Tomato, Spinach and Spring Onion Pie
photo by Zurie
- Ready In:
- 1hr 5mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
- 453.59 g puff pastry, defrosted (or less)
- 3 large eggs
- 113.39 g spring onions, chopped
- 473.18 ml swiss chard, very well drained and as dry as possible
- 2.46 ml salt
- 4.92 ml ground nutmeg
- 236.59 ml milk
- 14.79 ml flour
- 177.44 ml grated cheddar cheese
- 4.92 ml Tabasco sauce
- 9.85 ml chopped crushed garlic
- 453.59 g small tomatoes, preferably rosa
- 59.14 ml torn basil leaves
- olive oil (flavored with garlic) or olive oil flavored cooking spray (flavored with garlic)
directions
- Set oven at 425 deg F/220 deg Celsius.
- Use a generous pie plate: mine wasn't standard, and measured 7 1/2" across at the bottom, 10 1/2 inches across the top, and was a little more than 2" deep. Any pie dish will do.
- Roll out the pastry on a floured board, and cut out a generous circle (lay the pie plate upside down on the pastry and cut with a knife in a wide circle around it).
- Grease the pie plate lightly with oil, then plonk in the pastry and fit without stretching. Crimp the edges.
- Whisk the 3 eggs, then use a brush and brush the pastry all over with the egg. Keep the beaten eggs.If necessary put the lined pie plate in the fridge.
- I found lovely purple-bottomed sping onions, but use whatever you have: chop them and scatter evenly into the bottom of the pie plate, to cover. If you don't have spring onions, try rings of sweet onion.
- In this case I used Swiss Chard, a soft,light green kind, from my own garden, but frozen, cooked and drained is just fine. I called it "spinach" because it's a shorter word, but swiss chard is what I use. If you prepare this early in the day, you can leave it to drain, and press out more liquid before using. Stir in salt and nutmeg.
- Whenever I make a white sauce, I use a shortcut: put the milk in a small pot, whisk in the tablespoon flour, add a pinch of salt, and then whisk until milk comes to the boil and thickens. So try that here, and you cut out the butter normally used.
- Pull off the heat, whisk once or twice, then add the cheese, Tabasco and garlic.
- Stir the cheese sauce into the spinach.
- Also stir in the egg mixture left over after you "painted" the pastry into the drained swiss chard/spinach. The eggs will help firm up the mixture during baking.
- Rosa tomatoes are small plum-shaped tomatoes, and they are especially sweet. If you can't get them, use cherry tomatoes or even tomato slices, but in the latter cases, sprinkle over a little sugar. Rosa tomatoes simply explode in the mouth in a burst of sweet flavour.
- Ladle the swiss chard mixture over the spring onions in the lined pie plate. Scatter the basil leaves over the swiss chard.
- Pack the rosa tomatoes all over the top. (See my original photograph). If not using rosa, sprinkle over a little sugar.
- Brush with olive oil or, preferably, spray the tomatoes with an olive oil and garlic spray.
- Put in the preheated oven. Keep at that high heat for about 10 - 15 mins, then turn heat down to 350 deg.
- Bake for about 30 mins or more, until pie has risen and is set.
- Serve hot or warm, in slices, with a main dish of meat and a side salad.
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Reviews
-
Loved it - we will definitely make this again. My little tomatoes didn't taste as good as they could have, so I decided to half the quantity of them by using halved tomatoes on top instead of whole ones, and I took Chef Zee's advice to sprinkle sugar on them. This was a very easy pie, which turned out very well and was easy to serve. The egg-sauce-spinach mixture puffed up during cooking, and looked very attractive. It cooked in about 10-15 minutes less time than indicated.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Zurie
South Africa
I'm a widow, retired, and I love cooking. I live on the coast in South Africa and I love seafood. You're welcome to my recipes (all kinds, definitely not just seafood!) Just remember that no recipe is ever cast in stone -- adjust to your taste!
The photo was taken at a rustic seaside restaurant on our West Coast, approx 1 year ago (2016).