The reason I love this pie is that it is such a great way to incorporate a whole lot of spinach into your diet. Spinach is packed with chlorophyll, vitamins and minerals as well as heaps of fiber. It is an excellent source of vitamen A, magnesium, folate, manganese, and B12. One cup of cooked spinach contains 35% of your daily iron needs, 30% of Vitamin C and 25% of calcium recommended daily intake. With heaps of vitamin K the only people who should consider watching their spinach intake is those with altered blood clotting such as those people taking Warfarin.

 

Serves 4 people

Base:

  • 1/2 cup white flour

  • 1 cup whole meal flour

  • 150g margarine (or smooth peanut butter)

  • 1/2 cup ground cashew nuts

  • 1 tsp of mixed dried herbs

  • 1/2 tsp salt

  • 3-5 Tablespoons cold 6water

 

Filling:

  • 1 packet of silken tofu

  • 1 packet of firm tofu

  • 1 onion

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • 1 tablespoon miso paste

  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast

  • 2 tablespoons Worcester

  • 1 cup ground cashew nuts

  • 2 tablespoons ground linseed

  • a big handful of fresh herbs ( I like to use basil)

  • 1/2 cup pinenuts or sunflower seeds

  • salt and pepper to taste

  • 250-300g spinach frozen or fresh.

Topping

  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs for top of pie

 To make base:

Mix together flours, salt, herbs and ground nuts. Add soften margarine (or peanut butter) and mix. I like to mix with my hands, crumbling like you would scones. Once mixed, add 3 tablespoons of water and mix again, add more water if needed until dough just comes together into a soft ball, don’t over mix. Transfer into a greased pie dish and press the dough out until it fills the dish and goes up the sides. Blind bake* for around 15 minutes at 180 degrees.

To make filling:

While your pie base is blind baking, roughly chop then boil spinach for 10 minutes in microwave or stove with water covering. Finely chop onions and garlic and saute in a pan for around 5 minutes until soft. While these are cooking, add all the rest of the ingredients excluding the pine nuts (or sunflower seeds) and breadcrumbs into a food processor. When spinach is cooked squeeze out all the excess water then transfer to the food processor and processes until all the ingredients come together . Gently stir in your pine nuts (or sunflower seeds) and sauted onions and garlic.

Once your pie base is ready, pop in your filling and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake for a further 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees until golden on top

*Blind bake means putting something heavy on your pastry while it cooks - I use baking paper then dried beans on top to weight it down while cooking then remove.