Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi is one of my favourite cookbooks and I am slowly trying to work my way through each and every recipe. I particularly love the huge selection of inventive vegetable dishes, which are full of big Middle Eastern flavours and are always a big hit amongst meat eating and vego friends alike.
The original recipe appears as a “Herb Pie” in this cookbook, and I have taken the basic ingredients and flavours and altered them to my liking. I couldn’t find swiss chard at my local grocery store, so I ended up substituting it for a combination of kale, spinach and silverbeet.
I found the quantity of ingredients a little light on to make a proper meal so I also increased the vegetables, cheese and eggs to make this into a more substantial lunch.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 600 g combo of spinach, kale, swiss chard or silverbeet leaves and stems chopped separately
- 200 g celery
- 60 g rocket/arugula leaves
- 30 g flat leaf parsley chopped
- 30 g mint chopped
- 150 g ricotta crumbled
- 100 g aged cheddar grated
- 100 g fetta crumbled
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 10 sheets filo pastry
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large, deep frying pan over medium heat.
- Add the spinach/kale stems and celery. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened.
- Add the leaves to the pan and keep stirring for another 4 minutes until the leaves wilt.
- Add rocket, parsley and mint and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and transfer to a colander to drain and cool (you'll be surprised how much liquid comes out of this mix!).
- Once the spinach mixture has drained and cooled down, add the three cheeses, lemon zest and juice, eggs and salt and pepper into a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
- Lay out a sheet of fill pastry and brush with some olive oil. Cover with another sheet and continue in the same manner until you have 5 layers.
- Line the bottom and sides of a 22cm pie dish with enough pastry, allowing some to overhang the rim. Fill with spinach mixture.
- Make another set of 5 filo layers brushed with oil and place them over the top of the pie. Fold over the overhanging edges to enclose.
- Brush generously with olive oil and bake for 40 minutes, or until the pastry turns a nice golden brown.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
I love eating this pie straight out of the oven as the impossibly crispy, golden filo pastry is out of this world. But with its strong flavours, it tastes just as delicious the next day at room temperature.
I hope you enjoy this pie as much as I do, and if you’re in the market for a new cookbook, please check out Jerusalem (this isn’t a sponsored post, I just really love it!)
What’s your favourite cookbook?
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