“What is in a name? That by which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
William Shakespeare
Recipe for Silverbeet pie below.
Like many of you, I imagine, I grew up with boiled Silverbeet as a side vegetable and do not have particularly fond memories of the dish. I believe this may explain my tendency to refer to the same vegetable as Chard or Swiss Chard today. Are they the same? Pretty much Yes!
One of the reasons plants have Latin names is so we can know their family and a brief description, in the case of Silverbeet the Latin name is Beta vulgaris. So we know it is a member of the common (vulgaris) beet (Beta) family, okay so for those having a laugh we have cleared up the idea that the vegetable lacks ‘good taste’.
Kings Seeds describes Beet Ford Hook as standard Silverbeet, and their other varieties as forms of coloured Chard.
To further confuse matters Perpetual Spinach is Beta Vulgaris, while most other spinach varieties are Spinacia (Spinach) oleraceaare (pot herb). So, my point is when it comes to actually making the following recipe feel free to use a green leafy vegetable of your choice. A note about pastry – by all means make a savoury short pastry for this dish (I did in the pictured pie) but if time is of the essence use a pre-rolled sheet of bought flaky pastry.
A simple seasonal vegetarian pie using green leaves.
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 200 gm silverbeet leaves
- 8 prunes
- Fine sea salt
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- Pastry
- 2 TBSP rolled oats or farro
- 3 TBSP pine nuts - toasted
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg yolk
-
Preheat oven to 200C
-
Heat oil in small pan and saute onion & garlic until soft.
-
Rinse silverbeet leaves, roll and slice into strips.
-
In a food processor chop prunes, add onion, garlic, second measure of oil, and ½ tsp salt - process until they form a paste.
-
Roll 1/2 of pastry out to form a 28 cm circle. Transfer to a baking sheet.
-
Spread prune mixture over the circle, being careful to leave at least a 2.5 cm border. Sprinkle oats or farro over prune paste to absorb extra liquid.
-
Scatter pine nuts on top and arrange silverbeet over all, maintaining clear border. Grind a little pepper over everything.
-
In a small bowl, whisk egg yolk with 1 TBSP cold water. Use some of this to moisten border of pastry.
-
Roll remainder of pastry to a 30 cm circle or slightly bigger. Drape over pile of silverbeet. Use a fork to crimp and seal edges of pastry together. Poke a sharp knife into top of pie to create 2 air vents.
-
Brush top of pie with remaining egg yolk and bake for 25 minutes.
Kale, Swiss Chard, or spinach may substituted for Silverbeet.
If using bought flaky pastry, cut in half diagonally.
Did you enjoy this? What did you serve with the pie?