Book of Yum

Many of you must be familiar with my favorite spinach pie recipe. It all began as a non-vegan recipe, and then as I got increasingly interested in making allergen-friendly recipes, I started playing with it in various vegan permutations. This weekend I hosted a CeliacSF Bay potluck, and we had a “holiday favorites” theme. Well, one of my holiday favorites is that spinach pie recipe. But, the original recipe is not vegan, and we have several members that avoid both eggs and dairy. I wanted to make a non-vegan version, which involved making a pie crust- rather labor intensive, and so I was trying to think of an easy way to make an allergen friendly version of this recipe. Luckily Whole Foods had the perfect solution. I was wandering dreamily around the produce section, one of my favorite places in the store, when I passed by these beautiful, ridiculously huge Russet Potatoes. I have a weakness for monster-truck-sized Russets, since they’re often the only thing I can have (or want) at certain American-style restaurants. Salt, pepper, and margarine can be the seasonings of the gods if the baked potato is baked just right- and luckily, I discovered the perfect baking technique for potatoes from a James McCairn book long ago. Bake them on a bed of kosher salt and it creates a flavor seal that makes the potato soft and fluffy on the inside and nicely textured on the outside. But when I looked at these babies, I didn’t see just a simple baked potato. No. I saw a monster-sized vegan twice-baked potato, with a spinach garlic white sauce complimented by soft, fluffy mashed potato- topped with savory portobello mushrooms to add the perfect “meaty” compliment. The potatoes came home with me- and I used them to make a vegan version of my beloved garlic spinach pie recipe. And- I do believe the recipe was a success! I tested it out on DH first, who can be skeptical of some vegan recipes. He pronounced it “good” and ate the whole thing, so I was encouraged. And, at our group, it went over quite well. In fact, I do believe people actually ate more of the twice baked potato version than the regular spinach pie. Yeah! Potatoes really are the best, and if you’ve been missing a twice baked potato due to complex allergies or the difficulty of making it vegan, why not try my recipe? And please, tell me what you think, or if you have your own vegan twice-baked recipe to share.

Here are some of my other riffs on spinach-garlic goodness:
Dairy Free Spinach Pie - can be vegan with the right pie crust or the shepard’s pie topping
Spinach Pie or Shepard’s Spinach Pie Non-vegan
Spinach Tartlets using Chebe Non-vegan

This is my second entry for Tasty Palettes ‘one-off’ Vegan Challenge in honor of November, national vegan month.

Twice Baked Spinach Garlic Stuffed Potatoes Main Course  Vegan  Potatoes  American

Ingredients 4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and cleaned kosher salt canola or other vegan margarine, or favorite high quality flavorful oil like olive oil or coconut oil 1 medium onion, diced 3 garlic cloves, pressed 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp vegan margarine (or more olive oil) 1-2 tbsp fine brown rice flour 2 cups (more or less, to taste) rice milk, plain 2 tbsp nutritional yeast 1+ package fresh spinach, cooked and drained, chopped Garlic powder to taste 1 portobello mushroom, stemmed, thinly sliced salt, pepper Directions Take baking dish and sprinkle with a layer of kosher salt (large grain). Cover the entire surface of the dish entire bottom of the dish. Prepare your potatoes, making sure to remove any eyes but keep the cuts shallow and leave as much of the skin intact as possible. Place your washed, dried potatoes on the salt covered baking sheet and bake them at 375 or 425 (your preferred temperature) for 1-2 hours, or until the potato squishes slightly when you press it. Rotate your potatoes a few times during that cooking process to make sure it bakes evenly. When potatoes are done, slice them in half horizontally and gently remove most of the baked potato flesh, leaving a nice potato skin boat. Rice the baked potatoes if possible and then fold into them some canola margarine or olive oil (or other favorite oil, coconut might be nice if you have it) and rice milk. Salt and pepper to taste. Make sure your mashed potatoes are not soupy- you want them to be fluffy and fairly dry. If you like, you can enjoy half or more of these mashed potatoes for a snack or side dish right away. You only need about half or a quarter of the recipe for the stuffed potatoes. This step can be done the night before. Just keep your potato skins and mashed potatoes refrigerated. —————————- Preheat oven to 375. Heat your oil and margarine (if using) in the pan until margarine has melted but not browned. Throw in your diced onions and let them start to get translucent. Add your pressed garlic. When the pan begins to release the fragrance of garlic, mix in your fine brown rice flour and let it begin to toast slightly. Add a little garlic powder and mix into the roux. Gradually add your rice milk (I used organic, brown rice milk) and create a light white sauce. Whisk often to avoid lumps. When you’ve created a nice white sauce, add your nutritional yeast (this adds both color and flavor) and your chopped, drained spinach. When dish has heated through, add a quarter of your mashed potato to the filling and combine. If desired, add more mashed potatoes to taste. Taste and add additional garlic powder as you like. Heat cast iron pan with olive oil and a little margarine if desired. Add your thin portobello mushroom slices and add salt and pepper to taste. When they have softened, turn them over. To prepare: Fill your potato boats with the spinach white sauce potato filling and top with portobello mushroom strips. Place in oven and bake until they are heated through and take on a golden brown tinge. Plate and enjoy! Notes When cooking for our celiac group, I try to avoid allergens as much as possible. Earth Balance is a Vegan, Gluten-Free margarine, but I don’t believe it is soy free, which is a must for some of our members. To make this recipe strictly vegan, you could use Earth Balance or a high quality olive oil or coconut oil. The margarine I used had minor amounts of whey flavoring (the very last ingredient, under flavorings, a sub-component of “flavoring”), making it not strictly Vegan, but it was 100% lactose free. Lactose is often a problem for (newly diagnosed) Celiacs.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Contents of my brain, do not replicate without permission Recipe ID:  1159 Added:  November 18, 2007 Last Modified:  November 18, 2007

