About Me and This Blog

I've been a vegetarian for almost six years now. For the first four years, I was a pescetarian (I ate fish). These days, I lean towards veganism and am very passionate about animal rights and welfare. Before going veg, I ate A LOT of meat. In fact, I had a bumper sticker on my first car that read "If we're not supposed to eat animals, then why do they taste so good?" Yeah, I was that person. I loved cooking meat, now I love cooking vegetarian EVEN MORE.

I post a lot of stories about animals and veggie food on facebook, and friends started asking me for recipes and more information on how to be a healthy vegetarian. This blog is my answer to those questions. Most if not all of the recipes can be made vegan by omitting cheese or subbing with vegan "cheese". Email me anytime.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Broccoli Pie

A friend posted this on facebook and it looked so good, I had to make it (plus I had some phyllo in the freezer leftover from the last time I made spanakopita). Also, I really love broccoli.  I'm not sure where the recipe came from so please don't sue me if it's yours, but I also made a few changes that shouldn't change the end result.
8 phyllo- pastry leaves
1 bunch fresh broccoli (2 lb)
Boiling water
¼ c butter or margarine
½ c finely chopped onion
3 eggs or egg replacer
½ lb feta cheese, crumbled
¼ c chopped parsley
2 Tlbsp chopped fresh dill
½ tsp salt
Dash  pepper
½ c butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven 350F. Remove pastry leaves from freezer. Let pastry leaves warm to room temperature according to directions on label. Wash broccoli; trim leaves and stem ends; discard. Split heavy stalks. With sharp knife, coarsely chop stems and flowerets.

Turn broccoli into large skillet; add ½ c boiling water. Cook over medium heat; covered, 5 minutes. Drain well.  In ¼ c hot butter or margarine in large skillet, sauté chopped onion until it is golden- about 3 minutes. Add chopped broccoli; sauté 1 minute, stirring. Remove from heat.

In large bowl, beat eggs slightly. Add feta cheese, chopped parsley and dill, salt, pepper and broccoli mixture (I poured the egg/feta/parsley and dill mixture back into the skillet with the broccoli and onions and mixed well); mix well. Line inside of a 9-inch spring form pan, with rim in place, with 6 phyllo pastry leaves, overlapping edges; brush each pastry leaf with melted butter before placing into pan.

Pour filling into prepared pan. Fold overlapping edges of pastry leaves over top of filling. With scissors, cut four (9-inch) circles from remaining phyllo leaves (for guide, use 9-inch cake pan). Brush each circle with melted butter; then layer one over the other on top of pie. (I put circles onto top then folded the edges over, making a really flaky looking top)

Pour any remaining butter overtop. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until crust is puffy and golden brown (Only took 35 minutes in our oven). Remove to rack; cool 10 minutes.

To serve: Remove side of pan; with sharp knife, cut into wedges; remove with pie server. Serve warm. (I thought it was also pretty good cold!)

NOTE: ½ lb= 250 grams
Substitute 2 Tlbsp fresh dill with 2 tsp dried dill (I used 7 of those frozen cubes of dill you can buy in the supermarket - I find these are most useful when you want fresh herbs but they always go bad before you have a chance to use them all)


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.