Spinach Pie with Sweet Potato Crust

I took a big chance on this recipe.  As I read it, I was intrigued, but really couldn’t tell if it was going to work out OK or not.  It also violated my strict No-Recipes-Within-Recipes Policy.  But it had some of my favorite ingredients:  sweet potatoes, peas, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and a very intriguing sounding Vegan “fetacotta” cheese.  Plus it gave me an excuse to use those capers that have been in my fridge forever.  You know the ones…

It mostly came out good, but there was not near the amount of veggie filling I would have liked to fill the crust, so I re-wrote the recipe below to fix that.  I also felt the crust was too soggy, so I fixed that below also.  And because my filling looked so paltry, I topped it with fresh tomato slices, which you could do or omit.

I actually doubled the recipe when I made it and took off half for my husband, who claims to be allergic to soy, mixed his veggies with an egg and some real dairy feta.  That came out fine as well.

The cashew feta-cotta is delicious actually.  I will definitely keep making that recipe and using it as a filling for all sorts of things like vegan lasagna and eggplant rollatini – yum!

Cashew Feta-Cotta

The original recipe is from a blog called Healthy Exposures. The original recipe is HERE.  I made changes as mentioned above and for metrics and local ingredient availability.

Spinach Pie with Sweet Potato Crust

serves 2 as a main(ish), 3-4 as a side

For the Crust:

• 1 medium-large sweet potato (about 1/2 kg)
• 2 T. chickpea flour
• 1 T. ground flax + 3 T. warm water
• 2 t. olive oil
• 1 1/2 t. italian seasoning
• salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C and oil or grease a 9″ pie plate. In a small cup, mix the flax with the water and set aside.

Grate the sweet potato into a large bowl. Use your food processor to make this a snap.  Add the flour, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Drizzle in the oil and toss again. Pour in the flax egg and stir so it’s all incorporated.  (I used my hands to mix it all).

Transfer the mixture to your pie plate and press down pretty firmly, coming up the sides to form a slight edge, as well. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the edges start to crisp. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack.

For the Filling:

• about 4-5 cups baby spinach
• 2 – 3 t. olive oil
• 4-5 sundried tomatoes, not oil-packed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 c. frozen peas (you pea haters could sub corn or another veggie)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 recipe cashew fetacotta (below)
• 1/4 c. breadcrumbs or ground walnuts

Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a large non-stick pan. Add the onions and saute. Meanwhile, roughly chop your spinach. When the onions are translucent and softened, add the spinach, peas and tomatoes. Saute until the moisture has been cooked out of the spinach, about 5-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, remove from heat.  Allow to cool for a few minutes, then stir in the fetacotta.

Pour this mixture into the baked, cooled sweet potato crust.

Sprinkle the top with whole wheat breadcrumbs and/or finely chopped walnuts and bake for 30 minutes at 180C. The top will be slightly firm to the touch, and the edges of the sweet potato crust crisped.  If the edges begin to burn, cover the pie with foil.

Cashew Feta-Cotta

1/4 cup salted, roasted cashews

3 T lemon juice

1.5 T capers

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

2 cloves garlic

500g silken tofu

3 T chickpea flour

Blend all in the food processor.  Let sit in fridge to firm up a bit.

Lucky you, I also crunched the stats on this one.  1 serving (1/2 the recipe!!) contains:  422 calories and 17g protein (boo-yah!)  EDIT!:  These were the stats on the original recipe that had HALF the filling. So to get those numbers, I guess halve portion size to 1/4 of the pie, which trust me, is more than enough!)