One of my favorite recipes for holidays and dinner parties has long been a certain spinach pie recipe that one of my dearest friends shared with me. This recipe combines simple ingredients with amazing results, and is a great way to enjoy your spinach! The most time consuming part of this recipes has been the rolling out of persnickety Gluten free pastry crust. I have made very tasty pie crusts using Bette Hagman’s Dream Pastry recipe, the Gluten Free Pantry’s Perfect Pie Crust Mix, or even just winging it with a regular pie crust recipe converted to be gluten free, but they are admittedly time consuming. Some time back I had the exciting idea to use a Chebe mix to make Gluten Free Chebe Spinach Tartlets with very yummy results. I was also inspired by the amazing Karina and her new allergies to make a Dairy Free Allergy friendly spinach pie recipe. But this wasn’t the end of my experimenting with this recipe. Recently DH and I discovered the extremely dangerous (for our waistline) and delicious gluten free prepared pie crusts made by the Whole Foods GF Bakehouse. They cost about $3 per crust in California, where prices are higher than the south or east coast that is closer to their dedicated baking facility, but it is a price that seems worthwhile to me due to the time and effort involved in rolling out dough. DH has been busy making apple and pumpkin pie. For the apple, because the crust doesn’t have a top crust, DH threw together a yummy crumble and topped the pie with that. It was perfect! However, I had been eying the last crust in our fridge covetously for some time, and finally decided to try using it for a savory spinach pie. I was VERY glad I did- but it really does become a health hazard, as DH stubbornly refuses to eat anything involving that much spinach (he is the first person who has not raved about my precious pie recipe, wouldn’t you know it), so I end up having to eat the whole thing myself. This is day three, and it’s a tough job but I guess I’ll just have to have the last slice for my lunch. Oh, the agony. Woe is me. Yum yum yum yum. Anyway, this is a subtle variation of previous recipes, with gently caramelized onions and fresh garlic to add extra flavor to the recipe. The Whole Foods pie crust makes this recipe so easy, if it weren’t for the calories, I might be tempted to have it every week… Oh yes, and if you don’t want the butter in the Whole Foods crust, or don’t live near a store but still don’t want to roll out a darned thing (and who can blame you!) why not try converting this into an unconventional Spinach Cottage pie? Take leftover or freshly made garlic mashed potatoes and top the spinach filling with that. DH gave the cottage pie version thumbs up- although he mostly ate the topping, tsk tsk tsk. So, here are two EASY ways to enjoy spinach pie, just in time for the holidays. Keep in mind that when hot the filling is somewhat liquidy- but when cold it’s nice and firm, so it just depends on how important structural integrity is to you. The pie tastes great hot OR cold.

Caramelized Onion and Garlic Spinach Pie Main Course  Vegetables  European

Ingredients 2 bags or 2-3 pkgs of fresh spinach 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 tbsp. margarine or butter 1/2 small onion, finely chopped 2 fresh garlic cloves, pressed 2 tbsp finely ground brown rice flour 3 or 4 cups lowfat milk 1 tbsp or more garlic powder (or to taste) 1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded GF Pie crust (I used Whole Foods GF Bakehouse) OR Garlic mashed potatoes with extra cheese if desired Directions Bake GF pie crust for 10-20 minutes, according to recipe, at 375 sprinkled with garlic powder. Cook spinach in a dutch oven with a little water and then drain in a strainer. Cut into bite sized pieces and reserve. Melt/heat olive oil and margarine in nonstick or cast iron pan. When margarine has barely melted but pan is hot, add onion and, after a minute or so, add pressed garlic. Don’t let burn, but try not to move around too much so that they get all caramelized and yummy. When they look translucent and a little brown, add brown rice flour and mix into a paste, letting brown as a roux for as long as desired, but without burning. Add milk slowly, one half cup at a time and whisk in so you get a smooth sauce. Let it thicken and continue adding milk gradually. Add garlic powder to taste (really, taste it) and, when you have a nice white sauce, turn off the heat and add your cheese. (You can use more or less cheese, to taste.)When cheese has melted, add your spinach and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour into prepared pie crust OR Pour into pie pan OR gratin dishes. Take garlic mashed potatoes (if you have plain mashed potatoes, melt 1 tbsp margarine and combine 1/2 tsp or more of garlic powder, then stir into potatoes) and put into ziploc bag with hole cut out one corner to make a pastry bag. Sprinkle Spinach pie filling with any seasonings (i sprinkled paprika) and then gently put pressure on bag with mashed potatoes to release stream of crust, curling it on top of the spinach filling. Squish down until flat and top with additional cheddar cheese if you want. Bake pie for 20-25 minutes or so, or until top is brown and looks firm. It will be somewhat liquidy until it cools, so don’t worry. Enjoy!

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Adaption of Ann’s original recipe, the shared content of our brains. Do not replicate without permission. Recipe ID:  1146 Added:  October 15, 2007 Last Modified:  October 15, 2007