Sweet Potato and Spring Greens Pie

I saw a recipe in <a href=" http://www.vegetarianliving.co.uk/themagazine.php?issue=18">Vegetarian Living magazine</a> for a pithivier and thought I’d use some of the ideas from the recipe. A pithivier is a sort of round pie, with filling between two circles of puffy pastry. The recipe was for sweet potato, onion, cheese, and French beans.  I like sweet potato, so I took that and added spring greens and herbs to make it more our taste, plus I dispensed with the circle part, as that just seemed a bit fussy.

This was a good recipe for a chilly winter night. As usual, we had leftovers, so it was perfect for the next day, when we just had time for a quick bite before going out for drinks and nibbles at a friend’s place.

You can vary the veg (use regular potatoes, for example, or add spinach, or corn) and the herbs/spices (parsley or coriander, for example, or chilli pepper).

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet potato (or half a large one – M could only get a massive one at the store, and it weighed in at 800 g)

water

1 onion

1 fennel

oil

1 tsp honey or coconut palm sugar or regular sugar

100 g spring greens

nigella seeds (onion seeds)

2 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp dried mint

500 g puff pastry

2 eggs

1/8 cup milk (I used rice milk)

Instructions:

1. Peel and slice the sweet potato into thin slices. Boil it in the water until soft, about 10 minutes, then drain.

2. Dice the onion and fennel and brown in oil in a frying pan. Add the honey or sugar and cook a few more minutes,

3. Wash and slice the spring greens, then add them to the pan.

4. Season the onion and greens mixture with nigella, mustard, and mint (or other herbs/spices).

5. Roll out the pastry into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Oil an oven-safe dish and line with the larger piece of pastry.

6. Put the sweet potatoes and greens in the pastry.

7. Beat the eggs with the milk and add most of it to the pie.

8. Put the smaller piece of pastry on top as a lid and crimp the edges. Brush the rest of the eggs on top as a glaze.

9. Bake at 200 C for 30 minutes.