by Margie Siegal
What a great idea – a savory main dish squash and greens pie! This pie keeps in the fridge for a week, so if there are only one or two of you, you can get several meals out of one pie.
Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be found in Alameda vegetable gardens: winter squash or pumpkin, sage, thyme and hearty greens like kale and chard. Even the eggs can be homegrown if you have chickens. It looks like an unlikely combination, but this pie is actually tasty hot or cold, and bakes up firm – no oozing filling! Margie adapted this from a similar recipe from the New York Times
CRUST: Use your favorite pie crust (leaving out the sugar if your pie crust includes sugar) or store bought puff pastry. This is the crust I used (adapted from the King Arthur Flour Baking Companion):
- ½ cup white whole wheat
- 1 ½ cups unbleached white flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- cold water
Mix the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a small knife. Mash it into the flour until it looks like cornmeal, with some pea sized pieces. I use an extra- large fork. Mix in the vinegar and yogurt. Now add cold water, a tablespoon at a time. until the dough forms a ball. Chill in the fridge for a half hour. Divide dough into a little more than half (for the bottom) and a little less (for the top).
Grease your 9” pie plate with oil and/or butter.
ROLLING OUT THE DOUGH: The best way is to get a zippered dough bag from King Arthur Flour. This is two circles of clear plastic joined by a zipper. All mess is contained in the bag, and when you have rolled to your satisfaction, unzip the bag, peel off the top circle of plastic, and invert over the pie plate. If you don’t have a dough bag, get a jumbo sized (2 gallon) zip lock bag and cut the sides so you can open up the bag when you are done.
FILLING: Make up the dough, put it in the fridge to chill and start on the filling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large (about a half pound) onion, chopped (food processor works great!)
- 13 ounces of cubed, peeled pumpkin or winter squash, any variety you have. (about 2 1/2 cups)
- 3 cups of chopped chard, kale or beet tops (Don’t use spinach – too watery!)
- 3 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- Pinch of hot pepper (more if your family likes it hot)
- ¼ cup freshly grated Romano or Parmesan
- 2 eggs + a third egg if you want the top to shine.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat the oil in a frypan and gently saute the onion. You want it softened and very lightly browned. Mix in all other ingredients. Season with salt and lots of fresh ground pepper to taste. Pile everything in the pie crust lined pie plate. Roll out the top, cover the pie and crimp the edges. Using a fork, poke holes in a decorative pattern on the top crust. Brush with beaten egg if you want it shiny.
Bake for a half hour, then check to make sure the pie crust isn’t browning too fast. If it is, tent with foil. Bake for another half hour, checking the pie at the 45 minute mark.
Let rest for 5 minutes, then serve, maybe with coleslaw or salad and mashed potatoes