Mom's Cauliflower, Kale and Cheese Pie with Potato Crust

My mom used to make this for us when we were really little, before my dad outlawed dairy in our house-- it reminds me of cold evenings in upstate New York. This recipe is based off of a Moosewood recipe, that my mom used to reference a lot in her meal-making.

You will need for the crust:
2 cups of potato, grated
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 egg white
1/4 cup onion, grated

You will need for the filling:
1 cup of diced onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Thyme
Basil
Marjoram
1/2 of a head cauliflower, chopped and broken into florets
1 small bunch of kale, chopped finely (I used the fancy purple for this recipe because its so pretty!)
1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated (or vegan cheese)
2 eggs and the remaining egg yolk from the crust
1/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk

(Aj took the photos for this post, aren't they lovely?!)

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease a 9" pie dish, or cast iron pan. In this instance I am doubling the recipe and making two pies (you will see in the photos below) and I used one of each. Both worked perfectly well. You really need to use some kind of baking grease or baking spray or else you will end up with potatoes fried to your baking pan.

Next after grating your potatoes, toss them with the salt put them in a strainer for 10-15 minutes. This will draw the water out.

Grate your onion for the crust while you are waiting for the potatoes to get their act together.

Wring out the water from your potatoes with a kitchen towel, paper towel or salad spinner. You want to get as much of the water out of the potatoes as possible in order for them to make a cohesive crust.

Once wrung out, mix the potatoes in a bowl with the grated onion and one egg white. Save the egg yolk for the filling. In these pictures I had doubled+ the recipe, so there are more eggs, do not be deceived.

Smush the potato mixture into your very well greased** baking dish in the shape of a pie crust.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, paint olive oil onto your crust and bake for an additional 10 minutes, so that the crust turns a lovely golden brown. 

After the second round of 10 minutes in the oven, allow your crusts to cool and turn the oven down to 375 degrees.

While the crusts are cooling, prep your cauliflower, onion, garlic and and kale. Saute the onion in a bit of olive oil and then add the cauliflower. Let the cauliflower get soft, about 6 minutes on medium high, add a few tablespoons of broth or water to the pan if the cauliflower beings to stick. Then, once the cauliflower is softening, add the spices and garlic. I don't measure much, so I added a dash of dried thyme, a dash of marjoram, two dashes of basil, salt pepper and garlic. 

Lastly, add the finely chopped kale and saute on medium for about 4 minutes, until the kale starts to wilt a bit.

Grate the cheese (or get your vegan cheese) Then line the potato crust with half of the grated cheese.

Add the cooked veggie mixture on top of the cheese'd potato crust.

Blend the two eggs, the extra egg yolk and milk altogether with a whisk. Pour this mixture on top of your pie.

Then finish it with the remaining grated cheese.

Bake for 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees, until the egg mixture is solid. It will be more or less depending on how deep your dish is.

I think this pie speaks for itself, but you can serve it with hot sauce and simple salad if you so desire.

Bon appetit! (Ps. AJ devoured this, it's a real crowd pleaser)

Creamy Bechamel Sauce Pasta and Veggies

This sauce is actually very easy to prepare as a vegan sauce, but in this case I added cheese to it because I wanted it to be a little more decadent. If you want to make it vegan you can leave out the cheese entirely or add nutritional yeast to emulate the flavor and texture.
I love this sauce because I love alfredo, but it is often too heavy for me. This is a nice, light alternative.


What you will need:

3 tablespoons of butter, margarine or oil
1/3 of a medium yellow onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon of basil
2 cups cups of unsweetened almond milk (or whatever kind of milk you use)
1/4-1/3 of a cup of rice flour
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
**Optional:
Cayenne
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup grated asiago
(or 1/2 cup nutritional yeast if our preference is vegan)

Serve with:
1 lb gluten free pasta
Various vegetables, chopped (today I used zucchini, spinach, onions, tomatoes)

Optional Garnishes:
Chopped basil
Grated parmesan
Truffle oil

Start by melting your butter in a shallow sauce pan on medium.

Saute your onions for a few moments in the melted butter then add garlic. And basil. Allow ingredients to cook and brown.

Once your base has browned, add 1 and 1/2 almond milk and whisk (you will want to use a whisk from this point on)

In a separate bowl, mix the rice flour with the remainder of the almond milk, about 1/2 cup with the whisk. By whisking the flour separately in a bowl with cool milk, you are less likely to get lumps. Once the flour-milk mixture is smooth, add it into the milk mixture on the stove, whisking constantly. It will thicken as it heats up.

Continually whisking allow the sauce to thicken over medium to medium low heat for about 5-7 minutes. Then turn to medium low and add your grated cheese (or nutritional yeast or omit if this is a vegan recipe) and continue to whisk while simmering for about 3-5 minutes.You'll now have a thicker, smoother sauce forming.

Taste your sauce at this point, if you want it to be saltier add a pinch of salt or more cheese (though this will make it thicker) I like mine with a bite, so I had black pepper and paprika, sometimes a pinch of cayenne. Let it remain covered on low heat, stirring or whisking periodically until you are ready to serve.

For the rest of the recipe, boil water for pasta and cook as per the directions.

Saute or roast your vegetables, depending on how much time you have and what types of vegetables you use. Peas, broccoli, greens, carrots, tomatoes, summer squash etc. all make great vegetables to compliment this dish.

In this case, I used onions, zucchini, spinach and tomatoes.

Saute the onions until translucent, then add the chopped zucchini.

Once the zucchini becomes soft, add the spinach and tomatoes, allowing the spinach to wilt over low heat and the tomatoes to release their juices.

When your pasta is through cooking toss the veggies, pasta and sauce altogether in a pan.

Serve immediately, garnish with fresh grated cheese, freshly chopped basil and a sprinkle of truffle oil. MMMMMmm!