"Bye-Bye Winter" Pie

At 5:00 p.m., I was sluggishly resigned to sauteeing my gorgeous CSA spinach with garlic ... but it sounded SO boring. Then I remembered a Greek Greens pie recipe, got out that lovely swath of chives, the parsley, spinach and onions, all from the CSA box, and galloped down the very green path of creative culinary abandon. At 6:45 we dug into the yummiest spinach dish ever.

Once again, a true winner ... one for the three-ring notebook of awesome recipes.

You can use any top crust you like, even filo dough or puff pastry, if you don't want to make your own.

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"BYE-BYE WINTER" PIE
Adapted from Ready When You Are by Martha Shulman

One recipe (though you'll only use half) coconut or butter pastry (recipe below)

1 tablespoon olive oil
A clutch of CSA green onions, with tops, sliced
1 pound CSA spinach, washed, drained but not spun, lightly chopped down with kitchen shears
1/4 cup dried or 1/2 cup fresh dill
1 cup chopped CSA parsley
1 cup chopped CSA chives
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Fresh nutmeg

4 local eggs
1-1/2 cups feta cheese, crumbled (or less to taste; I'd use 3/4 cup next time)

Make pastry and set it in a cool place. Oil a 10-inch Pyrex pie dish or equivalent.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet that has a lid. Toss in the onions, stir, and saute for a minute or so. Add the spinach, cover and cook for several minutes or until the spinach has decreased in volume. Stir, then throw in the dill, parsley, chives and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Then grate a few poofs of fresh nutmeg (about 1/4 teaspoon) over all, and stir. Cover and cook for a few minutes, then turn heat off, uncover, and set aside to cool slightly. This would also be a good time to make the pastry.

In large bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in semi-cooled spinach mixture and the feta cheese. Mix well and pour into oiled pie dish.

Roll 1/2 the pastry to just a bit larger than your dish, place over top of pie and either crimp or tuck edges under. Slash for venting. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean and top of pie is golden. Cut into wedges and serve.

If reheating and you wish the pastry to be crisp, heat pie in the oven.

Freeze the other half of the pastry for later creative cooking!

Makes 6 generous servings.

PASTRY CRUST
Adapted from several I found online. The pie's original crust recipe used standard butter pastry.

3/4 cup regular flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sucanat or sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt, heaping a bit
6 tablespoons cold butter OR coconut oil (if using coconut oil, measured it out at room temperature)
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
3-5 tablespoons ice water

In small bowl, mix all dry ingredients well. Cut in the butter or coconut oil with a pastry blender 'til shortening is in pieces no larger than peas, then add the water a tablespoon at a time, with the vinegar, mixing with a fork until dough holds together like traditional pastry dough. Gather into a ball.