In the interests of upping my intake of dark leafy greens I re-visited a dish I used to make all the time in New Zealand.
Basically it is greens in a cheese sauce with a potato top. It is total comfort food for me – like a vegetarian shepherds pie – my Mum used to make when I was a child.
Silverbeet is a type of chard from New Zealand. Everyone I knew grew it in their garden, it was nearly as indestructible as mint.
Cheap and nutritious.
I actually made this dish with kale and spinach instead of chard today and it turned out as good as I remembered it.
Silverbeet (Chard) Pie
Course: Dinner4
servings15
minutes40
minutesA comforting pie filled with silverbeet, cheese, and mash topping. This nutrient-rich dish offers calcium, iron, and antioxidants to nourish reproductive health and support fertility naturally.
Ingredients
Butter
Onion
Flour
Milk
Cheese
Silverbeet/Chard/Kale/Spinach mix or other dark leafy greens
Nutritional yeast flakes
Directions
- Set oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Scrub and chop potatoes into even sized chunks.
- Boil potatoes until cooked and mash with just enough milk to make up a dryish mash. I like to put the drained pot over the still warm element and steam extra water off the potatoes before adding the milk.
- Wash and chop the greens and pile into your pie dish. You want enough to completely fill the dish while the greens are raw.
- Finely chop the onion
- Saute onion in a knob of melted butter over a medium heat.
- When the onion is soft, add a small spoonful of flour to soak up the butter and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes. Basically you're making a roux and want to cook off the taste of raw flour.
- Once you've done this add a little milk and mix in. Keep adding milk until you have a creamy sauce without lumps. Remove from the heat and stir in about half a cup of grated cheese.
- Pour the hot cheese sauce over the greens and mix. The greens will wilt a bit. 10. Squash the slightly wilted greens down into the pie dish and top with the mashed potato.
- Sprinkle over a little more grated cheese and bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and browned and the sauce is bubbling up the sides.
- Mum always used to sprinkle the top with nutritional yeast which makes for a cheesier tasting, crunchier top.
I can never get enough leafy greens. Too bad my garden was a flop, kale, chard, arugula…yum. Gonna have to try this recipe and use the nutritional yeast on top.