Food Fiend - Vegetable Pie with a Cashew and Emmental Crumble

Enjoy a versatile dish which can be eaten hot or cold.

I am delighted to share my open Vegetable Pie with a Cashew and Emmental Crumble with you this month. This is a great dish which can be used as a main in itself, serve it with roasted new potatoes and rosemary with a side salad or it can be made to accompany a meat main. This is an ideal dish to make for a dinner party if you’re not sure whether you need to cater for vegetarians or not! If you make a large pie and have leftovers it’s great cold as well. Ideal for picnics and to accompany a BBQ and to take in to work for lunch as well. Packed with a variety of vegetables, you can also add lentils to increase the protein and fibre content- a delicious robust and healthy dish which will even satisfy meat-eaters! For more information about Food Fiend Experience go to: www.foodfiendexp.com

Ingredients for Pastry:

  • 125 g of whole wheat flour
  • 25 g oats
  • 50 g butter
  • 25g vegetable fat
  • Pinch of salt
  • 4- 6 tables spoons of water

Ingredients for filling:

  • 500g ricotta cheese
  • 300g frozen chopped spinach
  • Small butternut squash
  • 1 large onion
  • 25 g flaked almonds
  • 100 g dried mixed lentils
  • Pepper and salt
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • ½ tsp Cumin
  • ½ tsp coriander
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cloves chopped garlic
  • Olive oil

Ingredients for Crumble top:

  • 2 slices white bread
  • 25g grated Emmental Cheese
  • 40g roasted cashew nuts

To Do:

  1. Place whole wheat flour in a food processor with a pinch of salt and butter and fat and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the oats. Add 4 tbsp of water and pulse until it forms a ball. If the mixture is not coming together add additional tablespoons one at a time as required. Wrap pastry in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
  2. Pre heat fan oven to 180 degrees. Peel and chop butternut squash into roughly 2 cm cubes. Place in a roasting pan. Sprinkle finely chopped garlic, season with pepper and salt and sprinkle ½ tsp of cumin and coriander and 1 tsp of paprika. Drizzle with olive oil. Mix well to ensure spices are evenly coated on the butternut squash. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, turning half way through.
  3. Wash lentils and cook in pressure cooker for 15 minutes making sure 3 times as much water is added. Skim off the top of the water from the lentils before draining once cooled off. If not using pressure cooker you can use a deep stock pot and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until cooked through. To save time you can use tinned ready cooked lentils.
  4. Roughly dice a large onion and fry until caramelised then remove from the heat.
  5. Using a large bowl place the ricotta cheese and mix until soft and add eggs one at a time and mix well.
  6. The frozen spinach should be taken out the night before you want to use it left in the fridge to defrost. Squeeze out as much excess water as possible. Add this to the ricotta cheese mixture.
  7. Add the roasted butternut squash, cooked lentils and onions to this mixture and season with pepper and salt. Set this filling mixture to one side.
  8. Line a 23 cm diameter spring release cake tin with grease prof paper.
  9. Lightly flour your work surface where you will be rolling out the pastry. Roll out the pastry to about 3mm thickness so that it is about 25 cm in diameter and just starts to go up the sides of the cake pan. Prick the pastry with a folk. Cover with a sheet of grease proof paper and place baking beans over the top. Bake pastry for 7 minutes then remove the baking beans and grease proof paper and bake for a further 5 minutes.
  10. For the crumble topping- place 2 slices of white bread in a food processor and pulse until it resembles bread crumbs. Place in a bowl. Toast the cashew nuts in a frying pan until they turn brown. Let them cool before pulsing in a mini chopper. Add the chopped cashews to the bread crumbs and then stir in the grated Emmental Cheese. Mix well.
  11. Pour the mixed filling into the cooked pastry shell and smooth until level. Sprinkle the crumble top mixture over the filling as evenly as possible.
  12. Bake the pie in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the top has turned golden brown.
  13. For a lighter pie you could leave out the lentils. Also add 2 additional eggs separating the white from yolk. Whisk the white until stiff and fold into the cheese and vegetable mixture. This needs to be done at stage 7 after the vegetables have been mixed in.
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