Serves 4-6
When I was a child, my brother and I were often shipped to my aunt’s place on the NSW South Coast for our school holidays. Away from the watchful eyes of our parents, we roamed like wild cats, from beach to lake to bush and back. Then we headed home at the end of the day, dirty and dishevelled, for a hot home-cooked meal.
One of those meals was my aunt’s spinach pie. I remember watching her make it, helping, and of course, gulping it down. I was one of those weird kids who loved spinach!
This is my wholefood take on that nostalgic childhood favourite.
WHAT YOU NEED:
1 bunch of kale, leaves stripped, washed and roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled, cubed
1/2 bunch parsley leaves, washed, chopped
1 cob corn, cooked, cooled, kernels removed
250gm organic bacon, finely diced
250gm fresh ricotta
2 eggs
Several sheets of filo pastry
WHAT TO DO:
Prepare the vegetables as noted.
Cook the kale and carrot pieces in a large pot of boiling water until soft. Drain well. When cool enough, apply use your hands to press out any excess water.
Cook the bacon in a small fry pan until just browning. Remove, and set aside to cool.
Place the cooled vegetables, including the corn kernels in a large bowl. Add the cooked bacon, parsley, eggs and ricotta. I always add a few shakes of white pepper.
Mix to combine.
Pre-heat your oven to 200ºC.
Take 2 sheets of filo pastry and lay them across your pie dish. Take another two sheets and lay them diagonally on top of the first, so you have a bit of a star shape happening.
Fill the pie with your vegetable mix. Use the back of a spoon to spread the mixture and fill the whole dish, then flatten and smooth the top.
Top with a few more layers of Filo.
Cook in a fan forced oven at 200ºC for 35 mins. The top of the pie should be very light brown.
You’ll notice more animal proteins in this meal compared with most of my recipes.
Animal protein has a place at every table…just not every day or every meal, as the Western diet favours.
Eating good quality, well-raised organic animal products occasionally rather than cheaper, mass produced products often, gives you better nutritional value from those foods and reduces the negative impacts of commerical production. For the animals, the earth and your health.
In this recipe, the animal protein is balanced by a massive amount of green and other vegetables.
That’s another key difference between a healthy wholefood diet and the modern Western diet.
I serve my pie with a basic salad of mixed lettuce, olive oil and apple cider vinegar. My leaves include rocket, endive and radicchio which add another vegetable boost and help digestion and detoxification.
And doesn’t it look so pretty?
Give this delicious wholefood pie a try! I’m sure it will become one of your family favourites.