (add juice of ½ a lemon or two teaspoons yeast flakes if using the tofu)

150g cooked wild rice and brown basmati mix (or just the brown basmati), slightly squashed with a fork

75ml water, if excluding the eggs

2 tsp Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon  powder, or equivalent seasoning – optional

1 nutmeg (to grate from)

1 unwaxed lemon

2 tbsp chopped fresh dill/tsp dried dill OR 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

Topping:

4-5 sheets from a 270g/9.5 oz pack phyllo pastry (thawed if frozen)

1 tsp butter or coconut oil

Poppy seeds or pine nuts, for sprinkling over 

Bakeware needed: 1 large round ceramic/glass dish (mine is 13″ diameter) OR a deep-sided 10″ x 10″ pan, well-oiled

What You Do:

1. Rinse the spinach and wilt it down in a large lidded pan. I just leave it on a low heat for five minutes, stir,  and leave for another two minutes. Drain in a colander, pressing out as much water as you can, then chop and put in a large mixing bowl. Add the chopped broccoli too.

2. Put the pine nuts in a saute pan and dry toast them until starting to become golden and fragrant. You have to watch them like a hawk as once they heat up they burn very quickly – sometimes you can buy pre-toasted pine nuts. Pop these into the bowl with the spinach.

3. Add the oil to the saute pan and fry the onion on a low heat, stirring frequently, until translucent – about eight minutes. You can also soften the onions in a little vegetable stock only. Leave aside to cool. Once the spinach, onions and nuts are cool enough not to scramble the eggs (if using) mix all the filling ingredients together, grating in the zest of the lemon and about 1/8 tsp of fresh nutmeg (about 10 grates worth) and spoon it into your baking dish.

4. Lay on the sheets of phyllo, ruffling them a little to give texture to the finished dish. As you are doing this, heat the pat of butter/coconut oil in a small pan and brush the top sheet. I’ve found that you really don’t need to butter all of the layers to get a great result. You may even prefer this less oily version yourself. But use butter on every layer if you fancy (melting about 3 tbsp of butter to cover the sheets). Btw, I find that oil sprays make the pastry soggy.  To help with neater slices, allow the pie to cool before scoring it with a sharp knife into serving sizes before baking. Sprinkle the top with poppy seeds or pine nuts.

5. Bake in a 190C/360F oven for about 30 minutes, more or less – check at 25 minutes. Let the pie cool for ten or fifteen minutes before slicing and serving. We like it with roasted peppers, my Brazilian Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad or Morrocan Carrot Salad and these potatoes (archived post). This pie also tastes great cold for lunch the next day.    Serves 6-8 slices.