Comments on: Vegetarian Delights: Spinach Tartlets and Carrot Souffles

By: Book of Yum - Blog

Book of Yum - Blog — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:02:56 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Book of Yum - Blog

Book of Yum - Blog — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:49:15 +0000

[...] 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. [...]

By: Book of Yum - Blog

Book of Yum - Blog — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:48:46 +0000

[...] Being gluten-free on the road can be difficult, unless you happen to be traveling to some area like Portland, Oregon that has unexpected numbers of health food stores and gluten free bakeries. Luckily, some time ago I came across By the Bay’s brilliant solution to the self-contained meal: gluten free chebe knishes. She took a package of chebe and used the manioc based mix to create a brilliant, pliable dough that can be used for pastries, knish, perogies, and even calzones. The possibilities are endless. My favorite thing is how easy this dough is to roll out and handle- I never thought of pastry as a “weekday meal” option before I discovered Chebe as pastry, but now I don’t hesitate to make baked samosas, spinach tartlets and even calzones as a last minute meal solution. Cool, right? As you can tell, By the Bay’s recipes have really inspired me. But you know what’s better than being inspired by ONE By the Bay recipe? Being inspired by TWO of By the Bay’s recipes at the same time! As part of her un-cooking series, By the Bay featured a recipe for Balsamic Tuna Salad. Maybe I’ve become entirely too obsessed with these chebe meal packets, because as soon as I saw this unconventional tuna salad recipe, I thought that it would undoubtedly taste great baked into a knish! So, some time ago when DH and I planned a road trip to Sacramento and intended to start our trip in the evening, I baked up a big batch of knishes to take with us. Half of the recipe was filled with By the Bay’s potato knish filling, and the other half was filled with balsamic tuna salad! It was absolutely delicious, and very satisfying. The only thing about chebe knishes is that the day after you make them, they really need to be baked in the oven for 10 minutes or so to achieve crispiness, and they’re not very good microwaved. But, since we were chomping in the car relatively soon after I baked them, they were perfect little self contained meals. But, as you know, although I occasionally indulge in seafood, my meal focus is really vegetarian. As soon as I tasted the Balsamic knish, I immediately started thinking of how I could make a vegetarian version. The recipe below is actually my second attempt. The first time I used little white beans, and I was not at all happy with the results. Although usually home baked slow cooked beans are preferable to store bought, in this case the soft mushiness and the bland sweetness of the white beans couldn’t stand up to the vigor of the balsamic sauce. I started thinking about a veggie bean salad I make sometimes, inspired by a trip to Florida, and decided that, since kidney beans hold their own in that vegetable salad recipe with raspberry vinaigrette, they just might stand up to this kind of balsamic vinaigrette. I tried it, and success!(small, right) I was very happy with the results, although I think DH preferred the tuna version. By the way, the main photo for this post is of my version of By the Bay’s potato knish- virtually identical to her recipe except this time I sauteed some pressed garlic with the onions, and I added some turmeric to the dough for color. I’ve also tried her potato knish recipe with portobello mushrooms added to the onion mixture.(small, left) It is delicious, but I think I prefer the original recipe (with garlic). [...]

By: Book of Yum - Blog

Book of Yum - Blog — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:39:00 +0000

[...] This conversation reminded me of my days as a gluten free vegan, cooking at my friend’s college lodging commercial kitchen late at night. (Yes, it was way cool.) My friend was the original genius behind one of my favorite holiday recipes, spinach pie, which you met previously as chebe tartlets . At that time we were both vegan, and vegans that didn’t like nasty processed un-cheese, at that. So, we decided to vegan-ize our favorite recipe and created a very tasty vegan spinach pie. The gluten free vegan diet rules out eggs and dairy, making it ideal for anyone who is both gluten intolerant and has multiple allergies. Many vegan recipes use soy as the base of their dairy substitutions- but you absolutely don’t have to rely on soy anymore, with the prevalence of rice, almond, and even hemp milks on the market. (Which reminds me, I’ve never tried hemp milk- is it good???) So, with those happy vegan memories floating in my head, the other day I set out to create a spinach pie that used nutritional yeast for cheesy flavor without any allergenic ingredients. [...]

By: yum

yum — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:20:07 +0000

I’m so excited you’re thinking of making this. I sent you an email, and also added notes to the spinach tartlet recipe. :) (But I sent you the email first, lol) Enjoy!
Best,
Sea

By: Ellen

Ellen — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:11:15 +0000

Thank you Sea! We are having company for Shabbat dinner tonite – I’m going to make the Chebe Spinach Garlic Tartlets. They look delicious. Not sure what else to make. Feel free to email me with any suggestions if you are so inclined!