My all-things-green pie

Have I ever told you about my obsession with green food?

You know how kids hate green food when they're young? I wasn't one of those.

Apart from my early obsession with shoes (I insisted on buying a pair of red patent mary-janes despite they were a shoe-size too small, and this was when I was 2), I have also loved to cook, watch cooking or eat the results of cooking. I was on the side of chubby for most of my childhood, adorable chubby mind you!

With a pastry chef grandma, I got lots of practice, but what generally makes sense to me cooking-wise, has never really made sense to my grandma. She likes greasy, buttery things that Dr. Oz would shriek at the mere sight of the recipe. Don't get me wrong, I like my crazy grandma food every now and again, but I'm usually on the side of healthy, light, easily-digestible, green!

And this brings us to today's recipe!

My city-girl, easy-to-do, all-things-green, gluten-free pie

You will need:

• about 100-150 g / 1 cup of broccoli florets (I had fresh from my vegetable patch, but you can           use frozen ones also)
• about 200-250 g / 2 cups of peas (I used frozen ones)
• about 100 g / 1 cup of crespis neglecta/ wild nettle-like plant (I used fresh ones that grown near my vegetable patch and which had been already steamed for dinner yesterday evening - yay scraps!) - you can use nettle or chicory with the same result
• about 100 g / 1 cup of chard (I used fresh ones from my vegetable patch but you can use frozen ones also, and again these are scraps from yesterday's dinner)
• 1 puff pastry sheet (I used gluten free but it's your choice)
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• a teaspoon of salt (sea salt works best)
• a teaspoon of black pepper (freshly grounded works best)

Step 1

Steam all the vegetables! 

It takes about 20 minutes in my stainless steel steamer.

I normally steam the broccoli and peas together and the grugni(crespis neglecta)/nettle/chicory and the chard together.

As I said, I had the rest of the vegetables steamed because we had them for dinner yesterday. 

I love to use scraps in new recipes! This is a grandma thing!

Step 2

Put everything in a blender or kitchen aid, but leave some peas aside, about 50 g / half a cup. I'll tell you later what you need them for.

Add the 2 eggs, the salt and pepper and finally the olive oil. Blend everything for 15 seconds. You should get a bulky paste.

Step 3

Take the puff pastry out of the freezer and let it thaw for a couple of hours .

By the way, I always forget to do this and get very angry at myself when I've done Step 1 and 2 and then I have to sit around and wait for the puff pastry.

When it has thawed, roll it out and line your baking pan (mine was round).

Leave a small portion of the puff pastry for decoration.

Step 4

Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 200° C / 390° F

Put the blended vegetables on the puff pastry and decorate at will.

Put the baking pan in the oven for 20-30 minutes - until the crust becomes gold (this is what my grandma says all the time...some sort of secret grandma color that us city girls have no chance of ever getting right)

My grandma could have helped me more with this, but apparently I didn't inherit any of the decorative pastry chef genes. But I did my best and this came out.

Step 5

Take the pie out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

It feeds 5 to 6 people or, as in my case, my Mr. Mystery and myself plus leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I love making this pie during late winter-early spring because all of the vegetables in the recipe are in season so you can find everything fresh and relatively cheap. And it's green, healthy, easy to digest, packed with nutrients.

And by the way, my grandma loves this recipe of mine. :)

Kiss and Peace

A Greeny Miss Sinister